{"id":6984,"date":"2010-06-05T23:40:41","date_gmt":"2010-06-06T03:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/?p=6984"},"modified":"2010-06-05T23:40:41","modified_gmt":"2010-06-06T03:40:41","slug":"a-dose-of-5th-district-thoughts-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/05\/a-dose-of-5th-district-thoughts-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"A dose of 5th District thoughts for you."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not a doctor, nor have I played one on TV. That being said, I&#8217;ve got a dose of straight talk and thoughts that&#8217;s probably going to make a lot of people mad. I don&#8217;t care. Dr. Bruce is about to write you a prescription of random thoughts.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s play the feud!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If your favorite candidate is Feda Morton, Laurence Verga, or Ron Ferrin, then your favorite candidate is going to lose and get less than 10% of the vote.<\/li>\n<li>Older people vote reliably. Older people are highly partial to Robert Hurt. Younger people vote occasionally. Younger people aren&#8217;t as partial to Robert Hurt. Figure out who benefits by those facts.<\/li>\n<li>Every time I try to believe that the regional teaparties and their members are heading down the right path, I hear things that make me do a giant facepalm. In the pst few days, I heard one member quoted as saying they would rather have Tom Perriello for 2 years instead of Robert Hurt for 20. My mind. It boggled. I replied by saying &#8220;Considering &#8220;Hurt for 20&#8243; is WAY out there, how&#8217;s your nose you cut off to spite your face? Here, we vote for 2-year terms.&#8221; This person doesn&#8217;t like Robert Hurt and has said so many times. Why? He&#8217;s the &#8220;establishment&#8221; candidate. See, kiddies? The &#8220;establishment&#8221; is bad! Don&#8217;t trust &#8220;the man&#8221;! I strongly encourage anybody who believes that way to keep doing just that, because Robert Hurt&#8217;s going to do just fine without them. Hurt&#8217;s campaign figured that out quickly and moved along.<\/li>\n<li>Mike McPadden&#8217;s a great guy and if he wins the nomination, I&#8217;ll have no problem with that at all. He&#8217;s a very intelligent man with an excellent understanding of the issues. The odds are stacked against him in this primary, but I hope that this won&#8217;t be the last we&#8217;ve heard of McPadden.<\/li>\n<li>Jim McKelvey hasn&#8217;t impressed me at all. His &#8220;Angry Man&#8221; routine has played good to the far-right 10% but that&#8217;s not going to be enough for him to win. His thoughts on the issues have ranged from the unwise (limiting himself to six years in office which would put Southside at the bottom of the seniority list yet again&#8230; term limits don&#8217;t work unless everybody is subject to them) to the bizarre (his pledge to cut federal spending by 50%). McKelvey has allied himself to the regional teaparty rhetoric, but the regional teaparties have yet to accomplish anything except provide discord. Unfortunately for McKelvey, that teaparty hot streak will continue. McKelvey never offered me a ride on his bus either. \ud83d\ude00<\/li>\n<li>Feda Morton keeps on rumbling through the mudbog that her campaign devolved into. I don&#8217;t see how, but I do give her credit for continuing to push forward. Of course, she&#8217;s not going to win.<\/li>\n<li>Laurence Verga continues his freefall into obscurity and I still don&#8217;t understand how it happened so quickly.<\/li>\n<li>Ron Ferrin&#8217;s got no chance to win but he continues to make me laugh. His attempt to win black votes in this primary&#8230; heh. This primary is going to be whiter than the crown at Danville&#8217;s &#8220;Friday at the Crossing&#8221; this past weekend.<\/li>\n<li>Ken Boyd&#8217;s photo should be posted on one of those &#8220;Missing People&#8221; bulletin boards here in Southside.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;m not sure what&#8217;s up with Jeff Clark. He&#8217;s trying to court the far-right 10% teaparty voters that think Robert Hurt is the Tax Raising Antichrist Establishment Dude (boo hiss) but he hasn&#8217;t been warmly received by the teaparties so far. He&#8217;s going to be monetarily steamrolled by the Hurt &amp; Perriello machines in the general election and he won&#8217;t be invited to any of the upcoming debates. Clark could use his powers for the side of good, but his virtual &#8220;HURTSUX&#8221; license plate is going to make him a pariah for anything else in politics for a long time. He&#8217;s another Russ Potts from the 2005 Virginia governor&#8217;s election&#8230; remember him? I didn&#8217;t think so.<\/li>\n<li>Robert Hurt is going to win this primary. I can already hear the howls from the other candidate&#8217;s supporters as they read this. I support Robert Hurt. I also support Mike McPadden but he&#8217;s just not going to pull this one off. I consider Mike McPadden a friend and still will after this election. McPadden&#8217;s ran a great campaign and I support the vast majority of his stands of the issues. Unfortunately for McPadden, he&#8217;s outgunned in this race by a well-oiled political machine. Unlike the most vocal of the teapartiers, I don&#8217;t have a problem with a well-oiled political machine.<\/li>\n<li>I have respect for anybody that has supported their candidate because of their stands on the issues. I have zero respect for anybody that has used the line &#8220;He&#8217;s not Robert Hurt&#8221; as rationale for their support.<\/li>\n<li>If I&#8217;m proven wrong on Tuesday night on any of this, I&#8217;ll have no problem admitting that. I stand behind my opinion and statements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And there you have it for now&#8230; you know the drill for comments.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not a doctor, nor have I played one on TV. That being said, I&#8217;ve got a dose of straight talk and thoughts that&#8217;s probably going to make a lot of people mad. I don&#8217;t care. Dr. Bruce is about to write you a prescription of random thoughts.<\/p>\n<p> [&#8230;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinioncentral","category-politicscentral","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-1OE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7001,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/09\/5th-district-republican-primary-final-thoughts\/","url_meta":{"origin":6984,"position":0},"title":"5th District Republican Primary &#8211; Final Thoughts.","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"June 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"So that happened. It's over, yet we've only just begun. Final (?) thoughts coming up... BAM! I was right on pretty much every prediction. With the exception of one local race (looking at you, Mike Newman!), SouthsideCentral is the place to come for your best political commentary. We attempt to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;OpinionCentral&quot;","block_context":{"text":"OpinionCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/opinioncentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6889,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/09\/5th-district-republican-primary-update-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":6984,"position":1},"title":"5th District Republican Primary &#8211; Update #1","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"May 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's get back into politics and see what's been going on in the race for the Republican nomination for the 5th District House of Representatives fall election. We've done a few Food Chain!s before, but this is SC's first straight-up update. Starting at the bottom of our last Food Chain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;OpinionCentral&quot;","block_context":{"text":"OpinionCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/opinioncentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7272,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/30\/guest-opinioncentral-dave-cline\/","url_meta":{"origin":6984,"position":2},"title":"Guest OpinionCentral: Dave Cline","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"October 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"At SouthsideCentral, we welcome article submissions from our readers. In this OpinionCentral, Dave Cline weighs in on the 5th District election. (Editor's Note: This article is solely the viewpoint of the author and not necessarily the opinion of SouthsideCentral.) I find it greatly interesting, yet tremendously sad that a sitting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;OpinionCentral&quot;","block_context":{"text":"OpinionCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/opinioncentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7275,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/11\/03\/some-thoughts-about-tuesdays-congressional-elections\/","url_meta":{"origin":6984,"position":3},"title":"Some thoughts about Tuesday&#8217;s congressional elections","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"November 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"So that happened. Now that my self-imposed gag order has expired since the elections are over, it's time to say some random thoughts about what happened in Southside's Congressional elections. Here we go... 5th District Thoughts Tom Perriello was doomed from the start of this election season, but he fought\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;OpinionCentral&quot;","block_context":{"text":"OpinionCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/opinioncentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7253,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/05\/5th-district-happenings-update-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":6984,"position":4},"title":"5th District Happenings (Update #2)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"October 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a long time, hasn't it? Let's get this update started with a statement on why it's hard to talk about political topics, then we'll get to what's been going on. As many of you know, I've taken a job in broadcast media. Because of that job, I've had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;OpinionCentral&quot;","block_context":{"text":"OpinionCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/opinioncentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5438,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/30\/9th-district-house-race-update-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":6984,"position":5},"title":"9th District House Race \u2013 Update #1","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"September 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The 9th District includes Floyd County, Franklin County and the northwest part of Pittsylvania County. Let's take a look at this race. Charles Poindexter is running for re-election for the first time and he's facing a candidate from the Independent Green party. >>> Charles Poindexter (R): In his first term,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;OpinionCentral&quot;","block_context":{"text":"OpinionCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/opinioncentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}