Endorsement 2010 – 8th Congressional: Mike Fitzpatrick
By the Doylestown Intelligencer – October 24, 2010
IN AN ELECTION season that has witnessed the seemingly impossible – campaigning that in some places has once again set new lows for sleaze, dishonesty and maliciousness – we need look no further than our own 8th Congressional District for a casebook example of gutter politics.
Murphy enjoys a significant advantage over Fitzpatrick in financial resources, and he’s utilized his war chest to denigrate his opponent at every turn. Rather than stand on his own record since January 2007, Murphy’s strategy has been to berate Fitzpatrick for his performance in Congress in 2005-06 during President Bush’s second term.
He’s even bashed Fitzpatrick for his service as a county commissioner, an office he vacated in 2004.
In one very telling episode, Murphy spent virtually his entire endorsement interview with our editorial board taking shot after shot at the challenger while answering none of our questions. It was, in a word, a “terrible” performance.
But let’s cut to the chase here. When you get beyond the nasty rhetoric and innuendo, what you have is this:
Murphy, a loyal soldier in Barack Obama’s Democratic army who has voted consistently to advance the president and his party’s agenda, versus Fitzpatrick, who believes that agenda is wrong for America and promises to vote to undo a lot of it.
The choice for voters should be simple:
If you agree with what the Democrats have done and plan to do, then there’s no stronger advocate in Congress than Patrick Murphy.
On the other hand, if you don’t like what Congress is doing, then Fitzpatrick is your guy.
We’re endorsing Fitzpatrick on two levels. First, as an individual. We think he is more sincere, more polished, more accessible and more thoughtful than Murphy.
More importantly, we’re not sold on the Democratic program for the nation. Give the Dems credit for averting an immediate economic disaster. But their game plan has come at an enormous financial cost that most people can’t begin to fathom. Unemployment remains high. Americans continue to die on foreign soil for questionable objectives. And the centerpiece of the first half of Obama’s term in office, health care reform, was so badly botched that many Democrats who supported it, Murphy included, have shied away from it as they seek re-election.
Fitzpatrick can be expected to work on behalf of a different agenda. We feel strongly that that’s what America needs.
October 24, 2010
ED NOTE: These words are those published by the paper, but the format has been altered slightly to make it more readable online.
