Guest Column
When I was campaigning against Mike Michaud in 2008 our paths often crossed. We always greeted each other with hearty hand-shakes and polite remarks. Since I went to bed early on election night, I omitted the formality of calling to congratulate him on his inevitable victory. It seemed redundant; the outcome was never in doubt.
After that, we went our different ways until I ran into Mike at the Bangor-Brewer Fourth of July parade. We shook hands cordially, walked along side-by-side for a while, and indulged in some mild partisan raillery.
This is the way Maine politics should be. He forgave me for calling him an "ignorant hack" during the campaign, and I forgave him for being an ignorant hack. What's not to forgive? He saw an opportunity to vault from a fork-lift saddle into a comfortable upholstered chair in the House of Representatives. You've got to admire a man of mediocre talents who finds a way to make the best of them, a classic American success story.
I often wondered during the campaign whether Mike is a genuine nice guy or a professional nice guy. I'm inclined to think he is a genuine nice guy, but this is a character judgement, and my record of judging character is far from flawless. It's kind of academic anyway, being a nice guy has become his profession, if you understand that he is a not a professional congressman, but a professional politician whose job is getting himself elected.
I can claim to be a better judge of intellect. Most of my students who transferred from Middlesex County College transferred to Rutgers, just down the road, and I adopted the practice of including predictions of their performance in my letters of reference to Rutgers. I was never wrong. When I said a student would make the Dean's List, he or she ended up on the Dean's List.
So when I say that Mike Michaud is about as sharp as a sausage I'm not indulging n partisan malice. I'm proposing a sober judgement based on a solid record of accurate evaluation and a close study of Mike's record. But this only makes him more interesting. How does he work his electoral magic?
Consider these two sentences from Mike's letter to a constituent: "Thank you for contacting me regarding H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. I have taken the time to read and carefully study all 1,990 pages of the bill and the accompanying amendments..." That is not a lie. It is not even a fib. A true lie is a falsehood that somebody, somewhere, has to believe. No voter in Maine's second congressional district with an I.Q. above room temperature (Celsius) can possibly believe this. I have before me Volume 1 of the 1972 Encyclopedia Britannica. It is 1017 pages long. To savor the audacity of Mike's claim go to the library and find this volume or its equivalent. Think about how much time it would take you to read and "study" it
Mike may be ignorant, but he has never put a foot wrong assuming the voters are ignorant as well. If ignorance is bliss, it would go a long way toward explaining Mike Michaud's electoral prowess.
Professor
John Frary of Farmington, Maine is a former US Congress candidate and
retired history professor, a Board Member of Maine Taxpayers United and
an associate editor of the International Military Encyclopedia, and can
be reached at: jfrary8070@aol.com.
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