May 08, 2006
Darcy Burner, former "former Microsoft Executive"
David Ammons, in his weekend column about state Congressional races effectively ends Darcy Burner's attempt to get the press to play along with her pretense that she is a "former Microsoft executive":
Burner, 35, a Harvard-educated former Microsoft program manager, hasn't held elective office
Indeed, both the Times and P-I have stopped referring to her as an "executive" and instead call her a "manager" ever since Sound Politics readers at Microsoft
exposed that she was inflating her very non-executive role at the company.
Ammons also helpfully puts Burner's campaign in context (I paraphrase) "Reichert is a Republican, and Republicans are vulnerable this year. Burner is not a Republican". The glaring lacuna in Burner's campaign is that she isn't running on her own record of relevant accomplishments -- she doesn't have any. But she is the perfect Nutroots candidate.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 08, 2006
08:53 AM | Email This
1. Small victory, Stefan. But as I understood your meme, it was to brand her as a liar. How's that going for you?
2. I think you should be cautious, relative to Burner, when discussing a "record of relevant accomplishments," since that is often a 'chicken and egg, which came first,' situation- you must have been or be in office to have those relevant accomplishments. That is the dilemma any challenger faces.
3. Goldy,
She is a liar, she was not a Microsoft Executive. But the media has let her down easy by simply calling her by her rightful former title instead of pointing out that it was wrong to inflate the title in the first place. There's a distinction, and astute voters will note that distinction.
"Burner, 35, a Harvard-educated former Microsoft program manager, hasn't held elective office, but managed to win the party's blessings months before the Sept. 19 primary. Broadcaster Dave Ross, state Rep. Ross Hunter and other prominent district Democrats declined to run."
Translation: Darcy is about as green as they come and her biggest qualification is the "D" before her name on the ballot. This is a very polite way for Ammons to say this, but he is making a statement.
You obviously need this translation because you are competely blinded by Darcy's youthful glow.
4. Lets face it...it’s irrelevant what she says. The courts have already ruled that you can say just about anything you want on your Ballot Statements, even if it is a LIE!!!
5. Actually Darcy is remarkably unqualified and uninvolved in her community. Maybe she should show those she wishes to represent her skills in a more local venue rather than starting in the Congress of the Unitied States.
Congress usually isn't where people who have no record of public service, no volunteerism, no advocacy on issues START their career. Is her mastery of the issues obtained at the right hand of her Socialist Mentor Dave Ross? Or is she a more hard core Pelzian? Does she have a firm grasp of any of the local issues that have recently affected her neighbors and their property values? Does she care? Is she simply going to hide behind some media blitz her image handlers put together for her? Does she have a message or does she just repeat the talking points "investment", "change" having never done anything to implement those very items on a local level.
6. Howyousdoin
If I make a false statement or even bend the truths a little, da toss me before de Grand Jury on a perjury charge faster den Courtney Love can open a Medical Chest.
Forgetaboutit
7. It is apparent that in the Burner campaign, the wishful thinking of what she WILL do (translated by her enthusiastic endorsers as to what THEY want her to do) outweighs anything else.
Oh, and the fact that they would gouge their eyes out with marshmallows before they ever voted for that other party's candidates might have something to do with it.
Let's review--Burner has no experience in the political sphere, but has been a manager at Microsoft, and had a bit of law school experience. She is actively campaigning and doing whatever she can to get the word out about herself, and she knows who her voters are and what they want to hear. She knows the hot buttons of her district, and promises them what they want.
But as a previous poster, Mark, mentioned above, she's fighting the "need experience to get the experience" battle that many new politicians face.
She apparently played the "inflated resume" game, trying to put a better spin on herself, and won that game handily (since her desired constituents clearly don't care what she claimed as long as she spins their direction, and the press don't seem to care to mention this either.)
She is clearly an echo chamber candidate, one who means well, but only wants to represent half her audience ideologically, rather than using experience, since she doesn't have that. Unfortunately, echoes play well in certain parts of King County where there are more Utopian causes and protest signs than brain cells.
That's a hard combination to go up against--Cantwell did it, after all.
8. Goldy, want some sauce with that crow? Oops, I forgot, sauce is fancy food for us rich greedy Republicans.
Have some ketchup.
http://www.wketchup.com/
9. If you read a couple of harvard biz review case studies in B school, can you also call yourself harvard educated?
10. Eli Sanders had a recent article in
The Stranger that is worth reading, if only to better understand the strategy of Darcy's cheerleading squad. It is aptly titled, "
DEMOCRATIC QUAGMIRE".
11. I always thought that you get experience in politics at lower levels, maybe local or even state. Then you have experience to go to national. An MS PM does not qualify as local politics.
12. Plainly, calling her a "Harvard-educated program manager" will be the death knell of her campaign. It's a beautiful thing, all the hours Stefan logs cutting down this fraud. I hear she was recently involved in a traffic accident, just like Kennedy. All the posters who think Stefan is an irrelevant waste of space dragged down by debilitating OCD have been debunked by these hard-hitting investigative gems.
13. Patrick--an interesting article, and like you say, it is an excellent analysis of Burner's strategy for election.
I was struck by this quote from the article:
Burner says she would not have voted for the war, knowing what she knows now, and that she believes the Bush administration "misled" the nation into the conflict.
Umm...right. That sounds oh-so-progressive, to say that "if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have done that." To one audience, that sounds like "Oh, she wouldn't have voted for the war! She's one of us!" But to another audience, she isn't making sense--how can you second guess what you "might have done" because you didn't know it then?
Clearly, she knows who her voters are since this statement plays right into touchy-feelie land, and misses the mark on making sense. Too bad I can't not vote for her.
14. The Stranger article - though liberally biased and hopeful, as expected - is a decent read.
Didn't care for the ad and pic at finish, however.
15. edit - apparently the ad rotates. So nevermind, kind of.
You'll know what I mean if you're 'lucky' enough to catch it.
16. Gosh--what clever sarcasm that is! Boy howdy, that sneering tone sure proves that Burner is the best candidate. You're so smart! Everybody wishes they could be so smug and irrelevant like you.
17. pseudotsuga - You gotta admit that he/she/it's post was wittier (by half) than Golden Shower's smarmy comment!
18. pseudotsuga-
I think Sanders commits a huge error in telling Burner to be for the war in some places (like Buckley) but ferverently against it in others (Kirkland, Bellevue, etc).
That sounds like a comment Barack Obama made at the Gridiron dinner: "You hear this constant refrain from our critics that Democrats don't stand for anything. That's really unfair. We DO stand for anything."
19. Hic! I'll drink to that
20. But don't you know Ms Burner is president of the Ames Lake Community Club. So you ask just exactly what is the Ames Lake Community Club...well it is the home owners association of the Ames Lake (exclusive, gated) Community. Just the kind of place you would expect an advocate for the average working joe to live. Yeah, right!
21. Typical democrat, typical micro$oft, business as usual, yawn... Integrity is officially meaningless in WA.
22. But o'really, Burner's membership in the Ames Lake Community Club is irrelevant!
You see, she really CARES about people who have less money, education and opportunity than she does, and to show that caring, she wants to represent them.
With her knowledge of the law, experience in government, and successful yuppiehood at Microsoft, she will gather tax dollars from the less deserving and share the wealth with others. But not all of it, of course.
Whatever she makes she deserves, since she is sacrificing so much for the common good. She made her pile, and she feels so guilty about others that she wants to give them all just what she got.
I have the sneaking suspicion that what we are going to get involves a past tense verb having to do with Phillips, Torx and flathead tools.
23. Silly me. I keep forgetting it is for the children.
24. Who Cares?
It's not like she is running against a real Republican.
25. "For the Children", very sadly has become my #1 turn off. Overused and overabused and so very rarely the case.
26. C'mon Goldielocks! Of course this proves that Burn-her is a liar! She couldn't help herself! She just had to lie and say that she was an executive, and therefore "in a position to carry out policy and manage employees" and as we all know, since she has never ever acomplished anything since the day she was born, then her executive status had to be a lie!
And Harvard? Please! My neighbor's fourteen-year-old kid has an Law Degree from Harvard and he's not congressional material. The point is that "you must be this tall to ride this ride" and Darcy Burner is not only not tall enough, she has a kid and she's a woman and she's never been a congressman before! Whereas Reichert IS in the congress (if I'm not mistaken) and what's more, he knows how to read Miranda Rights, not that he would ever need that skill in the the United States House of Representatives in 2006, just sayin'.
27. Nobody ever said Darcy wasn't smart (other than lying about a Job title, fundraising totals and campaign donations). What she is cannot be over emphasized and that is UNQUALIFIED.
All of Goldys Horses#^t and all of his venom will never give Darcy an 8th district win.
28. Patrick, thanks for the link, that is a good article on The Stranger. I like to read those articles, not for their insight, but for this reason:
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." Sun Tzu, The Art of War.
I think the most telling thing about the 8th congressional race is who the Dems are putting forth as a candidate. If they really thought that they had a chance we would have seen Dave Ross run again (with a better message and a better campaign), or a better candidate.
Darcy Burner is toast. 52% Reichert, 47% Burner.
29. George W was "Harvard-educated", too. But that sounds too nice and they are always looking for ways to take him down a notch in the Old Media. So they never mention it. Only for liberals.
30. A woman came to my door the other day handing pamphlets out for Darcy Burner. She asked if my husband was at home....Only had HIS name on the list for my address. I told her that he wasn't home and she looked puzzled and said that mine was the fourth house in the area on the list where only the man of the house's name was listed.
She said she was shocked that her Democrat party had produced a list that didn't include the wife's name! I told her I thought it was terrible! And certainly NOT very "progressive" of them! .....snicker....
Can you imagine that? The Democrats don't bother with the "little women" of the home.....
Liberal ladies? I hope that's a wake up call!
31. I had the same experience last election cycle with the Dave Ross campaign. I watched as they selectively went down the block, glaring at a computer print out of what one would assume was registered Democratic voters. They didn't speak to anyone who wasn't on the list.
What does she have to offer the people of the 8th district? Higher taxes, More Government? Maybe she can tell her neighbors why she favors the confiscation of their land without compensation? Perhaps she can share her view on voter rolls and what she would do to purge them to ensure validity of the voting process. How is she on amnesty for illegal aliens? Finally what does she know about the 8th district?
From what I can see she is still just another Microsoft Money Carpetbagger looking for a line to add to her resume. No public service, no significant charity work, no involvement in "local" issues.
32. Interesting, how many bald-faced lies and ignorant guesses fill this blog. Darcy Burner graduated from Harvard, got A's in law school, was described BY Microsoft as an Executive level employee.
Just because a bunch of backwater Seattle blogsters declare that only a vice-president qualifies as a corporate executive does not mean that all businesses use the term that way. I was listed in my company's directory as "Executive for (department) and I was MANY levels lower in that company than Ms. Burner was in Microsoft.
And if anybody cares (about the truth, that is; a doubtful probability given the nature of these posts) there may be gated communities in the vicinity of Ames Lake but Darcy Burner doesn't live in one.
Don't any of you guys EVER check facts? George W. was YALE educated. It's pretty well known. Sheesh.
33. While you are watching her poll numbers go down, take solice in the fact that Darcy got A's in law school (maybe she should have gone for more than a year?). She got D's in public service, Community Service, Charity work. Apparently she is the Democrats choice because she hasn't actively participated in the Community and isn't known by the majority of voters in the 8th district.
34. This campaign isnt about Darcy Burner, its about George Bush and his lap dog Dave Reichert. Bush has fallen and cant get up, and hes gonna drag the rest of the republicans down with him.
Give people George Bush vs a rock and they would vote for the rock cuz a rock cant **** up a country, sorry TWO countries (almost forgot about iraq)