I attended the debate between Robert Hurt and John Douglass in Warrenton. One of the questions asked of the candidates was: "Please describe to us the most difficult decision you have made while holding a leadership position and how that bolsters or helps us understand your qualifications to serve in Congress?"
Robert Hurt spoke extensively about being a citizen legislator in the Virginia General Assembly, how two months out of the year he debated public policy, maintaining his successful law practice, and living on Main Street with his family in Chatham. He effectively related his pride in participating in that process. Then he said the most difficult decision he and his wife had made was to run for Congress. He never said he was proud of his work in Washington. He did, however, say, "The burdens of a job like this are hard on a young family."
General Douglass spoke eloquently about preparing and sending soldiers into harms way as a young officer and how his decisions directly affected peoples' lives. Becoming emotional, Gen. Douglass related to the audience about how difficult it was to tell those young 18- and 19-year old soldiers to "lock and load," and "son, get out there on point," knowing they might not return because they could be harmed. How he visited those hurt in the hospital. His final statement in the answer, "So politics is a piece of cake, compared to that."
The answers from the two candidates clearly exhibited the depth of the differences in these men's backgrounds and experiences. I appreciate that a decision to run for Congress could be difficult, but how could that, a personal decision, be the most difficult when juxtaposed against the many votes Mr. Hurt has cast in Washington which would ultimately effect millions of people? None of those decisions were more difficult?
Based on the answer to this question alone, one candidate clearly stands head and shoulders above the other as the best candidate to represent the 5th District in Congress and he is General John Douglass.
The purpose of Blue Virginia is to cover Virginia politics from a progressive and Democratic perspective. This is a group blog and a community blog. We invite everyone to comment here, but please be aware that profanity, personal attacks, bigotry, insults, rudeness, frequent unsupported or off-point statements, and "trolling" (NOTE: that includes outright lies, whether about climate science, or what other people said, or whatever) are not permitted and, if continued, will lead to banning. For more on trolling, see the Daily Kos FAQs. Also note that diaries may be deleted if they do not contain at least 2 solid paragraphs of original text; if not, please use the comments section of a relevant diary. For more on writing diaries, click here. Thanks, and enjoy!
