Goodbye, greenhorn

I'm making a list this evening about entitled "Top Ten Ways to Ruin Your Political Prospects." The list isn't complete yet, but it includes oldies-but-goodies like:

10) Nevermind niceties like personal grooming.
9) Greet voters by kissing hands and shaking babies
8) Use your prison cell as campaign headquarters
... et cetera

More to the point of this post is the decision by Clerk and Recorder candidate Jacob Werther to end his political career before it started. Because if there's one way to ruin your own political prospects, it's to expose your own supporters to public ridicule.

For some reason, Werther has released to Colorado Confidential a personal phone message recently left on his answering service by Councilwoman Kathleen MacKenzie. In it, MacKenzie apologizes for not being able to support Werther publicly, since she had previously pledged to support candidate Stephanie O'Malley.

Read the entire article in Mark Mehringer's "Apology Regarding Endorsement Leads to Hurt Feelings in Denver Clerk Race."

There's no serious harm in the release, aside from hurt feelings, but it certainly reveals a lack of both awareness and sensibility about basic political matters.

So in a last homage to Mr Werther before his drubbing at the polls is announced, we offer this thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"The best way to have a friend is to be a friend."