So mid-week news broke that mayor mikey had taken down a sign that named a local football field "Tom Galligan Field". Then word also broke that he doesn't have authority to do this and has been told to replace the sign.
First let me say that words are not capable of describing how petty an act this really was. Bashing during a campaign is one thing. Constantly telling citizens how your administration is do things a lot better than the previous one is completely petty and serious overkill. But removing the name of a man from a field who greatly contributed to the improvement of youth sports in the city is actually beyond words. The best analogy for this would be mikey went up to Tom and just kicked him square in the nuts, on a personal level.
But maybe this was just a little more than a petty move.
Little mikey has proven over his few months in office (and even before if you go back to the Buckhead's fire before he took term) that he never willing to pass on a PR stunt or play to his audience. And this could have been an attempt at one.
Lets face it. Mikey's first 8+ months in office have been anything but smooth. Mostly by his own making. I could list all of his follies. But talking about overkill.
The fact remains that he has lost voters already. Not all. But I've already heard from a couple who knew I was pro-Galligan who have told me that voting for him "looks like a mistake."
How big a group has he lost?
Well between his constant blunders and the fact that a lot (and I mean A LOT) of people voted for him because he said he could, or at the very least implied, that he could lower sewer rates, I'm willing to imagine that number is reaching worrisome territory for the Moore camp. And while he has a little over three years to obtain a winning margin for the next election, the last thing he wants is to be a lame duck mayor, with no political leverage to bargain to the city council with. If they have no incentive to back any of his initiatives due to low public approval, well the rest of the ship will sink even faster. Imagine Titanic after it split in half.
So what does all this have to do with removing Galligans name?
Well, sadly, one of mikey's main running points was that he "wasn't Tom Galligan". Even sadder is that was good enough for some people. Those people who just have nothing but hate for Galligan no matter what he did. A hate some hold even to this day still. Even though he's been out of office for over 8 months. Some of those are his core group. The ones that want to believe in him till the very end. A group that if he were to lose them, he might as well not pay for one sign for the next election.
And this act of pettiness may very well be for them. An act to give them something to cheer for him about. Don't believe me? Just head over to the chatter or gawnews and see some of the post from that group regarding this act. It worked for some. They see this as a good move that they can stand behind, because they just plain hate Galligan.
And given the week he's had (and had to know was coming) with two lawsuits and council reportedly interested in seeing if the now defunct "J-pol" was run from City Hall on taxpayer time, he's given that core group of people something smile about and pat him on the back for. He's given them a distraction from the constant bombardment this week was going to be. Had he not, there is a better chance that it would have worn on them even worse.
Of course, this only helps his core group. Sure they're patting him on the back. But others are beginning to grow weary of his antics and the consequences of those actions. And if the "New & Tribune" ever decides to report on this story (I'm not holding my breath) it may wear even thinner on more of his fringe supporters. In which case, we undoubtedly will be placing this in the "I could name all his blunders. But that would just be overkill." category. Kinda like going to get the flag out of Tubby's before he tore it down and now facing the lawsuit from tearing it down.
Like using bubble gum to patch a whole in the dam. It'll help you now, but will hurt a whole lot worse later.
We better get a big file folder for that blunder category of his.
No comments:
Post a Comment