Check Out Janet Oleszek's Live Blog at Raising Kaine

I just finished reading Janet Oleszek’s live blog at Raising Kaine. Although the live portion is over, so you can’t really post any more questions, she provides good answers to the questions posed to her. And they weren’t all from the progressive community. Chris Beers, the Mason Conservative, Bwana, from Renaissance Ruminations and other Republicans were well represented as well.

While Janet is not at her best in a debate forum, she did a great job over there. To get a sense of what she stands for and her opinion on the major campaign and policy issues, head on over to read it.

On a personal note, I have to add that many, many people have told me I’m a good writer. I’ve also been told that I’m articulate, eloquent and logical – all the types of very kind words that make me blush to hear them.

But one of my favorite stories about me and my blogging is this one. When Kate Wilder found out that I was Anonymous Is A Woman she gushed about how articulate, eloquent and logical I was and said, “Everything you write is so calm, correct, and reasonable.” Then she added, “I couldn’t believe it’s actually you.” And she blushed that it had slipped out.

But it’s true. AIAW is my smarter twin. I’m actually pretty dumb and illogical in person. Honest.

The reason is that I don’t have a good memory for facts, figures, statistics, quotes; all the things you need to make a credible argument. I forget things. Oh, I can remember and grasp the basic concepts and apply them to new situations. I can even make connections and distinction that are creative. But I don’t have rote memory and can’t always lay my hands on just the right source or statistics I need to back up my argument and make it convincing. I can do that when I write because I can Google and research. Usually I’ll remember exactly where I read what I need or I’ll have a pretty good idea where to find it. I’m good at the type of free association you need to use a search engine.

But I can’t hold the stuff in my head to get up at a podium and debate somebody. But that doesn’t make me dumb. And it doesn’t mean I’d be incapable of writing a bill or understanding it or even getting it passed in a legislature. The truth is legislators don’t spend all their days standing around debating bills. Lots of what gets passed is decided in the cloakroom. The ability to get along with your fellow legislators and do some horse trading is as important, if not more so, as debating skills.

Ken Cucinnelli is a great debater. I certainly wouldn’t want to go up against him. But he hasn’t actually been that successful at getting many of his bills passed. And given the nature of some of them, I’m actually grateful for that.

But Janet has great people skills one on one. She is knowledgeable. You can find out what she stands for and what her solutions will be to Virginia’s challenges at the live blog. And you can rest assured that if she is elected, she will be able to get her bills passed because her focus will be on transportation, education, mental health, and other bread and butter issues, not social wedge issues that seek to limit a woman’s freedoms, choices and horizons.