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Things I’ve learned from the mayor’s blog

Things are unusually quiet on the blogging front these days. I keep shaking my blog reader to see if it’s still working. Even the prolific bloggers have slowed down or stopped. Even the group blogs are silent.

Mayor Larry has even refrained from giving himself a bloggerly pat on the back for three days. A day without Larry’s narcissistic blog postings is like, um…hmmm. I’m stumped. I don’t even know what to compare it to.

He’s an odd duck, that mayor of ours. I used to think he and I just had philosophical differences and so we tended to disagree on most things. But since he started blogging, I’ve come to realize he’s actually not that bright. Seriously. His comprehension of the issues is naive and superficial. He lacks critical thinking skills. His approach to learning is primarily through memorization.

All these weaknesses are accentuated and compounded by his very high opinion of himself. You would think a weak and naive politician might surround himself with abler advisers and competent PR people. But Larry is blind to his own weaknesses, so he rejects any notion that he might need help compensating for them (or at least disguising them). He blunders about on his own, feeling like a superstar, while ordinary people like me sit back and marvel at his mediocrity, lack of substance and abundance of ego.

Take, for example, his delusions of grandeur: he seems to honestly believe he is personally responsible for anything good that happens in this city. The crime rate drops? He did that. He goes for a walk and doesn’t get solicited by panhandlers? His plan is working. The sun is shining? Thank you Larry.

On the flip side, it’s no secret that Larry doesn’t handle criticism well.

He started his blog to bypass the local media which he perceived to be picking on him. I think he expected the media to be his personal cheerleaders and felt angry and betrayed when they turned out to be, well, you know, the media. And I think it made him uncomfortable to be asked tough questions by people who understood local issues better than he did. His solution was to draw a line in the sand, boycott the offending media outlets, and start a blog.

Back on May 15, 2008, he said “I hope that you will participate by sending me your ideas, your comments and your stories. This website is as much yours as it is mine, its success comes from the conversations we will have in the days ahead.” (Actually he originally said “this website is as much mine as it is yours,” but edited it in response to snickers around the blogosphere.)

It was a reasonable thing to say, that we would have conversations. But nothing ever came of this promise of conversations. I did my bit by submitting comments, but Larry chose not to publish my comments even though they were polite and respectfully written.

If Larry were as honest as he says he is (see the typo-infested values statement on his blog) he would acknowledge that he only wants to have ‘conversations’ with people who agree with him – just like he only wants to talk to those members of the media who don’t challenge him.

Anyway. Do you read Zero Means Zero? Things have been very interesting over there lately. Apparently Larry is determined to find out who’s writing that blog.

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13 comments to Things I’ve learned from the mayor’s blog

  • XUP

    Oh ya, I’ve been following the zero means zero antics. Being new to Ottawa, I’m still trying to get a handle on zany local politics. I reckon it must be difficult trying to carve a political niche in the most political city in the country.

  • I like Zero Means Zero. It’s got intrigue, humour and insider info. What more could we want?

  • knitnut.net » Things I’ve learned from the mayor’s blog Says:
    July 27th, 2008 at 11:21 am

    […] on May 15, 2008, he said “I hope that you will participate by sending me your ideas, your comments and your […]

    For whatever it’s worth you dropped a trackback to this post on Larry’s blog. It’s odd it managed to slip past his security… and somebody named Darren McEwen left a comment back in May asking about Zero Means Zero as if a link to it used to be on Larry’s blog.

    I have a screenshot of your trackback on his blog, just in case you’re looking for a souvenir and he (inevitably) deletes it…

    In case you haven’t seen it Larry also has a Wiki entry:
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_O’Brien_(Canadian_politician)

  • 8 – That’s interesting about the trackback. Heh heh.

    Darren McEwen, by the way, writes the Apply-Liberally blog. You can find him in my sidebar, under politics. He’s the one whose blog Larry’s son made an ass of himself on, which ultimately led to Larry demanding that a reporter erase everything Larry just said from his recording device.

  • quiet on the blog front? I’m still posting every day :-)

  • Yes you are nursemyra, you trooper you. I attribute your continuing blogging prolificity (??) to the fact that you’re in Australia where it’s winter already. Right?

  • XUP

    Hey, I’m also here, blogging away almost every day!!

  • You missed yesterday.

  • Yes, I have zee ennui. No, I try not to read anything about Larry. If I want a pithy opinion, I read YOU Zoom! And Randall Denley.

  • Nancy

    “A day without Larry’s narcissistic blog postings is like, um… ”
    how ’bout: A day WITH sunshine? But no, as Larry would take credit for the sunshine, via a narcissistic blog post…
    I was going to suggest, back on July 18th, that you send your blog post to our never-to-be-revered mayor in the hopes that he would (could?) read it and get a clue; but again no, as he is simply too thick to get it.
    Maybe we’ll do better in the next election. Maybe tomorrow will be a sunny day.

  • I am living in boxes! I will be posting more soon, I swear!

  • Julia, I’m glad I’ve got Randall as backup.

    Nancy, Larry has promised to step down during his trial, and the wheels of justice turn very, very slowly, so we should get a nice long break.

    XUP, well it just happened to be on the day I was taking attendance.

    Hella Stella, ok, I’ll grant you an extension due to extenuating circumstances.