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Here are reasons people may not vote for me

Reasons:

1. I'm mean to my wife and I yell at my kids

2. I've insulted Republicans

3. I'm not very photogenic

4.  I'm not a home grown Ohioan

5.  I'm an independent

6.  I'm prone to stage fright

7.  I play golf

8.  If social and moral issues define who you support, I'm on the wrong side

9.  I'm not an experienced politician  

10.  The incumbent will likely be the speaker of the house if he remains in office

For some of the reasons listed above I make light of my negatives, sometimes I try to convince you the negative has some positive aspects that go along with it.  This first section -- I'm mean to my wife and yell at my kids  -- I have to write seriously. When I exhibit the behavior in public I will be embarrassment and it will turn off many who witness it. Notice I did use the word when in the previous sentence.  When is almost assured because I keep my family close and we spend a lot of our time together.  This is the way my wife and I want it and most of the time it gives us comfort and joy.  I definitely would like my older kids to be around  the campaign. I think my running can offer them a valuable learning experience which they can take with them the rest of their lives.  Occasionally, actually I should say frequently, kid behavior gets on my nerves.  And when I yell, the only people in the world that know I'm harmless are my kids.  The other day my son had a neighbor over.  We were about to go out so I sent the kid home and told my kids to get in the car.  When I went to get in the car my son was in the driveway shooting baskets.  Reactively, I used my drill sergeant voice (have I mentioned I used to be a drill sergeant) and directed him to get in the car.  From my vantage point I didn't initially see the neighbor kid.  I almost didn't see him as he streaked past the garage door either.  He flinched so hard and tore off so fast he would have beaten Chad Ocho Cinco to his house.  Of course, my son casually threw the basketball into the yard and meandered over to the car. This type of incident should be a political negative.  The fact I can't figure out how to teach my kids to put the basketball back into the toy box reflects poorly on my teaching ability. I've got the kids computer set up next to the computer I use to compose these articles.  You might think my presence would keep them from arguing whose turn it is to play Runescape.  But it doesn't; and once or twice an evening I send them away to wrestle somewhere else in the house.  Given my track record at home - why should you believe I'll be able to get Republicans and Democrats to work together nicely in congress.  

Yes, by any outside observers standard, I am mean to my wife. I'm not going to go into any specific examples but your knowing the context will help if by some chance I exhibit the same behavior toward you.  First let me state one undeniable fact.  There are a number of areas where my wife is infinitely smarter and more capable than I am.  Language skills are one of them.  My wife speaks 3 languages fluently and picks up others as needed.  A couple years ago we knew we would be in Europe so she took two weeks to get familiar with French.  We (she) had no trouble communicating with people the entire time we were there.  I on the other hand I believe all Americans should learn to speak Spanish.   Yet although I've attempted to learn four or five times since 1989, I couldn't pass to you 30 words or make two complete sentences.  When I knew I would be deployed to the Middle East I signed up for the Rosetta Stone Arabic course.  120 hours of logged time later and I know fewer words than my wife who spent about 20 minutes listening to me try to explore a complimentary CD.   She was doing sudoko puzzles on the couch or something at the time.  The point being given normal criteria not only am I mean but it is unjustified as well.  Fortunately, at least most of the time my wife understands me and understands how my self confidence causes my misbehavior.  Hopefully, I can convey some of those workings to you and I can avoid offending you.   The first thing to think about to put my behavior in  context is how I describe myself.  If someone asks me, how are you, I'll often say "old and fat with a weak mind".  This often gets a chuckle which is one of the desired effects, but it is also something laced in fact.  Now I believe I should be a congressman and I believe I am a superior candidate than at least 80% of all those that ever ran previously.  Yet I describe myself and treat myself as if I were a fat old man with a weak mind.  How do you think I relate to other people?  Well, actually, I'm pretty good around people I don't know --- and most casual acquaintances.  The problem comes once I judge a person to be as smart or smarter than I am.  Believe it or not there are a lot of people I judge to be as smart as I am.  My mistake is not only do I recognize their intelligence I also project on them a quantity of self confidence equal to my own.  It does not offend me to hear someone tell me "that's just about the stupidest thing I've ever heard someone say".  I have the self confidence to listen to the follow-up reasoning and either accept it and be educated by it or reject it and move on.  Its foolish for me to convey that same characteristic on others -- but I do.  So heads up, as long as we don't know each other I'll probably seem like a nice guy.  Once I decide I can treat you as an equal, not so much.     Top

2.  tfmsview.com is not my first website.  In my original website written  1999 /2000 you can find the quote "The only possible conclusion - republicans consist of a group of people not interest in politics or too stupid to realize they are the lap dogs for a select few."  I don't even no how to start in order to mitigate the damage on this one.  Perhaps if you read my article titled Tea Party

3. This topic I decided I'd have fun with.  In fact, I don't think I take good pictures.  I like to believe the person I see in the mirror is really good looking.  Then I see pictures of myself and am disappointed.  Of course the camera doesn't lie so I'm guessing I just have gotten used to ugly characteristics.  Kind of like when you start watching a movie and the monster is really repugnant the first time you see it but by the end of the show the effect has worn off.  Also, it is a political trick to try and demonize the competition by distributing pictures of opponents in unfavorable posses.  I thought it in my best interest to proactively condition you to the site of an ugly politician so I've set up a photo gallery.

4.My family and I have lived in Huber Heights since July 06.  We located to the area hoping that once I retired from the Air Force I would be able to find a good job on base.  It was our intention when we moved here to settle here for the long term.  We made this decision having very little knowledge of the area.  Four years later and we can honestly say living here has been the best experience and we are familiar with a lot of different areas; Buffalo NY, Charleston, SC,  Altus OK, Colorado Springs CO, Edwards CA, Tampa FL.  We've enjoyed our time in all these areas.  We were able to learn a lot about the life philosophies and values of people outside the areas we grew up.  But of all the areas Huber Heights and South West Ohio shines as our favorite.  We got great neighbors with great values.  We've great access to entertainment, great cost of living, fun seasons.  This is an exceptional area to live.  The respect I have for the area doesn't automatically make me as familiar with the district as someone who grew up here.  I was talking to one of my friends the other day and that conversation prompted me to write this section.  I am now an Ohioan but I did not grow up here.  My friend is not an elected official or even strongly politically involved.  Yet when we talked about some of the local officials here he was able to personally name them.  He remembered having either them or a sibling as classmates.  This type of personal connection can only be formed by people native to the area.  In fact, as of 17 Feb 2010 I've never even been in Darke or Mercer County.  This is and should be a personal drawback voters will have to take into account when they decide to vote.    Top

5.  There are a lot of positives in independent thinkers.  I think I am more creative and explore more possibilities because of it.  I think it is much more likely a positive revolutionary idea or method will come and be adopted if independent thinkers received more recognition and standing.  However, most people are not as independent as I am and this helps maintain consistency and order.  Order and consistency have their benefits; the value of which should not be underestimated.  There are as many negatives to Change for Change sake as there can be for continued embrace of inefficient systems.  So it is important that independent thinkers be social enough the negatives of the consequences of change are identified and mitigated.  The other negative aspect of independents is they usually are standing alone.  They may have great ideas, ones that if adapted by the population would significantly improve efficiency.  However, no one can make these kinds of changes in a vacuum.  There must be support not only in the mechanics of implementation but also to hone the ideas.  Independent thinking is good for the country and for politics, however, the party system and being part of the organization is essential for moderating failure and implementing policy.

6.  I can be prone to stage fright.  I think the drawbacks to this quality are obvious.  One annoying aspect - it doesn't happen all the time.  I could do four or five interviews or briefings and be this dynamic, lucid speaker.  Then one interview I'll start out fine and then all of a sudden I'll become completely unaware I am giving a speech.  Sometimes I'll shutdown and not say anything.  Sometimes, if the briefing is well rehearsed,+ I can go on auto-pilot "waking-up" sometime later.  Its quite annoying.  Top

7.  I play golf.  I put this in here because one of the other potential candidates makes a big deal about the incumbent playing a lot of golf.  I've gone through periods where I've played more than a hundred days in a year.  Ohio golf fits my game perfectly; most courses are walkable and the value, especially during the week, is outstanding.  I'm very surprised I haven't played much in Ohio since I moved here.  But even though I've probably only played 20 or 30 rounds in Ohio since July 06, I still managed to go to the range 100 or 150 times since then.  Broaching this subject does let me talk about one of my life philosophies.  I see nothing wrong with people enjoying life.  Not only that but I am annoyed with the jealous philosophy which says you must take that persons entertainment away because that's not what I do for entertainment.  Certainly, people should expect government employees to put in a full days work and maybe even more but even if that employee worked 80 hours a week and slept 8 hours a day there would still be 32 hours left in the week for other activities.  I think it is unreasonable to expect a government employee to work 80 hours a week every week.  In fact, should I be elected I expect to work on average 50 hours a week.  For the average American I think we should have a goal that 40 hours of work a week provide the means to support a family and offer the opportunity for extras such as vacations, boats, campers, websites or whatever it is you like for entertainment.  But for a elected official its not unreasonable to expect 50 hours of work a week.  This was the same philosophy I had when I was in the military.  As a military member, I figured I should average 45 to 50 hours of work a week.  What I found annoying was when upper leadership would promote an unwritten policy of making believe you never enjoy your work or never have any free time.  

My first eleven years in the Air Force my main duty was as a navigator on the C-141B.  That was a great job.  The C-141 is a cargo airplane - retired now.  I flew all around the world as part of my duties.  Whenever, I took a trip I had a personal rule of either taking my golf clubs or a couple of tennis rackets.  The fact that some aircrew took golf clubs on trips would annoy some people and on a couple of occasions my operation officer or assistant operations officer would try to convince people it was in the best interest of the Air Force if it didn't look like we could possibly enjoy ourselves while out on a mission.  While stationed at Altus AFB I went out one Sunday afternoon and played golf.  A single decided to play along with me and my friend.  During the round this guy complained about playing with rental clubs and not having his clubs or shoes with him.  It turns out this person was a Col in charge of the conducting the Operational Readiness Inspection.  He lamented he couldn't bring his clubs because there's always a chance 60 minutes might be watching him get off the plane and this would look bad for the Air Force.  This of course is crazy logic.  In his mind there was nothing wrong with him playing golf on the weekend but it was bad if people knew he was playing golf.  So I asked him, "have you put in a full weeks work".  Of course the answer was yes.  ORI's are intensive inspections encompassing the entire base.  "Do you expect you will work a full week next week".  Again the answer was yes.  "So why do you need to pretend there is no time to relax".  Of course I ruined his relaxation by trying to convince him he had a duty to educate outside observers of our real life style:  He had a responsibility to junior personnel to promote an environment consisting not only a full weeks work but also healthy relaxation activities.  I ended that conversation with an observation I personally made when the squadron leadership convinced the other crew members not to carry their recreation equipment.  If you convince people to stop playing golf and tennis while out on trips the activities they tend to spend most of their free time doing involve alcohol and strippers.  Most of the time I was a flier I preferred the exercise over the alcohol.  Don't be mislead I did drink some alcohol and I have been in strip clubs.  In fact I'd probably be a rich man if I had invested all the money I spent in strip clubs the year prior to when my wife and I started dating.  That doesn't change the fact that official pressure to pretend no entertainment ever occurs promotes more decadent behaviors.  In conclusion, I play golf and if elected -- someone will probably snap a picture of me out on the course. Even so I am committed to putting in a full weeks work and hope I get the chance to prove it.    Top

8.  If social and moral issues define who you support, I'm on the wrong side.  Specifically, I'm talking about gay rights and abortion.  If you are hard core on one of these issues, I'm not your man.  I have no intention on sponsoring any legislation or championing any cause on either issue.  I'll vote on legislation proposed by others based on how I see the merits of the legislation.  If one of these issues were tacked onto a highly desirable bill, the inclusion of one of these issue probably won't change my vote.  

9.  This section mirrors the section on my being an independent.  There are some benefits to not being a polished politician.  However, knowing how to phrase a sentence so it is not offending, experience in bring people together, inspiring people to work for a cause these are all traits in a politician I wish to develop more fully.

10. All 8th district voters need to understand how valuable to the district and Ohio the position of Speaker of the House can be.  They also need to know there is a very good chance the incumbent may end up in that position.  I like to think that should I be elected it might inspire all the altruistic representatives to turn to me for leadership guidance.  Remember I'm using a strategy that informs both of my positions and my negatives and I will be using less than $50,000 in campaign funds.   My being speaker of the house next year is probably a bit of a stretch.  So make sure you realize  ---  the possibility you might be represented by "The Speaker of the House" goes down -- if you do not choose to elect the same representative.

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