When there is not a riveting issue to spit steamy sparks into the candidates’ nostrils during a political campaign, forums can sink into goo.
Or, if they are as smart as the Exchange Club was this afternoon, they will recruit Frances Talbott-White with orders to be a witty moderator. Which is like asking a camel to stand up straight.
Wit is congenital with Ms. T-W.
Three of the four weary candidates for City Council in next Tuesday’s election puffed and huffed into the Elks Lodge for a spot of lunch and a bucket’s worth of their opinions on the non-issues of the day after Ms. T-W had warmed up the crowd.
He Had an Idea
Does she know how to hold the audience? When she announced there would be no responsive applause while Mayor Jeff Cooper, Councilman Jim Clarke and challenger Christopher Patrick King were declaiming, member John Cohen popped a suggestion from his distant seat – clap now. Cleanse it from your system.
Oh, how they howled.
Ms. Talbott-White birthed the next imaginative idea. After consuming 10 seconds saying she could soak up 45 minutes explaining the forum’s rules, she explained the format in skeletal forum. Each contender had been given 10 questions in advance, and he would be allotted 10 minutes to answer all or a select number plus one optional wild-card query.
Conserving her debatable best for the end, Ms. T-W said each candidate would open with his closing statement. This was a nod to well-fed members who might nod off during the gaping non-riveting portions. She further announced that the Messrs. King, Cooper and Clarke wanted to speak last – so that their message would last. Instead, Ms. Talbott-White turned the program into a biblical lesson. With Mr. King arriving at the Elks in the wake of his rivals, she determined that the last shall be first, or at least if he is running for the City Council in Culver City, the latter concept not being found in the bible.
At Their Zenith
[img]2333|right|Christopher King||no_popup[/img]For the final forum of the season, all three candidates were superb in their own ways, especially given that the 10 generic questions in advance were more general, cumulatively, than George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, Mills, Electric or Spike Patton.
More specifically:
The main challenge went to Mr. King. As a first-time contender who entered the race last December with modest name-recognition against two incumbents, well-known personalities, he was obligated to run uphill. A young business owner, he is articulate, creative, and brings an engaging speaking style and a suitcase packed with sensible-sounding ideas.
Mr. King has spent the four months of the campaign urging business leaders and elected officials to promote a hugely desirable history with a golden past and a dynamic nine months-pregnant present/future. He has vigorously pursued a passel of thoughtful ideas – including deploying pedi-cabs for the half-mile journey to Downtown from the Expo light rail terminal, and here is the best part, over a Yellow Brick Road, honoring Culver City’s all-time favorite film, “The Wizard of Oz.”
‘V’ Is for Vigor and Cooper
Mr. Cooper, the kid in the candy store who grew up into an ideal Prom Date for your daughter, demonstrates at every stop that boyish enthusiasm, even in small-town 21st century America, can carry a cheerleader for his adopted hometown to the distant stars.
[img]1792|right|Jim Clarke||no_popup[/img]Mr. Clarke is a poster boy for students tempted to blow off their homework. He is the model of a professional who can reach all if his objectives by tirelessly, doggedly, brilliantly outworking, outpreparing the competition. Sensitively, he tailors specialized presentations for every crowd – even amoeba-collectors from Mars.
On Closing Day of the forum season, the question thinker-uppers finally got around to the shut down Culver City Ice Arena. What lessons are to be drawn from that ugly experience? Mr. Cooper and Mr. Clarke cautiously approached responses as if tiptoeing through tulips in a minefield.
[img]1592|left|Jeff Cooper||no_popup[/img]“That we have a wonderful Fire Dept.,” said Mr. Cooper, who did not have time to show how he arrived at the opinion. For decades, the Fire Dept., casually or not, gave the ice rink an easy passing grade after its annual inspections. Suddenly two months ago, a mish-mash of City Hall-hired refrigeration detectives produced a mixed bag of opinions, and a faceless voice at City Hall ordered the arena closed as a public health hazard.
Mr. Cooper added that since “the Fire Dept. Does not have industrial refrigeration experts,” the rink should be required to “bring in” such mavens “every several years.”
Mr. Clarke’s panacea: That belatedly discovered files on the ice rink and other dated real estate, unintentionally hidden away because they are made of paper, should have been converted into digital before now.
