Should Sitting Officials Campaign Full-Time?

Should Sitting Officials Campaign Full-Time?

I say that if you are elected to serve as an official of government then campaigning takes you from your sworn duties.

The only ethical alternative is to resign and then campaign.

Of course Gov. Sarah Palin's announcement of resignation today prompts this thread.

Rather than sit as a lame duck and campaign for herself and other GOP candidates while taking the taxpayer's dime, she has chosen to resign.

Hers is the only ethical way to look at this process.

If you serve, serve.

If you campaign, campaign.

Remember when you see a sitting politician campaigning for himself or others he or she is taking money inappropriately. And if they can manage to campaign full time and still act in their official capacity then some aspect of their performance is suffering.

Should Sitting Officials Campaign Full-Time?

I say no.

They should campaigne, but not full-time. But that is the point of having a staff, is it not?

bhkad said:

If you serve, serve.

If you campaign, campaign.

Click to expand...

Exactly.

Letting politicos campaign all the time is how we wind up with incompetents like Dear Leader.

Tough question in alot of ways. How do you retain your seat if you do not campaign? At the very least, any sitting politician would be giving the opposition a strong advantage(and yes, I too can see the advantage to that).

I think a sitting politician should be able to campaign as much as they need as long as they are still completing their duties.

Redress said:

Tough question in alot of ways. How do you retain your seat if you do not campaign? At the very least, any sitting politician would be giving the opposition a strong advantage(and yes, I too can see the advantage to that).

I think a sitting politician should be able to campaign as much as they need as long as they are still completing their duties.

Click to expand...

The sad part is that sitting politicians are not judged on their performance, but must campaigne so much after gaining the seat. Voters are sooo uniformed.

bhkad said:

Should Sitting Officials Campaign Full-Time?

I say that if you are elected to serve as an official of government then campaigning takes you from your sworn duties.

The only ethical alternative is to resign and then campaign.

Of course Gov. Sarah Palin's announcement of resignation today prompts this thread.

Rather than sit as a lame duck and campaign for herself and other GOP candidates while taking the taxpayer's dime, she has chosen to resign.

Hers is the only ethical way to look at this process.

If you serve, serve.

If you campaign, campaign.

Remember when you see a sitting politician campaigning for himself or others he or she is taking money inappropriately. And if they can manage to campaign full time and still act in their official capacity then some aspect of their performance is suffering.

Should Sitting Officials Campaign Full-Time?

I say no.

Click to expand...

One of those rare times, bhkad, that you and I agree completely. This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. How can someone do their job effectively, if all they do is try to get others to let them keep their job? Objectivity goes out the window.

bhkad said:

Should Sitting Officials Campaign Full-Time?

I say that if you are elected to serve as an official of government then campaigning takes you from your sworn duties.

The only ethical alternative is to resign and then campaign.

Of course Gov. Sarah Palin's announcement of resignation today prompts this thread.

Rather than sit as a lame duck and campaign for herself and other GOP candidates while taking the taxpayer's dime, she has chosen to resign.

Hers is the only ethical way to look at this process.

If you serve, serve.

If you campaign, campaign.

Remember when you see a sitting politician campaigning for himself or others he or she is taking money inappropriately. And if they can manage to campaign full time and still act in their official capacity then some aspect of their performance is suffering.

Should Sitting Officials Campaign Full-Time?

I say no.

Click to expand...

I think it depends. If a politician doesn't want to seek reelection because they plan to run for higher office, I think there is (sometimes) something admirable about that. It takes a lot of integrity to be able to give up a powerful position because you know you won't be able to fulfill your duties.

But with Sarah Palin's decision, I'm not so sure. For one thing, the next presidential election isn't for 3 years. Also, she didn't cite presidential ambitions as being a reason for her resignation (and implied that she had gotten fed up with politics/media altogether). And it seems that if that was why she was quitting, she wouldn't have intentionally buried the story by doing it on the Friday before the 4th of July weekend; she would've tried to milk it for as much exposure as possible. If that's really the reason she's quitting, I can respect her decision. It just seems...odd.

The main reason why politicians campaign so much is that it is an arms race. If you start campaigning earlier, you get an edge on your opponent. So everyone responds by campaigning even earlier, until it spirals out of control. I dislike the 24/7/365 election cycle, but I don't see it changing unless the rules do.

As for Palin, until we get an official story from her staff, I am not going to speculate why she resigned. Honestly, I have no interest in either attacking or defending her before I even know the facts.

I voted no.
Our politicians now vote on bills and have never read the full bill,so they aren't doing their jobs now.
We the people have failed in our voting,and in following up after the elections by letting our representatives know how we feel on issues they have coming up for vote.
In the 1992 election we the people showed Bush Sr. that we were dissatisfied with him and his statements he made while campaigning,remember his famous statement, READ MY LIPS I WONT RAISE TAXES. He only lasted one term.
These people are CON MEN,and we are their MARKS.

Redress said:

Tough question in alot of ways. How do you retain your seat if you do not campaign? At the very least, any sitting politician would be giving the opposition a strong advantage(and yes, I too can see the advantage to that).

I think a sitting politician should be able to campaign as much as they need as long as they are still completing their duties.

Click to expand...

Life is about chances. They should not be allowed to hold onto a job they are neglecting so that they can try for something higher and also have a fall back job if they fail.

If you or I were to go to our employer and tell him/her we need 1-2 years off with pay to try and secure a better job what would they tell us?

There should be a limited amount of time during which they are allowed to campaign at all, the current political process is far too drawn out, people are campaigning for office before half of their term is up and that's idiotic. We really ought to limit campaigning of any kind to the last 3-6 months before the election is held, beyond which these people ought to just do their damn jobs.