Jonetta Rose Barras: Michael Brown lacks real vision for D.C.

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - If a warm smile and a high charisma quotient were all that were needed to be the next mayor of Washington, you think Michael Brown would be topping polls and running to the bank with pockets overflowing with cash. Instead, he’s near bottom in the five-contender lineup.

You’re not surprised. He and his campaign operation have lived up to your predictions. But, those years on the city’s Boxing Commission have taught Brown a thing or two about hanging on the ropes, ignoring the busted nose, cut above the eye and managing fatigue brought on by an unmerciful beating.

Maybe he’s hoping for a TKO. The District doesn’t have runoffs. You hate the idea of the Democratic Primary being the unofficial General Election because Democrats outnumber Republicans. You hate, too, that someone will float into the executive seat of a $9 billion corporation with less than 50 percent of the vote. That is decidedly undemocratic, you think.

(Wait, wait. Now, you're going on a tangent.)

It isn’t that Brown is saying all the wrong things. In fact, you think some of his rhetoric is insightful. It’s true that not all residents have benefited from the economic prosperity. No one will ever claim that D.C. Public Schools is providing a superior education. And only a fool would dispute that “doing well” means “doing good” in your community.

But Brown’s punch is flabby. He’s spent far too much time shadow boxing. You can’t determine whether he imagined his opponent his daddy, Ron Brown Sr., former secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce who died in a plane crash, or former President Bill Clinton.

Michael Brown talks an awful lot about bridges: “We must and should build a bridge and provide opportunities for our less fortunate communities. ... I will be a leader who will build that bridge. ... Let’s build that bridge together.”

Sounds familiar?

Not surprisingly, Brown, a former finance vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, spent much of his time on the national political scene. He says he was surrogate speaker of the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign in 2004; the Gore-Lieberman campaign in 2000 and the Clinton-Gore campaigns in 1996 and 1992.

OK, you don’t want to give the impression that Brown turned to the local scene when Democrats didn’t get their act together nationally. He has done some things in the city including bringing the ear-biting-over-the-hill Mike Tyson to then-MCI Arena, “supporting Roosevelt High School girls’ basketball team, and serving on the board of the Whitman Walker Clinic. (Was that before or after the organization’s fiscal woes, you wonder)?

Still, Brown doesn’t offer any original thinking, sound public policy ideas or tangible vision for the nation’s capital. Truth is, the only thing he brings to the table is someone else’s doggie bag.

Jonetta Rose Barras is the political analyst for WAMU radio’s “D.C. Politics Hour with Kojo and Jonetta.” She can be reached at rosebook1@aol.com

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