Politics 101 for Cindy Sheehan: AKA Why I and Most San Franciscans Will Re-Elect Speaker Pelosi in a LANDSLIDE…

So some folks on those fancified blogs we keep hearing about are all atwiter about the “news” that activist Cindy Sheehan is going to relocate from her “undisclosed location” and deign to run for Congress in San Francisco. While the kids at “Daily Kos” are having a lovely time blogging this to death, if I were working for Nancy Pelosi, I would not be too concerned.
Remember, Ms. Sheehan herself said that she was through with anti-war activism in a much-publicized move, for various “reasons.” Thus, when I read the news about her latest gig, I began to realize that Chris Nolan’s analysis of Cindy Sheehan’s morph into the Left’s Cause Celebre was, well spot-on. When she started on this path and was the lone voice against the President, there was some accessibility and some good her protesting could have been doing. When she morphed into a celebrity, that sought out the likes of President Hugo Chavez, and had a high-powered PR firm guiding her moves, well, let’s just say that her original point got lost in the cult of celebrity she sank into.
Whatever. All of this is irrelevant, anyway. Since Ms. Sheehan does not have much experience in San Francisco politics, she might want to take a look at the history of underfunded, unorganized, anti-establishment efforts in San Francisco, which usually end in tears.
She might also take special note at the fact that despite all the local gimmicks passed to “change” who runs and wins office, not a lot has changed, and we still tend to re-elect incumbents, no matter what they do, progressive or moderate, or whatever.
The outsiders that will descend on our town expecting to find Hippy Trippy Liberal Central will have a rude awakening when they see how much it costs to live here and how few jobs allow for copious hours of crazy crap during business hours.
If I have to choose between supporting an incumbent Speaker of the House, who has to lead a caucus of folks as diverse in views as they are in numbers, versus an outsider with a janey-one-note issue that will be moot in 2009, well, I’ll vote for the Speaker any day of the week.