Charlie and the Taking Credit Factory

Filed in Delaware by on October 23, 2008

Tommywonk has the definitive history of the creation of The Challenge Program. And he is quite right, this program does great work and is teaching very advanced construction craftsmanship — if you own a house in a historic district or in a historic overlay you know how tough it can be to find folks with both the skills and the credibility with the local Design and Review folks to get the work done.

The mailer below tries to capitalize on the very good name of The Challenge Program to let Copeland do a couple of things:

1) Take credit for creating jobs — which is intriguing since the Challenge Program doesn’t create jobs, it is a job training program.  And granted Copeland’s printing company employs people, those people aren’t construction craftsmen.

2)  Take some credit for some “community cred”.  The pictures tell the story and without his connection to the Challenge Program this would be a hard claim to make.  And you can see the advice of a certain former city councilman here — who is being paid a pretty penny from either Copeland’s or the local R HQ on how to get said “community cred”.  That former city councilman forget to tell his protege that he really ought to make sure said protege’s website reflects some of this inclusiveness that he wants to portray.  Because, really, that is the real connection to creating jobs for the folks this piece is targeted to.

3) Distance himself from his party.  “It’s the person, not the party” wants the reader to disregard everything that reader may know about the Republican Party (it isn’t even mentioned), and certainly seems to be facing something of a headwind based on what the Party’s behavior has been like — live on TV –for the past few weeks.

For all of the dead trees and muddled messagaing of this piece, you’d think that a place on the Hope Commission would be a cheaper path to getting some connection the to city’s diverse communities on your resume.

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"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

Comments (7)

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  1. jason330 says:

    Copeland is just a liar. He could have said that he is a part of this project and that would have been fine. But to say he founded it..?

    C’mon Charlie.

  2. nemski says:

    There was a time back in September when I was looking at splitting my vote between parties with Markell and Copeland. I admit it. I was just taken in by his boyish charm. Then he kept on talking and talking and talking. He had me at “Hello”, but he lost me at “I did this and that and this and that.”

  3. Kilroy says:

    Its hard to read the fine print! Where is the negative attacks on Denn! Please understand Matt Denn is wonderful person but politcally he is making promises he can’t keep nor would he have the power to deliver.

    Why so much Delaware Liberal energy wasted on Copeland when the polls have him losing??

    You guys are really worried the Denn might not win?

    http://kilroysdelaware.blogspot.com/2008/10/government-out-of-control-is-only.html

    It seems everybody is trying to save Denn! Markel & DSEA. Denn needs to step up and call Copeland out on his so-called lies!

  4. liberalgeek says:

    We like Matt Denn and we have it bad for the two guys (Copeland and McDowell) that tried to sink Bluewater Wind.

  5. Geezer says:

    Never gonna happen, Kilroy. With the lead he’s got, all Denn has to do is run out the clock.

  6. cassandra_m says:

    Matt Denn doesn’t much need our help to win — but it is certainly time well spent looking at how a R candidate needs to reinvent himself by taking credit for actions he shouldn’t, jumping on popular bandwagons for stuff he opposed, distancing himself from his party, going cluelessly negative on his opponent while not having a single good idea or solution to sell to those he is supposed to be asking for votes from.

    For a guy trying to get set up for bigger things, he’s looking pretty incompetent here.

  7. Kilroy says:

    liberalgeek
    “We like Matt Denn and we have it bad for the two guys (Copeland and McDowell) that tried to sink Bluewater Wind.”

    That I can appreciate because your dislike of Copeland goes beyond his negative ads. For me, I will wake up November 5 , 2008 with the same feeling! The Delaware Lt. Governor will make no difference in my life. If I were a diehard republican wouldn’t I be supporting McCain and Bill Lee? I am still disappointed with Copeland on a personal level by purely from a political perspective it’s time to stick it to Dover and force the party to get their heads out of their asses and Markell-Copeland surely would present an interesting challenge. Copeland would be playing second fiddle but could help bring the parties together. I for change and there needs to be radical change! Me, I happy in the middle now!