Up & Coming Weekly

8 UCW DECEMBER 23-29, 2009 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM DAVID G. WILSON, Contributing Writer COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 222 or or email stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com NOW NOW OPEN OPEN NOW NOW OPEN OPEN Where the Smart Shoppers Go! Where the Smart Shoppers Go! Where the Smart Shoppers Go! Children's Resale Boutique Coffman Commons • 4251 Legion Rd., Suite 115 • Hope Mills • 424-2900 Coffman Commons • 4251 Legion Rd., Suite 115 • Hope Mills • 424-2900 15% OFF 15% OFF Melissa and Melissa and Doug Toys Doug Toys 25% ALL 25% ALL Holiday Holiday Clothing Clothing Kidz City CLOTHING I attended a public forum last Thursday night conducted by Republican congressional hopeful Tim D'Annunzio. An enthusiastic crowd filled the room to hear the former Golden Knight speak the conservative political doctrine, as he saw it and would have his audience accept. His opening remarks were brief. He explained that he was a business man and not a politician. He had started several businesses related to his training in the military as a sewing machine operator. He is originally from Philadelphia and is of Italian decent. That is a solid immigrant pedigree that usually gets one elected to most any office in the land. What about immigration? Let us build fences and employ enough border guards to keep illegals out D'Annunzio asserted. D'Annunzio then asked for more questions. When my turn came I asked his opinion about President Obama's recently announced intention to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. The candidate replied that he approved of very little that the President says or does. He went on to say that he would have sent 100,000 more troops. I did not persist with the obvious question regarding the fact that the United States does not have another hundred thousand troops to send. D'Annunzio is the former military man and I am not. Nor did I continue with questions about logistical support for a military presence of that size in a country with few roads and airfields. D'Annunzio also indicated that the United States had imposed our values, our form of government and our way of doing things on countries we had defeated in the past. I did not understand that comment. Above all else, D'Annunzio asserted, he is a student of the Constitution and a strong proponent of that document. He explained that he is not for limiting the terms of members of Congress. The constitution does not provide for term limitations, you see. He is for limiting the terms of Supreme Court Justices. The Constitution also provides that justices may serve at their will or for a life time. How about right to life? There was no surprise about D'Annunzio's position on that hugely controversial issue. A Catholic, he sees abortion as murder, as is any taking of a human life by another human. How about the death penalty? He strongly favors that. Gay marriage? He's agin' it. He commented on global warming. That it is a myth and the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on us by liberals in the government was D'Annunzio's stated position. And all along I had believed that the polar ice caps were melting, that the snow caps in the Alps were disappearing and that opinions from scientists world over on this most serious matter were fundamentally correct. When asked about the large bank rescues D'Annunzio was quick to say he thought they should have been allowed to fail. But would that have not prompted a worldwide depression no one asked but hopefully many wondered. The candidate went on to insist that the Federal Reserve System should be abolished. He was asked about the ramifications of such an action. He was not sure. He would have to study the situation more but he did not think that the country needed the Federal Reserve. I asked D'Annunzio how he capitalized his businesses. He assured the audience that he never borrowed from banks. He did receive a $3.5 million loan from the Department of Agriculture's Rural Business- Cooperative Service. He did not mention that, nor did he reveal a 2005 loan from the Small Business association for $293,000. Nothing to be ashamed of there but it seems to be in conflict with his clear abhorrence of government involvement in private business. When questioned about his campaign funding, the candidate stated that he was financing his own campaign. He had made a good deal of money and did not need outside donations although a few have come in. "So Mr. D'Annunzio," I asked, "Regardless of how you finance your campaign, how do you intend to attract Republican voters with views more moderate than yours?" His response calls to question the seriousness of his campaign. "I will not pander to anyone." He went on to explain that the Republican Party had room for all, conservatives, moderates and liberals, but only the conservatives would lead. That, of course, leaves me out. But pander, I thought. That means to indulge another's weakness. With positions such as these how does this man truly expect to get past a primary which includes other highly qualified candidates? Perhaps D'Annunzio is off on an adventure in egotism. Perhaps he likes the billboards and the attention, good and bad that his campaign draws. It does not seem as though he has thought through a strategy for winning the primary, let alone a general election when he would oppose a Democratic incumbent. But as they say, it is his money and he is free to spend it as he chooses, and is this a great country or what? A View from the Far Right by DAVID G. WILSON

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