Notes From D.R. | Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene

In any field, those at the top are deeply resented by those who aren’t. Whether it’s business, sports, entertainment, or especially politics, obvious superiority is forever held in contempt by obvious inferiority. We’ve seen it in some of the more gratuitous attacks on such figures as Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods. For each accurate criticism of these men, there was a nonsensical nattering by someone who resented their success in their given fields. Excellence is easily envied.

Here in Massachusetts, we’re seeing another lamentable example of quality being loathed, with the incessant left-wing blog attacks on GOP gubernatorial candidate Kerry Healey. The dominant theme of the progressive blogosphere’s criticism of Healey is that she’s an in-over-her-head self-promoter with virtually no redeeming values, a cipher who would arguably be "worse" than Mitt Romney in the State House. A Governor Healey, it is implied, would turn the state into the punchline of every joke.

It is impossible to read today’s Boston Globe interview with Healey and come away with the same impression held by the local Air America fanbase. While the Globe obviously loathes certain elements of Healey’s agenda, and its editorial page is a lock to endorse whichever Democratic candidate she’ll face in the fall, the interview by Globe reporter Frank Phillips makes it clear that, if elected, the state will be in good hands under her stewardship.

It is precisely because she will be a better governor than any of the Democratic candidates that the lefty blogosphere has resorted to denigrating her as a lightweight. The left is attempting to engender as much doubt as possible about Healey’s abilities so that voters will conveniently forget that any of the three Democratic candidates, if elected, will simply surrender state leadership to Senate President Robert Travaglini and House Speaker Sal DiMasi, just as former Governor Michael Dukakis conceded the Commonwealth to William Bulger in the 1980s. It’s a fundamentally dishonest tactic–one undercut today by the Globe interview.

Kerry Healey is, on the merits, the best overall candidate in the 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial race. The progressive blogosphere resents this reality and does not want it acknowledged, thus they have attempted to promote the falsehood that Healey is without merit. A Healey victory in November will force the left to tell the truth.