Friday, April 28, 2006

Dave Lister Promises Perfection If Elected

Seen on a Dave Lister for Council road sign this morning:

"Sten Screwed up--I Won't!"

I've heard some campaign promises before that seemed broken as soon as they were said , but this one probably wins the prize for quixotic goals. Setting aside for the moment that obviously Lister WILL screw up unless he is made of transistors instead of flesh, what kind of blind arrogance is it to suggest that you won't make mistakes if you're elected? I guess in his business of software development he doesn't even bother to debug his releases, since he can simply promise to the customer, "I won't screw up!"

"I can do better" is a valid perspective.
"I'll do it differently" is a valid perspective.
"I'll try harder" is good, too.
"I won't screw up" just makes me wonder if the rest of the things Lister says are just idle puffery, too. Or maybe he'll approach the rest of the City's agenda like he does homelessness: not really a problem, no plans to address it. You'll never strike out if you never swing. Which leads me to another yard sign suggestion:

"Dave Lister: Hoping for the Intentional Walk"