I had the chance to hear Corinna speak today at Democratic forum. I will give her credit, I took from her speech that she is very intelligent, driven and hard working. The SD GOP is going to try to hang the ‘Carpet Bagger’ yolk around her neck because she spent 25 years in the military traveling the world. Her latest stint was in DC (and she has kind of an Eastern accent).
There were some concerns I have about her after hearing her speak. She seemed cold and distant (this is kind of typical of the military upper crust). She said her nickname at the Pentagon was ‘Gunslinger’ because she got stuff done.
I can probably deal with someone who is pretty stringent and driven in their ways. I want smart, hard working people in DC representing me, not obstructionists like Noem.
But something else was very clear about Robinson, she is a bureaucrat. You don’t get that high up in the Pentagon without playing reindeer games in DC. This can be looked at a couple of ways, as she explained, she knows the ins and outs of the halls of congress. Selling point? Sure, but a lot of South Dakotans don’t like DC insiders and have a distaste for all things Washington.
I also was a little disappointed that she gave a brief speech (about 15 minutes) and was planning on skirting out of the forum until Tom Cool reminded her to take some questions. While most gave support, including Phil Shrek, a regular attendee of Forum asked how she was going to deflect the ‘Carpet Bagger’ label. She said she looked forward to the attacks about carpet bagging. Jim Abourezk reminded her that Eisenhower was never called a ‘carpet bagger’ when he ran for president.
But the best question came from Roger Elgersma (a regular at public input at city council meetings) He asked how she would work to cut defense spending. She pretty much admitted that kind of ‘change’ is nearly impossible, further making me assume that she is part of the DC system. But hey, at least she admitted she would look at the issue.
At the end of the day, I look forward to her campaign to defeat a do-nothing congress person we currently have who has only damaged South Dakotan. Robinson said if she was appointed to a committee, like armed services, she would show up to ALL the meetings 🙂