Krystal Ball, the MSNBC Political Pundit, and former Congressional Candidate is in the news in a small way via The Huffington Post talking about the “sexy photo scandal” that got her little-noticed run for Congress, a ton of notice, and about how “devastating” it was to her.
What happened was that photos, some of which are shown here (the “racy” ones), were floated to conservative bloggers, and it put Krystal into the zeitgeist.
At the time, Krystal was certainly shocked at the public disclosure of fun with a dildo at a party, but so much has changed in just two short years, it’s hard to really see the photos or the story as really all that scandalous. Yes, what people think is what every candidate has to worry about, but the fact is the reason Bullworth was so popular was that Warren Beatty’s candidate talked about what was on his mind.
The point is, Ms. Ball (and I supposed she’s going to say ‘That’s easy for you to say’) did the right thing in being transparent. I think she lost for other reasons, and should consider giving it another “go” in the future.
The dirty little secret is that the vast majority of people are afraid of what others will find out about them, so they will actually root for a person who defends who they are. The worst thing anyone can do is to hide. That just eggs on people to talk about the rumored scandal more. Heck, we all have issues: I’ve got DUI’s for example. But that does not make me a bad person – the one who thinks otherwise is the person who generally has the most to hide.
What’s happening is that the pendulum of what the public will accept is swinging to the part of the spectrum that reads “Whatever,” and that’s because we’re flooded with so many edgy images and sex scandals (the latest involving two four-star generals) that we have come to see that as part of who a person is.
My prediction is that come the next election, someone will be elected who has an issue like Ms. Ball’s. In fact, when you consider what happened to South Carolina Gov. Nikky Haley at the hand of blogger, Will Folks, that’s already occurred.
In Gov. Haley’s case in 2010, Mr. Folks asserted that he had a sexual relationship with the married Ms. Haley in 2007. The story included sex in the back of her Cadillac SUV (there’s a visual for a future Caddy commercial), and allegations that Folks was paid to bring his story forward in an effort to sink her campaign – didn’t work.
Haley’s strategy in that case was to pretend the story didn’t exist. Frankly, it would have gone a lot further if Folks had photos and videos of the two of them to go with it. It would have gotten legs if photos of she and lobbyist Larry Merchant, who claimed they had a one-night-stand in 2008, had came up, as well.
It’s hard to know exactly what Gov. Haley really would have done in that case, but this corner bets she would have stayed in the race, and won, even though she’s on record, saying she would resign if any evidence of an affair with either Folks or Merchant turned up.
To be frank, if such records do turn up, count on this blogger to support Haley staying in office, all the way. I don’t agree with her politics, but I do agree with her.
Just be yourself, and like yourself.
Stay tuned.