Mufi Hannemann’s campaign calls this campaign mailer “Compare and Decide”.

It’s what you might expect from a campaign mailer late in a potentially tight race. That is, designed to mislead the reader and distort the records of both candidates, one positively and the other negatively. Of course, that’s what a lot of campaigning is all about.

Mufi looks pretty impressive, at least in his own telling, but the comparisons, although full of distortions, helped me to understand the broad differences .

It boils down to this.

Mufi’s whole career has been as the candidate of the corporate-political elite. He’s been encouraged to run, supported in his campaigns, and “taken care of” with corporate or political appointments when he lost, and has the perspective and baggage that flows from that privileged position.

Neil Abercrombie has run for office at every level of government–county, state, and federal–and he has won on his own, the voters choice and not the corporate elite’s choice. He’s won despite the fact that the power structure, from Senator Inouye to the insider corporate circles, would have preferred someone else.

Voters have trusted him, not because he doesn’t make mistakes, but because they are his own mistakes, not those of the elite who would cozy up to him to do their bidding. When push comes to shove, he’s been on our side, not theirs.

So you’ve got Mufi, the consummate insider, and Neil, the outsider who has fought for and earned each of his positions.

Rather than tagging each of the distortions or omissions in the “Compare and Decide” mailer, I’ll just demonstrate what would happen if the spin were different?

It might look something like this.

Education:

Neil: Masters Degree and Ph.D.

Mufi: No graduate degree

Experience in elected office:

Neil: elected to city, state (House and Senate), and federal offices

Mufi: Experience limited to city government

Other experience:

Neil: Chaired the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces, with oversight for U.S. Army and Air Force operations, budget, and equipment and weapons systems procurement worldwide.

Mufi: Managed the Punaluu Sweetbread Bake Shop (Naalehu, Hawaii)

Compare and Decide!

You see how it works?