Will Gabrielle Giffords run for Kyl senate seat?

While I wish Rep. Giffords a speedy recovery, I think the voters need to have assurance that her injuries have not left her impaired and unable to adequately represent them.

Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) suffered a massive stroke a few years ago and voters were kept totally in the dark about his medical condition. Despite his being physically unable to attend Senate sessions for months, he ran for re-election, but rarely made any campaign appearances and those he attended were just carefully orchestrated sound bites. He never appeared in any debates, round table discussions or functions with his opponent. His opponent did not dare to question whether Sen. Johnson was able to carry out his responsibilities as a result of his stroke. Sadly Johnson was re-elected..I believe largely in sympathy.

While Sen. Johnson had been relatively independent in his voting, after his stroke his vote was in lockstep with the most liberal members of the Senate. Even today he can only haltingly speak and does not make any lengthy public appearances. Last summer when South Dakotas other Senator, John Thune (R-SD) and lone Representative, Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin (D-SD) appeared together at town hall meetings across the state to discuss the health care bill Johnson was conspicuously absent I believe to conceal from voters his true condition.

Arizona voters should not re-elect Giffords or elect her as Senator unless they can see her in public appearances with the other candidate and judge for themselves her condition and ability to represent them in Congress.

They would never have thought of her (the left said she was too moderate), but democrats love to exploit tragedy — and of course, they love to push people who you can’t attack because it would be “mean”.

How would you run any negative ads against her? The media would be non-stop about how evil it is to attack a survivor.

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