Truth editorial: Jack Jordan is intelligent, thoughtful

Elkhart Truth, Sunday, May 2, 2010

http://www.etruth.com/Know/News/Story.aspx?id=512077

 

No one should dismiss the anger that many Americans feel toward their government. When President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress took sweeping actions to stimulate the economy and reform health care, they knew that they were taking political risks. Now it is up to Obama and Congress to either convince voters that they made the right decisions or cede ground to those with different ideas.

 

But by the same token, no one should confuse anger with effectiveness. Because while anger can fuel change, it cannot sustain a government.

 

Just ask Newt Gingrich -- in the end, even the leader of the 1994 Republican Revolution had to do business with the hated Clinton administration.

 

Which brings us to Tuesday's 2nd District Republican primary. The winner faces incumbent Joe Donnelly in the fall.

 

Jackie Walorski served three terms in the Indiana House of Representatives. She talks about how she will go to Washington "like a cyclone and lead." She will "ignite the fire at home" and states, "I am a fighter. I want to make a difference and leave."

 

She says, "I am not afraid of these people." She regularly talks about taking down House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But that's a deliberate overstatement; it is not in the power of Elkhart County's congressional representatives to kick Pelosi out of office. Only the voters in Pelosi's district can do that.

 

That kind of angry, overreaching rhetoric is both Walorski's strength and her weakness.

 

Walorski shares many values with the people she wants to represent, but her angry oratory diminishes those beliefs. As a freshman lawmaker who may or may not be part of the majority party, she won't be able to go to Congress, write off opponents inside and outside the GOP and get anything done.

 

And that will not bring a single job to Elkhart County or help employers negotiate health care reform.

 

Her opponent in the GOP primary, Jack Jordan, teaches in the school of business and economics at Indiana University South Bend. He has a background in business, health care and international economics. He's also a member of the Bremen school board.

 

Jordan will work to build effective coalitions. In that sense, he's reminiscent of U.S. Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd.

 

While he and Walorski hold similar views on the economy and health care, Jordan is intelligent and thoughtful. A flame burns inside him. He understands the urgency of the moment, but unlike Walorski, he doesn't allow his emotions to overtake him.

 

That makes Jordan a potential power broker in Washington -- a power broker on behalf of the people who live and work in the 2nd District.

 

So, for that reason, we endorse Jack Jordan in Tuesday's Republican primary.