The not quite ready for prime-time candidate

Terrence Wall, whose previous foray into seeking elected office ended with a failed campaign for a spot as a trustee in the village of Maple Bluff really really wants to be Wisconsin’s next U.S. Senator. In fact, he wants the job so badly he’s willing to run a scorched earth negative campaign eerily reminiscent of Tim Michels’ failed 2004 campaign against Sen. Russ Feingold in order to win. I suppose I can understand why Terrence Wall’s main campaign strategy involves attacking Sen. Feingold, given the fact that T. Wall doesn’t really seem to have any concrete ideas on how he’d do a better job as senator than Sen. Feingold.

For example, during a recent interview with WisPolitics.com, T. Wall was asked a straightforward question about whether he thought there should be a troop increase in Afghanistan, but his answer was anything but straightforward (emphasis mine):

Bump: But do you think that there should be an increase in troop levels in Afghanistan?

Wall:You know, you and I can’t make that decision here because we don’t have, we don’t have access to the secret intelligence. Russ Feingold is a member of the Intelligence Committee, he does have access to all of that information he has the ability to articulate a plan, yet you and I, Joe Public, we can’t do that, we don’t really know. And the bottom line is you and I really don’t know what’s going on over there. We read in the paper, and you know a lot of it, some of it’s wrong, some of it’s right but we, you know, we watch the news, right? But we don’t know, we’re not on the ground, we’re not boots on the ground. I, you know, I can tell you this I mean that Afghanistan is very tribal, it’s got mountainous regions which makes fighting over there very difficult, you know there’s the question of if you pull out, and I raise this as a question, you know, if you pull out, does the Taliban or the al-Qaeda take over the government of Afghanistan? And do they then destabilize Pakistan? If they get hold of the government of Pakistan they also own and control a nuclear arsenal. And if we withdraw from Pa-Afghanistan, the question in my mind is what’s the alternative strategy to preventing al-Qaeda from getting a hold of those nukes? I would like to know from Russ Feingold, as a voter, I want to know from him what is his alternative strategy?

As a voter, I’d like to know why Terrence Wall couldn’t answer a question asked of him without asking four questions of his own. Is it too much to expect a candidate for the United States Senate to give a clear, concise answer to a straightforward question asked of him?

Terrence Wall seems to have more questions than answers when it comes to issues like what to do in Afghanistan, and that should be troubling to any voter who’s questioning whether Wall is truly qualified to serve as Wisconsin’s next U.S. Senator.