Let me start this post by stating, for those who do not know the history of my support for Christine O’Donnell, that I have in the past voted for Ms. O’Donnell three times. In 2010 I wrote nearly daily articles in support of her, and in opposition of her opponents Mike Castle and Chris Coons. I was one of her most outspoken supporters in 2010, both on the blogs and as a caller to local talk radio. I did so because I felt it was the right thing to do.

I say all of this so that what I am about to write, is in its proper context. I still stand behind my support of her in the past, I still have respect for her views and stands on the issues that I feel strongly about.

In the past week, news has broken that Ms. O’Donnell’s claims in the 2010 elections, that her tax records were being used improperly, may have been well founded. It seems that there may actually be evidence to support those claims after all.

Couple this with the fact that she also attended this past Saturday’s special GOP convention in Dover to elect the new state-wide GOP chairman, Charlie Copeland, and you have both the fuel and the spark to build the fire of rumors about whether or not Ms. O’Donnell will once again seek the election to the U.S. Senate next year.

So my title, “Christine O’Donnell, Or Miss Opportunities”, is a play on words. What it should really say is, “MISSED OPPORTUNITIES”. Because I feel that if she truly is considering another run at the Senate, then she has for the past three years been missing one opportunity after another to stay in the public eye and to remain relevant.

And while this story of her IRS records being used improperly, may be vindication for the attacks she suffered in 2010, it is certainly not a foundation upon which to build a campaign. We do not need victims, we need leaders.

Let’s start with right after her loss in the 2010 general election. No one can deny that Sussex County was her conservative base and her strongest supporters in 2010. Yet she did not take the opportunity following the election to come to the monthly meeting of the GOP in Sussex to thank her supporters. In fact, she has not been to a single monthly meeting in three years that I remember, I would know since I have only missed about two monthly meetings in that time.

Now that is not to say that she didn’t come back to Sussex in that time, I do recall seeing her at a couple of events of conservative PACs, sitting behind her table selling and signing her book.

As I said above, we need leaders, so if Ms. O’Donnell wishes to be a leader within the GOP, where has she been for the last three years? I did receive emails from her PAC asking for donations.

But let’s just look at this past legislative session here in Delaware, where was she as a conservative voice on some very hot issues.

More missed opportunities. When did she speak out against gay marriage?

More missed opportunities. When did she speak out on the bathroom bill?

More missed opportunities. When did she speak out on the repeal of the death penalty?

More missed opportunities. When did she speak out on any of the overwhelming number of gun bills?

In fact when has she spoken out on any issue in the past three years that is of any concern to conservatives and Republicans and Delawareans?

The biggest missed opportunity is in fact all of these rolled up into one, the opportunity to stay engaged with her base, to remain in the public eye as a leader of the conservative movement, which no one can deny she helped spur in 2010. To use the public notoriety she had gained to the advantage of the party and conservatives in general.

Instead she has been completely off the political stage for three years, only to re-emerge now, this close to the next election cycle. Does she and her advisers understand what a monumental mistake this has been? That coming back now will only fuel the accusations of her being an opportunist candidate?

The fact is, the only real political move I can remember her making in the past three years, would be her endorsement of accused child molester Eric Bodenweiser in the last election.

I have no idea whether Ms. O’Donnell will again run for the U.S. Senate or not, but I can tell you that in my opinion if she does, it will not be the rock show it was last time. She allowed much of her support to just fade away, not because they no longer agreed with her on the issues, but because as they say, “out of sight, out of mind”.

In 2010 she raised something like eight million dollars, I believe currently she has something like seven thousand, another missed opportunity, to stay in the hearts and minds of her supporters in order to keep raising funds, if in fact she intends to run again.

Maybe the question isn’t will she run? or should she run? Maybe the question is, can she run? After wasting and missing so many golden opportunities to be a leader, can she still pull together enough support and money to actually mount any kind of campaign?

I once said about another candidate that they liked to stand around on street corners waiting for parades, that they would jump out in front of and shout, “look at me! I’m leading the parade!” It saddens me to say this about someone I was proud to support in the past, but after being gone for so long from the party and the movement, if Ms. O’Donnell now announces another run, that is exactly what she will be doing.

It has been over fifty years since the City of Detroit has elected a mayor that was not a Democrat, and its city council has also been long dominated by Democrats.

So it is hard to understand why the people of Detroit continue to reward the Democrats with re-election to office, considering the monumental failure they have created in that once economic powerhouse of the auto industry known as the “Motor City USA”.

The recent announcement that the city of Detroit would be moving into bankruptcy really came as no surprise, it has been coming for some time. The writing was truly on the wall, when back in March of this year, the Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder (R), announced that he would be appointing an Emergency Manager for the City of  Detroit.

This of course was met with disapproval from the Democrat controlled city council, along with unions and others who have, for far too long, been allowed to suckle at the teat of a progressive city council willing to hand out money to political friends and allies.

The Emergency Manager was empowered to negate contracts with public employee unions and venders, to consolidate or eliminate government agencies, put city assets up for sale, cut services, and recommend municipal bankruptcy.

Of course in a city whose population is 82.7 African-American, it is not surprising that there is also a racial element brought into play here, add to that, the fact that it was a white Republican governor who appointed the Emergency Manager, and it has all the makings for another media circus to continue the current climate of racial unrest in the nation.

When you have people such as  Malik Shabazz, chairman of the New Black Panther Party, and others making statements about the racial element of the issue, it is not hard to see how some may believe it is a white against black issue in Detroit. But of the current seven city council members, there is not a single white or Hispanic or Asian member. Now of course in a city where the population is 82.7 percent black that is not surprising, but by the same token(no pun intended), it is unbelievable that anyone would try to claim that it is a racial issue causing Detroit’s current problems.

And they are not small problems by any means. Once the nation’s fourth largest city, and home to its largest industry, automotive manufacturing, the city’s population has been cut in half, from 1970’s 1.5 million, to less than 700,000 in 2012.

The median household income is $27,862 compared to the state median of $48,669. The poverty level is 36.2 percent compared to a statewide level of 15.7, and the murder rate is 11 times that of New York City (and yet the Rev. Sharpton hasn’t marched there for justice), and the unemployment rate is above 18 percent, more than double the national average.

Another constant staple in the Democrat diet fed to voters is education, well the Detroit Public Schools have been  under emergency management since 2008. In 2003, the Detroit Federation of Teachers, with the help of Democrat elected officials managed to turn back a $200 million offer by businessman and philanthropist Robert Thompson to build 15 charter schools in the city, so today the Detroit Public School system is in ruin and failure, all due to the control of the Democrats and their union friends.

In February, the state review board revealed that the city faces a short-term cash  budget deficit of $327 million and an estimated $14 billion in long-term debt, primarily driven by unfunded pension and retirement health care obligations. Another problem directly attributable to the long historical political alliance of the Democrats and unions.

The city’s budget woes are so dire that certain firehouses are closed on any given day, street lights go unrepaired,  and the city is now concentrating its limited resources to selected communities, that have been determined to be “savable”.

In response to the lack of public services being offered, 47 percent of the owners of Detroit’s 305,000 properties didn’t pay their property taxes in 2012. Now of course this is an act of defiance that will only add to the downward spiral of the city. But in fairness, Detroit property taxes are some of the highest in the nation, amounting in some cases to as much as ten times the market price of the property.

The City of Detroit has been under Democrat rule since 1961 when the last Republican Mayor lost his re-election bid. What has followed has been a string of Democrats who have done nothing for the city and its people. The list of corrupt and crooked people at the helm of the city boggles the mind. Add to this the personal baggage and one has to scratch their head trying to figure why the people of Detroit continue to reward the Democrat Party for this shining jewel of progressive failure known as Detroit.

But Detroit is not unique, we can look around the nation and see Detroit played over and over again, where Democrats have been in control for any amount of time, we find economic and social failure. We find plenty of offered services from the public sector, but at some point the lie is proven. This level of corruption and cronyism is unsustainable. This level of taxing and spending will without fail cause people and industries to flee the encumbrance of over regulation that goes hand in hand with the centralized style of governance seen in Detroit and around the nation in other Democrat controlled cities and states.

It is time for the people of Detroit to wake-up, to see that the promises made over the years, by a   catalog of Democrats, have never been fulfilled. It is time for the people around the nation to realize the same thing, to look at the example of Detroit and its history, and to learn from its mistakes, and to stop rewarding the Democrats for failure.

And while you’re at it, take a look around our own little state of Delaware, that is currently suffering from one party rule, and tell me you don’t see the same writing on the wall, in the  future of some of our cities.

Charlie Copeland was elected by acclamation!