There will be some bad press on Herschel Walker. As he told the story in his book, “Breaking Free,” he said despite being a football legend, Olympian and successful businessman, his life was sometimes out of control. He was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (also known as multiple personality disorder). The good news about “Breaking Free” is if he has told the whole story and there is not a paper trail of bad behavior after the publication of his book in 2008, then he has a great story of redemption to tell.
He told it himself, he told it all and he told it early. That is the great mantra of PR. If you have bad news, you tell it yourself, you tell it early and you tell it all. If you do that, you will have something great to work with. Herschel Walker’s story of how getting help for his mental illness and finding God to help him with the rest is one of redemption and fits with his positive attitude towards life and Georgians of all stripes will continue to love him for it.
Senator Warnock, on the other hand, was a sitting pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church a few years ago when he “ran over” his ex-wife. She was not hurt, and it may not have been abuse or actual “running over.” What it was is a dispute over divorce and custody issues that escalated to him getting in his car and driving off in anger not looking where he was going. You should never get behind the wheel of a car when you are angry, and he clearly did. If that was all he did, even then there would be questions about his qualifications. In his pastoral life, I am sure he has deescalated many disagreements between parties, but in his own life, he was unable to do so. This was not examined in his race in 2020, because Republicans were hell bent on beating each other up in the Loeffler/Collins dual and that allowed him to be above the fray. But that won’t happen this time. The voters will decide on his behavior as they will on Herschel’s.
If there are no further issues after 2008 with a paper trail, my money is on Herschel having the better acceptance of his story over the pastor who made a fast getaway from his ex-wife’s home and may have hurt her. Time will tell.
Next time, we’ll look at voter turnout in municipal elections and whether that is a harbinger of things to come.
