July 05, 2012 11:27 PM UTC

Joe Coors: By His Own Bootstraps!

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• by: Colorado Pols

A fascinating bit of video–we don’t know the exact recorded date but from a campaign speech given by Joe Coors, GOP candidate for CD-7 running against incumbent Rep. Ed Perlmutter.

We would advise some revisions to Mr. Coors’ biography as speechified:

JOE COORS: …Which is now the largest industrial ceramics manufacturer in the world, making thousands of products for thousands of different customers, worldwide, uh, and a 27 and a half year experience that for me started literally in the dirt of the organization, and I worked my way up to supervisor, and general supervisor, and finally vice-president and CEO. But during that time, I learned a lot. And what I learned about was being able to work with all kinds of people from all walks of life to get product out the door. And this experience was very valuable for me, so…

I didn’t start at the top like a lot of people here might think. [Pols emphasis]

The most obvious thing to point out is that Joe Coors is talking about a company called CoorsTek, which is indeed one of the world’s foremost manufacturers of specialty ceramic products. Joe Coors served as CEO of CoorsTek before his retirement in 2000.

So folks, how do you not “start at the top” at a company your family owns? Let’s say you worked in the CoorsTek mail room or production line, or wherever Joe Coors “started out.” Who would you guess is more likely to be the next CEO of CoorsTek? You or somebody named Coors?

Look, we get that there is actually some backstory about running afoul of the “family council,” and having to walk a circuitous path back to the Coors clan’s good graces. But the average voter is going to hear about Joe Coors “working his way up” at CoorsTek, and bust out laughing. Maybe that’s unfair to Joe, but that’s the reality he faces.