Since you're on HN, I'll assume you're pretty cool, but most people take what politicians like as an inverse signal. If they don't like it, it's probably good.
Yeah, I weighed up the possibility that people would perceive it that way. That also speaks to the negative perception of politics/politicians too of course...
Well, when most of your job is perception, this is part of the job.
They said "former politician", though. Also, this is a form of surveillance - I think most people on HN would be against that as well.