The King Street Patriots in Houston are hosting a Senate runoff debate between Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst in Houston, Monday, July 23, starting at 6 PM. It will be broadcast on Fox 26 in Houston (and I’m guessing other Fox affiliates around the state).
Given how poorly Dewhurst did in the last one, I’m sort of surprised he agreed to do another one, but good for both him and Cruz on agreeing to this one. That still leaves voters two short of the promised five (and I doubt they’ll squeeze them in between now and the runoff July 31), but it’s more than runoff voters in most states will get this year.
If you didn’t watch last night’s Belo debate between Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst, the executive summary is: Cruz won decisively. And despite Dewhurst’s agreement to participate in five runoff debates with Cruz, this debate was the last of two.
Here’s video of it from WFAA so you can judge for yourself:
Both candidates have improved their debating skills as the campaign has gone on: Cruz has gone from being exceptionally good to great, while Dewhurst has improved from dismal to merely poor. Dewhurst just does not know how to make clear, concise points during a debate. Time and time again, he started an answer, and then a second answer, and then a third, without finishing the first. Save Elizabeth Ames Jones, who has an actual speech impediment, Dewhurst may be the worst speaker in the Texas Senate race this cycle, major or minor, on either side. With all the money he’s spending on this race, and his obvious weakness, you’d think Dewhurst would hire someone just for debate prep.
By contrast, Cruz’s decision to attend essentially every candidate forum and debate over the last 18 months has served him very well, not only from generating grassroots enthusiasm for his campaign, but also how direct and concise his answers have become from months of honing them. I had some criticisms early in the campaign about Cruz sometimes reaching for his stock answers too transparently. But now Cruz seems to have a clear, concise answer for every question put to him, and has achieved such fluidity with them that they never seem canned or forced. None of the questions in last nights debate gave Cruz opportunity to use his father’s life story (compelling though it is), so he didn’t trot it out, which was the right decision.
By contrast, it was Dewhurst’s constant refrain of “I’m a jobs creator” that seemed forced and transparent. Even worse was his answer to the wage tax question, insisting he was against it, but never addressing all the contemporaneous media reports he was in favor of it. He also backtracked, saying the wage tax didn’t go anywhere, Cruz pointing out that it passed the senate, and Dewhurst admitting that yes, it did pass the senate (you know, the legislative chamber Dewhurst runs).
Of the seven or eight topics covered, Cruz dominated all but one. (On a question of cutting spending or buying the Texas-built F-35, both Cruz and Dewhurst said they would listen to the military experts, and for once Dewhurst’s answer was free of backtracking and stumbles.) On the few policy questions where the candidates differed, Cruz had demonstrably more conservative positions. (“I disagree with the premise of your question. I don’t think it’s government’s job to provide health care.”)
This was also far and away the best moderated of the Texas debates, nearly free of liberal policy assumptions, and moderator Brad Watson was extremely good at getting candidates to focus on the actual question. He also got in an introductory dig, noting that there was a runoff because Dewhurst couldn’t “seal the deal.” (Burn!)
After the debate, Tom Leppert endorsed Dewhurst, which I don’t see moving the needle much in either direction. It was a good (if transparent) move by Team Dewhurst to blunt any possible Cruz momentum from the debate, which suggests that going in that they were pretty sure Dewhurst would lose.
Tonight is the last Ted Cruz/David Dewhurst debate before the election. (Hey Dewhurst, what happened to all those other debates you said you were up for?)
Baring unforeseen technical difficulties, I will be LiveTweeting the debate from Cruz headquarters in Austin. I’m guessing the hashtag will probably be #belodebate again. Drop in if you’re so inclined.
In order to divert attention away from the economic, moral, and political bankruptcy of Europe’s cradle-to-grave welfare state, some liberals, relying on figures from the Out of Our Ass Institute of Statistics, are tying to claim that Greece’s excessive spending comes from a “bloated defense budget.”
Try again. Greece only spends 5.5% of it’s budget on defense:
Either Europe (and the United States) must reform their runaway, bloated welfare states, or their welfare states will bankrupt their nations.
If you’re confused by all the twists and turns of convicted felon Brett Kimberlin’s story (don’t worry, I am too), this condensed version should get you up to speed.
But suppose you want to delve into the story of convicted felon’s harassment of Aaron Worthing in great detail? Well then, here’s the entire saga on one page! (Warning: That link may bring your computer to a crawl! You might want to try the version broken up across several web pages instead.)
A few more tidbits for convicted felon Brett Kimberlin and his associate Neal Rauhauser:
“No legitimate organization, and no law-abiding individual working in a professional manner, would retain the services of someone like Neal Rauhauser. Only someone with bad intentions would hire him.”
And rather than summarize the forest of link Stacy McCain put up, I’m just going to give you a link to his links. And here’s your receipt for my receipt.
Happy Friday the 13th! The big news this week is Ted Cruz topping David Dewhurst in two separate external polls (none of this internal crap) and Dewhurst not only making a pro-amnesty speech in 2007, but making things ten times worse by trying to scrub mention of it off his website.
Paul Burka believes the poll numbers. “I’m buying. The Dewhurst camp ran a lackluster campaign.” And then the usual Rick Perry bashing. (“From Smitty’s BBQ I stab at thee!”)
Those polls were so good for Cruz, some people are already starting to suggest that Cruz might have coattails.
Now on to what some on Twitter are calling #404gate: In a 2007 speech in Laredo, Dewhurst said “I support a guest worker program for those here today illegally.” If not full-blown Amnesty, I think it’s fair to call that “Amnesty light.”
Pulling the amnesty speech has just drawn more attention to it. I believe in the world of soccer this is what’s known as an “own goal.”
Has no one at Team Dewhurst every heard of “the Internet?” One does not simply remove something from the Internet. There’s always going to be a cache of it somewhere. And, indeed, there is.
Dewhurst has the Texas Republican Senate Caucus issue a letter kinda, sorta denying Cruz’s charges against Dewhurst on sanctuary cities, spending, and TSA groping. But if you actually read the letter, it only details the bare-bones legislative maneuvers, and not what Dewhurst did behind the scenes (which made up much of Cruz’s accusations). But give Dewhurst credit: He did get every Republican State Senator except Brian Birdwell to sign it.
Dewhurst appeared on KTSA:
Also on KSKY:
He also appeared on Fox News I would embed the video of it here, but the video quality is stunningly awful. We’re talking “wouldn’t even be acceptable for online viewing in 1997” awful…
You know, this Dewhurst Facebook Timeline parody attack video on Cruz might almost have been amusing if they could have made it shorter. But right there at 1:14, when it says “DC Special Interest Groups,” it has very legible icons for Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, and Senate Conservative PAC Fund. Guys, for the majority of people voting in the Texas Republican runoff, those are reasons to vote for Ted Cruz, not against him:
And once again, the Dewhurst campaign is slamming Cruz for being…a lawyer.
“PPP’s first poll of the Texas Senate runoff finds Ted Cruz with a surprising 49-44 lead and a much more enthusiastic cadre of supporters than former front runner David Dewhurst.”
Surprising, that is, unless you’ve paid close attention to the race. The Cruz campaign is better organized, better focused, has a winning message, and hasn’t been caught lying the way the Dewhurst campaign has.
That’s the second poll today showing Cruz leading Dewhurst. I’m pretty sure they’re hitting the panic button over at Dewhurst headquarters.
This is the first real (not internal) poll released since the primary, and confirms that all the momentum on the race is on the Cruz side. The Cruz team seems to be working harder and generating more buzz than Dewhurst. I’ll let you know more when I have a chance to review the full poll numbers, methodology, etc.
Meanwhile, an internal Dewhurst poll shows Dewhurst at 50%. You know, the same poll that had Dewhurst winning outright and Leppert coming in second earlier in the race. If anything, the mere 50% makes me more inclined to believe Cruz has pulled ahead, as it makes me think they had to fiddle with screening criteria just to get a bare majority.
However, Dewhurst is still rich, and it’s still just under three weeks until the election. A lot can happen.
Texas has a market that works just fine for electricity when government lets it: “California pretended to have a deregulated electricity market, but it was really a poorly designed, government-controlled system that eventually collapsed under its own weight. Texas’ economy is outperforming the rest of the country because we put fewer burdens on markets. This is why Texas has the most competitive and successful electricity market in the United States, if not the world. If we let it work, the world-class Texas electricity market will power Texas’ future.”
You know, if I were looking to save money, eliminating the state’s open meeting law is about the last thing I would cut. California at every level government needs more transparency, not less. (That probably true for the other 56 49 states as well.)
Finally, I want to note that Dwight has created a tag to track all mentions of the No Longer Golden State on his blog, so you can read his roundups on police incompetence, municipal corruption, and bankrupt locales such as Vernon, Bell, San Bernardino, Cudahy, Maywood, and Zalgo.
It’s a real challenge to say which has the wackier theology (links in headers, which annoyingly still show up in black):
Scientology
75 million years ago, galactic Overlord Xenu sent hundred of billions of people to Earth in spaceships shaped like rocket-powered DC-8s where they were blown up in volcanoes with H-bombs.
Then Xenu hypnotized the souls (thetans) in soul cinemas brainwashing them with religious theology.
Now all the brainwashed soul-thetans are hanging around in clumps of thousands to real bodies.
If you pay Scientology lots of money, they can remove these thetans from your body using a galvanometer.
Oh, and they also keep people captives against their will as part of their “Sea Org,” and view anyone leaving Scientology as a traitor for whom it’s “fair game” to stalk and harass. And they sue people at the drop of a hat.
Elijah Muhammad didn’t die in 1975, but is alive on the spaceship now.
UFOs are smaller ships from the giant spaceship, and carry out God’s plans (and also carry bombs).
And that pretty much only scratches the surface of the crazy. I think I have to give the edge to Scientology for outright lunacy, but both are worthy contenders. And you can see the beginnings of compatibility from the space brothers angle. Not to mention the whole “both are completely bugfark insane” thing.
As for what the team-up may mean politically: Who knows? But you might want to have some popcorn ready…
