My non-political life is amazingly busy this week, but here’s a roundup of reactions to yesterdays debate between Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst:
And not so much on the debate, but if you’re following the Senate race, you need to be reading Rick Perry vs. the World, since Evan has been on fire the last couple of weeks. Just keep scrolling.
And Lo, Iowahawk did step forth from the heavens, and deliver unto us the Book of Barack.
And it was good.
The Senate race runoff is barreling down the track toward us, so there’s a lot of race news this week:
So Mitt Romney’s campaign has taken Obama’s yawning gaffe and run with it, producing a dozy of an ad called “These Hands”:
I like it!
But people calling it “the best political ad in 30 years” are overselling it. Even if you’re just looking at Presidential ads, there are several I think are a lot more effective.
Here’s the Dukakis Tank ad from George H. W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign:
Here’s Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s devastating ad against John Kerry, using his own words against him in 2004:
(By the way, whenever you hear someone on the left saying that one of their candidates has been “swiftboated,” it means is “Republicans have attacked them effectively with the truth.”)
Here’s Ronald Reagan’s Bear in the Woods campaign from 1984.
And here’s Reagan’s Morning in America ad:
Any I missed?
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 wait! Aaron Worthing has has done his own summary!
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:
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.