Posted on 02/21/2010 7:50:11 AM PST by LA Woman3
WHARTON -- It began as a battle of the titans, with Rick Perry -- the longest serving governor in Texas history -- being challenged in the GOP primary by the state's senior U.S. senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison.
But as the multimillion-dollar contest comes to a close, Perry's bid for another four-year term appears to hinge not only on Hutchison's strength but on the fate of the third candidate in the race -- Debra Medina, a once-obscure insurgent whose showing in the March 2 primary will decide whether Perry wins outright or faces an April runoff. With Perry holding a seemingly insurmountable lead in polls, the governor's race in recent weeks began evolving into a surprise battle for second place as Medina appeared to be within striking distance of overtaking Hutchison, one of the state's dominant political figures.
But Medina's detractors -- as well as several independent analysts -- say she may have self-destructed in a Feb. 11 interview with conservative commentator Glenn Beck by not immediately disavowing a theory that the U.S. government may have played a role in the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
The former Wharton County Republican chairwoman quickly sought to repair the damage, saying there was no doubt that Muslim terrorists flew the hijacked planes on 9-11. Medina now says she believes the incident may have strengthened her candidacy by galvanizing supporters, positioning her for a strong showing against her two Republican rivals.
"Did it feel good? No. Am I sick of answering the questions? Yes. I am," she said in an hourlong interview last week in her Wharton campaign headquarters. "But at the end of day, I think it's going to be labeled backfire," she added, repeating her contention that she was set up in Beck's interview.
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
Medina shot herself in the foot by not immediately refuting the 9/11 conspiracy theory on Beck’s show. Backtracking only makes her look disingenuous.
What blather!! Medina self-destructed when she said that she would eliminate property taxes and, again, when she would not distance herself from the 9/11 Truthers!!
KBH's record is so appalling bad that, even for those of us who might like to see someone else challenge Perry (because of his occasional RINO tendencies), he's the best that we have to offer.
Connect the dots..../sarc!
Naw...... I find that Occam’s razor is more apt to be the truth without all the dot connecting.... But then dot connecting helps make the circular argument. LOL
I see Medina is still trying to spin it.
Go away Medina.
Not to mention if he wins the primary Gov. Palin will be back in TX campaigning for him.
Palin may possibly make a campaign appearance with/for him around Mar. 25th when she is in Beaumont at the “Get Motivated Business Center”.
It makes her look ineffective at best.
Cwazzah at the worst.
Ya know what is hilarious?
There is NO mention of Bill White in this race.
Get rid of property taxes and give us 14% sales tax
Yeah, it is supposed to hit renters and illegals and benefit the land owner, but 14% sales tax?
I see that drying up business fast.
Medina is a nut.
Come right down to it, is there a better-run state in the country than Texas?
It was the interview the day after the Beck interview where she tried to “clear things up” that she really came off the rails.
She is a Truther.
People want to believe. A Hispanic coworker who knows she isn’t Hispanic told be after the truther flap....”she broke my heart”
told me
Nonsense. That kind of guilt through associaiton won’t work anywhere. Ron Paul is “friends” with a lot of anti-truthers as well such as radio host Scott Horton. Using that kind of argument is akin to the claim that because David Duke opposed affirmative action...therefore, all people who who oppose affirmative action are “birds of a feather.”
I agree that many truthers support Paul. My guess is that is about a third of his backers. From personal experience, however, the other two thirds are anti-truthers. Paul himself is anti-truther. BTW, I think the birthers are no less nutty than the truthers. No GOP candidate, however, should be condemned just because he/she has “birther” support.
All said and told, Texas still can manage its 10th amendment rights.
Perry did some very shitty things with the trans Texas corridor and toll roads.
The TTC died but we got lots of toll roads.
Aside from that he hasnt been so bad.
I live in the outskirts and the toll roads haven’t hit me so hard, but I hate them. TXDOT is so mismanaged.
We pay way to much for our roads.
Why do we pay all this tax for pock holed roads?
Here where I live the ran a great wall down the divide on I~30 to prevent cars crossing the median and having a head on collision, but the road surface is ****ed.
Then on top of that there is no mechanism to stop parallel frontage roads from having head on collisions. Its just a waste of money.
You could spend less on resurfacing and lights and a
have safer roadway
Dont get me started on birthers. They are nuts.
Obama doesn’t have to disclose that info, and he doesn’t because it whips THEM up and makes them look bad
The one in which she thought no police officers died on 9/11?
KBH and Medina are nutjobs.
Kay attacks Perry for the deluxe road stops he had made.
I have never stopped at one but I do think they were necessary and I like them.
This is a big ol state and having a nice place to pull over every 3 hours is nice
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.