What a load of bull ! ! ! If this fat jerk (RIORDAN) gets elected he will make Gray Davis look like a Ronald Reagan.
I'll post my thoughts later after reviewing this thread. I'll just say that nobody thought Riordan won the debate, Simon had only a few hands up, and most of us thought Jones won, myself included. And you can well imagine quite a few leftists were there watching the action.
Be back after awhile.
Why not vote for Jones? Election 2000. He endorses Gov Bush. Suddenly, just prior to the CA primary he withdraws that endorsement. A certain rival from a neighboring state is watching his campaign fly headlong into defeat with no money available. As the ONLY Republican holding statewide office, Jones endorses Sen. McCain. Is this someone you can trust? I can't vote for him.
Why not vote for Riordan? Unswerving support, including campaign donations, of far left Democratic candidates including Gov Davis in recent elections. He'd also be the oldest elected Gov. in state history and would be 79 if he served the typical two terms. Sounds like he might be in good physical shape but mentally not all there ("minimum tax" not "minimum wage").
Seems we've managed to comb all of California for three uninspiring top tier "Republican" candidates.
Any transcript available for those which couldn't see or hear the debate?
I'm annoyed with how poorly these things are dealt with by local media.
We got to see Bill Jones arrive sometime after 6pm. Many of us gathered had Bill Jones signs and he waved to us but didn’t have time to shake hands or engage with his supporters.
While all the bigwigs gathered at the debate, we went off to a satellite location where the debate would be broadcast on closed circuit TV. At that location, there was a predebate talk with several people, a political science professor, communications studies lecturer, a professor of “journalism and mass communication studies,” and Philip Trounstine, “acting executive director of SJSU’s Survey Policy and Research Institute” (whew!). And if that name sounds familiar, he was editor of the San Jose Mercury (Murky) News and resigned there to work for, ahem, Gray Davis. Oh, I’m sure his allegiance to leftist politicians had no bearing on the slant of the Murky News. Sure. Whatever.
Anyway, they discussed what to look for and made some predictions on what would happen such as Jones would likely attack Riordan (which happened, but not as much as what was predicted) and Simon would stay away from the fray.
The political science professor had said that independents would have a say in our Republican primary, which I would later inquire about, since the state supreme court or some judicial branch had overturned our “open primary” as unconstitutional. He said that legislation was passed later to allow this revision but few independents probably were aware of this. Grrrrr. Something we need to look into.
The debate finally started and I thought Simon had the best opening, spiced with a “no new taxes” type of promise; Jones had the least impressive opening statement; Riordan came off all right in a grandfatherly type manner.
The first question had to do with criticism of fellow Republicans and Simon went with Reagan’s 11th Commandment (which I get annoyed with at times); slight advantage to Jones. The next question posed to Riordan regarded his relation with Gray Davis and how Riordan and L.A. profited from the energy crisis at the expense of California. This would be the first chunk taken out of Riordan. The next question regarded California’s security in the wake of 9/11. I gave the edge to Simon here but Jones had his points too.
Q5 brought the predictable question to Simon about his lack of holding elected office and also asked about budget matters. Although I was hoping he’d bring up that Reagan and Dubya started as governors of large states, he answered the questions pretty well with Jones having to ditto much of Simon’s answers. Q6 grilled Riordan on his contrary views to the GOP and giving aid to “undocumented immigrants.” Here Riordan made a major fool of himself to the GOP voters showing his socialistic side. I gave the edge to Jones here.
Enron was the next question. Should the GOP give donations back? I gave the edge to Jones. Q8 targeted Simon’s poor voting record. Simon bombed here and came across as rah-rah and overcoached, evoking laughter from my audience. Jones won easily here. Next question to Riordan, why are you a Republican? Riordan was phony and didn’t really answer the question; Jones had the edge over Simon.
Next question continued a common theme tonight, this time to Jones and his being the only statewide elected Republican and then throwing in a question about inclusiveness blah, blah blah. Simon shined with his conservative stripes here, Riordan phony as usual. Closing statements gave Jones the line of the night with a good closing slam against Davis. “In California, the governor proposes, the Legislature disposes,”' he said. “In our case, in California, unfortunately . . . we've got a governor that just supposes.”
Overall I thought Jones had the best presentation while I’m more in line with the views of Simon. The crowd overwhelmingly thought Jones won the debate and nobody thought Riordan won. Riordan started OK but then showed his true colors and hopefully alienated many voters. He didn’t do as bad as I hoped, but the seeds were planted. Also, he surprised me with his flip-flop on homosexual marriage, unless that was a flub like with the “minimum tax” in lieu of “minimum wage” flub.
Also, Riordan’s overuse of “inclusiveness” and “empower” were quite apparent. Jones may have overused the “vision” thing. Riordan was the least relaxed in appearance; Simon a bit over-the-top in enthusiasm being the least experienced political debater; Jones relaxed and most gubernatorial but perhaps too dull and wishy-washy to this conservative voter.
A clear difference between the three major candidates was evident. A clear difference between Riordan and Gray Davis was not. The commonality was that they aren’t very dynamic personalities and speakers like Ronald Reagan and Alan Keyes. It’s going to be an uphill battle all the way I’m afraid.