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Yeah, a REAL Joker!! :^D
Posted on 01/29/2010 6:39:15 AM PST by deport
The Republican candidates will meet for their second and likely final televised debate tonight (at least before the runoff). Sponsored by the Dallas Morning News and television stations owned by the Belo Corp., it can be seen live here in Austin at 7 p.m. on KVUE.
Debra Medina tells the Wall Street Journal this morning that Gov. Rick Perry acted like a “jumpy, fidgety frat boy” in the first debate. Regardless of whether that was an apt description, expect a more serious, focused Perry tonight who is likely to hammer away at both Hutchison and Medina. He will talk about bailouts and Washington spending and federal deficits. He needs a better answer when his opponents bring up the jobs lost in 2009 and the rise in the state’s unemployment rate, which is now at its highest point in more than 20 years. He also needs to more clearly explain that the tax package passed in 2006 was a net tax cut worth billions of dollars.
Hutchison needs to be better prepared for questions about abortion. She needs to continue to hit Perry on the downturn in the economy over the last year. If she returns to the idea that Perry isn’t preparing the state for the future (expressed at the end of the last debate), she needs to hit it earlier and flesh it out more. And it will be interesting to see how she addresses news this week of several companies who receive money from the Texas Enterprise Fund not hitting their job goals. Is a debate about whether the Enterprise Fund is working as promised too in-the-weeds for a statewide audience?
And then there is Medina, who made a name for herself in the first debate. Her opponents and the questioners pretty much gave her a pass on her ideas last time. In the first debate, Medina went beyond the issues that excite her core supporters (such as an intense states’ rights campaign against the federal government) and hit Perry on issues that appeal to a broader group of Republicans, such as growth in government and the Trans Texas Corridor. That approach seemed to work for her. The other question for Medina is, will this be her last shot? She doesn’t have the money to compete with Perry and Hutchison on television. She’s going to continue to be in news-media coverage of the race going forward, but she needs to do something tonight that will leave enough of an impression with voters that they stick with her even if they don’t see many of her TV spots.
The debate will be held in a small studio with no audience. The candidates will be standing. It will last one hour. I will Tweet some during the debate (probably not as much as last time), and you can follow a live chat on Statesman.com with Statesman editorial writer Alberta Phillips and senior editor John Bridges.
end snips
Perry for governor, Michael Williams for senate.
What exactly is Kay Hutchison’s rationale for unseating Perry? What is the issue she is going after him on, other than the fact that he’s been there for 10 years?
Medina a wild card in governor's race
12:00 AM CST on Friday, January 29, 2010
AUSTIN – Debra Medina has come out of far right field to add some fire and suspense to the GOP governor's primary, and many believe, tilt the outcome.
During tonight's debate, sponsored by The Dallas Morning News and Belo Corp. television stations, she is again ready to challenge the state's Republican titans, Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Medina's message: that she is the sole straight-talking, steadfast conservative.
As her poll numbers hover around 12 percent, there is a growing belief that Medina, a Wharton nurse and businesswoman, could force a runoff between Perry and Hutchison, continuing a costly fight and weakening the eventual nominee. If no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote in the March 2 primary, the top two finishers will face off April 13.
Few believe she could surpass either Hutchison or Perry and make the runoff, but the Ron Paul-Tea Party upstart is carving out her own highly loyal and vocal following, showing fault lines in the Republican Party. She is pulling support, it appears, from both Perry and Hutchison, who are finding it much more difficult to ignore her.
"She reminds me of Ross Perot – an outsider tapping into a very, very nervous, anxious electorate," said Daron Shaw, a political science professor and pollster at the University of Texas at Austin.
end snips
Hutchison attacks Perry over Enterprise Fund
Governor's rival calls for audit of jobs program
By KELLEY SHANNON
ASSOCIATED PRESS via Houston Chronicle
Jan. 28, 2010, 3:56PM
AUSTIN — Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison took aim Thursday at Gov. Rick Perry's oversight of the Texas Enterprise Fund, saying he has kept the public in the dark about the fund's activities. She called for an immediate independent audit of the job creation program.Hutchison's comments came two days after Perry revealed that some enterprise fund contracts were canceled and others changed to make them more favorable to participating companies. Perry's office made the disclosures after questioning by the Associated Press and as the nonprofit Texans for Public Justice was about to release a report on problems with the fund.
“Whenever and wherever taxpayer funds are being spent, the public has a right to know where their money is going and shouldn't have to learn about it only because the governor's office is trying to cover up damaging news in an election year,” Hutchison said in an e-mail statement to the AP. “Today, I'm calling for an immediate and independent audit of the Texas Enterprise Fund.”
Perry again defended the fund Thursday, as he did earlier in the week. And he noted that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus also oversee the fund.
End snips
Countdown
- 3 days until the last day to register to vote.
- 18 days until early voting begins.
- 32 days until the March 2 primary.
What exactly is Kay Hutchison’s rationale for unseating Perry?
Rationale.... I really don’t know other than I think she thinks it her time to be the Queen of Texas and it’s time for the King to move on. I don’t know what drives certain people to think it is their calling to be rulers over people.
Just for chuckles, I refer to KBH as
Kayh-lid Sheik Hutchison! :^D
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Yeah, a REAL Joker!! :^D
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