Texas Senate Race -- PBS Debate
Posted by: Robbie Cooper | 10/09/2008 8:03 PM
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Incumbent), State Representative Rick Noriega (D), and Libertarian
Yvonne Adams-Schick faced off tonight in Houston for the first debate
amongst these three candidates who are running for Sen. John Cornyn's
US Senate seat.
A few general observations about the debate:
- Texas should be proud and honored that we have three outstanding candidates for this Senate seat. All three candidates performed very well tonight and all seemed to have a good grasp of the issues and were consistent with their policy positions across a wide spectrum of issues.
- Even though I intend to vote for Sen. Cornyn, I would not be upset to have any one of these three as our state's junior Senator.
- The Presidential candidates could learn a lot about how to debate from watching tonight's Texas Senate debate. All three candidates actually answered each question posed to them. They didn't switch topics or refuse to answer the question. And, for the most part, their answers were consistently on-topic.
- The format of the debate -- a panelist asked one candidate a question, who then had 1 minute to answer it. Then the other two candidates were allowed 30 seconds each to rebut the original answer. No follow ups beyond that. Right on to the next question. The most shocking part of the debate was how completely each candidate abided by the rules of the debate. Nobody went over their allotted time, no body tried to talk over or interrupt. All three candidates should be highly commended for their professional and respectful adherence to the debate rules.
- I don't know who the moderator was. He wasn't needed, and he didn't try to insert himself into the debate, a la Chris Matthews, Tom Brokaw, and Gwenn Ifill.
Even though I'm a strong Cornyn supporter, I don't think you can say anybody "lost" this debate.
Sen. Cornyn is the clear favorite in this race. And since there was
no clear loser, Sen. John Cornyn is the clear winner tonight simply
because neither opponent did anything to damage him.
Each candidate successfully presented their policy position and showed how they are different than their opponents.
And that's the real story -- that here in Texas we do have three good
choices. If you're Democrat, you can feel good about the candidate you
are voting for. If you are a Republican, you don't have to feel like
you are simply voting "against" the other guy. And Mrs. Adams-Schick is
a solid Libertarian who did a great job of laying out the principles of
the Libertarian party.
The one thing that stood out the most for me throughout the debate
was Adams-Schick, when discussing Government spending and entitlement
programs, repeatedly pounded him the ides that:
Government doesn't have money of their own. The only way for them to pay for more and more entitlement programs is to take more money away from me and you.
And she's absolutely right.
My favorite quote from Rep. Noriega: "You can't believe anything
from Washington." He did not distinguish between Republicans and
Democrats. Just a blanket statement that you can't believe anything
form the current Congress.
And he's absolutely right. Though I think some of the Democrats,
such as Hillary and Obama, that he needs to help him campaign, might
take exception with that answer.
Grrrr! I typed out a nice big old long editorial and of course it got lost when...
Cornyn is solid. We could use some representation like that here in Seattle. We have two of the most liberal senators in D.C.
POTUS40: The rest of Washington state has the same problem.
Sen. John Cornyn is a sell-out like all the rest (a republican voting for the largest government bailout of private companies in the history of America). At least Rep. Noriega had it absolutely right when he said: "You can't believe anything from Washington." The problem is the government is being setup to due only one thing... and that is to protect itself and to keep its power. The very same power that, we the people, elected to give them and now find ourselves to lazy and argumentative to do anything to take it back. As long as both Republicans and Democrats keep their base pointing fingers at each other, this republic will never get better. And to all of us voters, until we do our homework and start removing these people, we will always get what we deserve... a slow, fat, lumbering, non-responsible, incapabable government that keeps speeding OUR money. And for all you people that think your candidate has all the right answers and does not have his hand in the till, just remember the next time you talk about how bad all the drivers are, on the road... you are one of them. Every body always wants to think its the other guy, when in fact, sometimes it is you! It is time to clean house and start fresh. Or to put in “not so nice terms… “throw all the bums out” and just maybe next time they will listen.