Texas GOP gubernatorial debate review

Last Thursday Debra Medina RN, Governor Perry, and Senator Hutchison went head to head to express their differances and explain why each felt they would be the best candidate to lead the Texas Republican Party in the 2010 Governors race.  For a full video of the debat see www.texasdebates.org.
Long standing governor, Rick Perry, did not seem to be at his best, but rather seemed unable to give a direct answer to many of his very direct questions.  He was even made to appear as though he was out of touch with the facts.  Whether he was or not, he certainly didn’t make a good showing, nor seem to have the facts available to back him up. At one point in the debate he almost acted like he was defeated, seemingly not knowing much about the Texas Advanced Directives Act, nor making much of an effort to outlaw abortion despite claiming to be strongly pro life. About the only thing I liked about his responses, was his concerted effort to keep his answers on a positive note.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison came across as more polished and possibly the best debater among the group; however, she also reeked of the in-bedded career politician that movements like the Tea Party are trying to remove from office. While she seemed to have an underlying theme of wanting to fight against big government’s socialized programs, she still showing her desires to keep some federal laws enforced rather then truly working to restore state’s rights. For some reason she doesn’t seem to want to remain a Senator, and continue the great work she seemed so willing to toot her own horn over. So far she has been unwilling to remove herself from her current office to focus on the gubernatorial race, which only further goes to show her tendency towards being a career politician. This will undoubtedly split her focus between “protecting us” from big government and winning what is likely to be a tough gubernatorial race. She claims that she will resign from her senatorial position, but when? I would suggest she do it now if she truly wants a chance at winning the GOP nomination.
Debra Medina, a Registered Nurse and Wharton County Republican Party Chair, seemed the most real, but also a bit inexperienced in her debating skills. She seemed to give the most direct answers without too much need to explain her positions nor to apologize for seemingly unfavorable ideas. She seemed to know some facts about what is going on in Texas, and gave what she genuinely seems to believe are the right answers to the problems we Texas is facing. The most interesting of her ideas are to replace property taxes with a state wide sales tax; a move she claims would improve personal freedom during a time when the vast majority of people’s property taxes are actually paid by their mortgage lenders; replacing it with a tax that would undoubtedly change peoples spending habit resulting in a detrimental fall in business during a time when revenues from already existing state sales taxes are down considerably.
Based on the changes in polling numbers I’d say Debra was the likely winner of this debate, though she still has a long ways to go, and less then two months to get there.

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