Friday's Debate

Last Friday, Belo hosted a debate with all of the Gubernatorial candidates. It was moderated and led by anchors from Belo stations from Houston, DFW, San Antonio and Austin, and a reporter from the Dallas Morning News. It was a good debate. If you weren't really sure about which candidate, I feel that it pretty much solidified how you felt about your candidates. At least, that is what happened with me. I was wavering on either Bell or Strayhorn. I think that I am going to settle with Mr. Bell. I was really pleased with his performance.

If you watched it, you saw how Kinky pretty much avoided a lot of questions and seemed unprepared. One of the things that I remember from his rants was that he wanted to declare Martial Law in the counties that surround the border. That is just crazy, and although may help with the immigration problem, what will happen with the citizens of that area? I know that if I were living in that area and Martial Law was instituted, I would freak out. Those riles should only apply in a time of war with another country, and although this is kinda true, I think that it is a little too radical of a move.

I really enjoyed the period where they asked the candidates Jeopardy style questions like : When was the battle at the Alamo, How much is a semester of tuition at UT, How long do unemployment benefits last, etc. It was great to see the response. I did not like however how certain candidates took this 15 seconds to throw more rhetoric at us. That was not the purpose of that time and they wre just looking for the answer, nothing else.

I also enjoyed the direct questioning of Gov. Perry about TTC (Trans-Texas Corridor). I don't think that he has ever been asked directly about it and forced to answer. Sarah Lucero from San Antonio asked him why voters did not get to vote on it, and he said that we did. I don't buy that answer and it was probably hidden in some other parts of legislation. Strayhorn said that voters only voted on the discussion (or something like that) and that it was not for the corridor itself (I didn't understand what Strayhorn was talking about).

But like I said, it was good to see where the candidates stood and see how the reacted to questions from reporters and from voters. It is jsut too bad that there will not be any more debates so we can try to get a better feel for our candidates. I guess we will just have to rely on the print media to take care of that.

For more details on the candidates, please click on the month of September and read the blogs about each candidated and their stances on hot topics.. To watch the debate, click here