Beyond The Broken Spectrum

On Thursday, January the 14th, three candidates hoping to gain the Republican nomination for Texas governor took the stage to debate one another in front of a live audience, with it all being televised all around the state. These three candidates consisted of Texas governor Rick Perry, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, and the outsider, Wharton County Republican Party chair Debra Medina.

It was a relatively “normal” debate for the establishment candidates, Perry and Hutchinson. They danced around the questions all night and fired back and forth at one another, wasting time and “bickering” as Medina rightly put it. Through all of their banter, they largely tried to marginalize Medina by ignoring her and talking through their allotted time. Perry couldn’t answer simple questions about jobs or the Texas economy, nor was he able to repent for his attempted landgrabs from Texas property owners. Hutchinson was also unable to answer simple questions about the Texas economy, floundered in her attempts to justify her support of the massive federal intervention and bailouts while trying to say that she was against them, and seemed like she might have a seizure if pressed any further about her stance on Roe v. Wade. At least Medina brought up the fact that by decreasing the size of our government, it will make the citizens more prosperous by not taking as much of their money, which will help stimulate the economy.

Right out of the gate though, Perry and Hutchinson played the “suck-up game” when asked about their favorite federal program. Instead of talking about anything of real substance, they instead tried to play on the emotions of Texans by talking about their “great respect and admiration” of our armed forces. Sadly, Medina felt she had to play somewhat with the same hand as well, likely out of fear of looking weak when it comes to supporting our soldiers. Medina was sincere though, Perry and Hutchinson were not, and that’s the difference there, as both have already proven they have no problem putting our troops in harms way when there is no actual need to do so. Hutchinson even spoke about her support for the troops through her actions in congress, even though that while military contracts boom and wreak of pork, our soldiers aren’t even getting all of the necessary equipment required to protect themselves and conduct a proper war. I don’t even have to mention the lack of health services that our veterans are experiencing, which at least Medina mentions.

All three of the candidates miserably failed though when it came to the annulment part of the question. When asked what federal program they would end, Perry blabbed on and on, never giving anything solid, only riding the coattails of the sentiment against the current health care “reforms” going on up in D.C. Hutchinson did largely the very same, only she fumbled through her statements worse than Perry did, playing on people’s feelings towards ACORN. Medina talked a good game, pointing out that the federal government has by far stepped over its bounds, however she gave nothing concrete as well, only vaguely talking about the health care issue and the EPA.

When it came to property taxes, Medina was the only candidate that seriously talked about getting rid of them and how it would help the citizens of Texas. Imagine that, the only candidate that supports our right to own property is the one that is on the outside looking in. That speaks volumes right there about just how much the current establishment politicians have no concern for, we the people.

Perry tried to make a stab at Medina for her support of using common sense and reforming our drug laws, while declaring that the federal government had no business even being involved in the drug situation. Both Perry and Hutchinson would rather continue a pointless and costly war on people for victimless crimes such as drug consumption. They would rather that our police officers continue to die unnecessarily and would rather keep drugs criminalized so that our children have easier access to them and that the cartels to the south continue to have a steady source of revenue, all the while further spending us into the red and decreasing the effectiveness of law enforcement.

Both Perry and Hutchinson have gone so far as to deny sick and dieing patients of their medicine in the form of medical marijuana, which has been proven to have many medical uses and has been legalized in 14 states, and also our nation’s capitol. While Medina has not put anything solid forth so far as to where she stands on medical marijuana and addressing drugs in general, she seems to be head and shoulders above the two establishment career politicians in realizing that the current drug war is a massive failure.

On the issue of illegal immigration, Perry has had two and a half terms to try and solve at least some of this problem, but has utterly failed to do so. Hutchinson gave a very lackluster response and has done the same as Perry in tackling the problem, which is nothing. Medina on the other hand, has shown a willingness to cut public services to illegal immigrants and to help reinforce our border patrol agents and sheriff’s deputies to help curb illegal immigration into Texas.

Overall the debate went as expected, the two main candidates got up there and postured while slinging insults back and forth, marginalizing the only serious candidate there. I expected more from Medina, but was basically satisfied with her performance as she clearly proved she was the better candidate out of the three. A major issue was missed though, and that is how we will improve our education system, both in providing better schooling choices both public and private, and in improving higher education.

There is more to still be known about Medina, but of what we do know, she is a far better choice than Perry or Hutchinson, and should I choose to vote in the Republican primary, she will receive my vote. As far as I can tell, this race is between Republican Debra Medina, Democrat Bill White, and Libertarian Jeff Daiell. Voting for anyone else would be a waste and an affront to liberty and reason.

The next Republican debate will be held on January 29th, in which Medina will not be included. This event is being sponsored by The Dallas Morning News and Belo Corp., who say that she has not met their requirements to be a part of the debate. Demand that she be included! Here is some contact information that can be used to contact the people in charge of putting on this debate.

R. Paul Fry
Vice President/Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
callto:+1214-977-6835 (tel)
callto:+1214-977-7051 (fax)
invest@belo.com

Jill Matthews
Director/Corporate Communications
callto:+1214-977-6825 (tel)
callto:+1214-977-7051 (fax)
jmatthews@belo.com

Watch the debate in the videos below

Remember, you can help show your support for Medina by giving this article a “thumbs up” on stumbleupon and by clicking the “Digg” button at the bottom of this article. This will help increase the presence of this article.

Here are various polls asking who you think won the debate. Be sure to vote, especially for Medina.
http://www.texasturf.org/index.php
http://cbs11tv.com/local/Texas.GOP.gubernatorial.2.1427544.html
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/
http://bigcountryhomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=209342
http://www.reporternews.com/polls/2010/jan/gov-debate/
http://www.texasmonthly.com/
http://weareaustin.com/
http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1895191.html

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