1st Congressional Debate Wrap-Up

Sorry it took me so long to get to posting a wrap-up of the debate yesterday but I spent a lot of time at the Democratic Party Headquarters checking to see who filed to run during the first day to file for office.

I conducted a few interviews and had to edit video for those interviews and then go home and edit video for the debate. The bad news is that someone must have accidentally turned off my video about half-way through but I was able to get the audio of the entire debate.

The video is posted below.

So here is a thumbnail of the debate.

Beto O'Rourke is clearly a better speaker. Lets not act like that was a surprise either. Its O'Rourke's one big advantage over the Congressman, so he was SUPPOSED to look good against him.

He appeared to have one gear during the debate, attack, attack, attack. He did a masterful job of prosecuting a case against the congressman. He landed a few hard blows and a pretty strong line about the Congressman's congressional staff. At some point O'Rourke will have to switch gears from what he thinks is wrong with the Congressman to what he will actually do. He has been flirting with what he wants to do but so far its basically critiques of the Congressman wrapped up in a pretty bow to look like an agenda.

If I had to pick a winner of the debate it would be O'Rourke. The man is articulate, dynamic, and knows how to play offense. I call it the Manny Pacquiao school off defense. Keep throwing punches and you won't have to dodge any.

Congressman Reyes is in a tough position. He has a younger, more dynamic, richer, better-educated opponent that is pretty much frying him every chance he gets. That's exactly what O'Rourke is supposed to do. Reyes has to defend his record, advocate for another term, and do the job of being a member of Congress. (BTW, if you think members of Congress don't do anything when they aren't in Washington, you must live on planet pendejo because they have busy schedules, even the small government Republicans.)

So in terms of performance, Reyes certainly isn't the public speaker that O'Rourke is in a big crowd. But he does much better than O'Rourke in the small crowds. Reyes spent a lot of time on defense and needs to be prepared for the debates to do more than just play defense to O'Rourke's offense. Reyes takes a while to answer questions and its largely because of the complexities of Washington. His answers need to be like the Republicans.

Fit it on a bumper sticker.

So as I said before in terms of a winner, surprise, surprise O'Rourke is a better speaker.

But it wasn't all sunshine and roses for O'Rourke either. Ironically the biggest blows against O'Rourke were self-inflicted wounds. O'Rourke looked like he had Reyes on the ropes for the last question of the debate and then somehow managed to punch himself harder than either of the candidates did.

The last question was about what cuts they would make to the budget and what areas they would protect. O'Rourke criticized the Congressman for not answering the question (O'Rourke was half-right. Reyes talked about what he would protect, not what he would cut) and then turned around and did the exact same thing he criticized the Congressman for doing.

He only answered half the question.

But that's actually the part that I think will get him in trouble.

He said he'd cut defense, which would obviously have an impact on Bliss at some level, and that he would change how things work for social security. That is not an answer seniors are going to like very much. Republicans talk about changing social security all the time and aren't shy about it and Democrats have taken a position of protecting social security.

Which leads to another interesting point of attack from O'Rourke. He has been going after the Congressman for having telephonic town halls instead of in-person town halls. That's a very effective line of attack and the Congressman's campaign has to find a way to respond to it.

Or not.

Because they held another telephonic town hall yesterday. It apparently had 40,000 seniors. I doubt that is much of an actual town hall, but being able to speak to 40,000 seniors about their main concern, social security, right after a debate in which O'Rourke talked about changing social security was probably a pretty big advantage for Reyes.

I don't mean to sound like I think O'Rourke is the greatest thing since buttered tortillas, but he knows how to play offense. He knows how to stay on message. He knows how to work the media, control the conversation, and define his opponent.

Congressman Reyes looked irritated by the attacks and responded in an angry tone at least once. Which is understandable. You want your candidate to be passionate about what they do. You want them to get mad every once in a while, it lets you know that they are emotionally invested in their work. But the Reyes folks have to reign it in a bit.

I'm not sure if they see what is happening, but it is the same tactic being used on the Congressman that was used on Paul Moreno and Norma Chavez. The opponent will attack, attack, attack in order to provoke a response.

As my former cohost used to say, “This is the varsity level”, and the Reyes camp can't afford to be baited. 

O'Rourke looked great. 

Reyes didn't really do anything wrong to hurt himself.

Oh yeah, Jerome Tilghman was there too. He showed up late. He's not really relevant for a myriad of reasons but once you get passed all the metaphors and flowery language there aren't any ideas coming from his campaign. Well, except one. At the end of the debate it sounded like he was advocating for a military incursion in to Mexico.

I don't know...I still have the prison jumpsuit Thriller video in my head. (Cue the Vincent Price laugh...)

Despite it being an early start, the place was full and some people had to stand in the back. The crowd had more Reyes supporters in attendance, I'd say about 65%-30% based on all the Reyes stickers I saw. There were a couple of I (Heart) Beto shirts there too. Yes, a little silly but I've seen much worse in town during campaigns and you probably have too.