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News & ArtsThursday, October 15, 2009
Politics The Dow-Hutchison Debate
Posted by Eli Sanders on Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 6:58 PM
The studio audience has assembled...
- E.S.
...and we're two minutes away if you want to tune in and watch with me on KCTS 9. (Or listen to the simulcast on either KUOW 94.9 FM or KPLU 88.5 FM.)
- E.S.
Here we go...
7:10 Constantine is challenging Hutchison right from the beginning, continuing his refrain that she's against a woman's right to choose, bad on the environment, and not ready to lead. He's already used one of his two "challenge" cards to repeat this line of attack—while also talking a lot about "values" and how his are more in line with those of King County than hers. Hutchison, who spent quite a bit of time before the show chatting with a producer about camera alignments, is moving through a wide repertoire of facial expressions—serenely confident, smilingly exasperated, sternly in command. As always, she's winning on visuals and he's winning on substance.
7:15 "Call in the marines." Hutchison says it again—talking about the rickety Howard Hansen dam, and repeating a line that Constantine's campaign recently mocked as naive about disaster planning and military chain of command—but Constantine lets it slide.
7:20 Everything that Hutchison says comes back to cutting waste, trimming inefficiencies, slimming down a "bloated" county government. She even wants to cut the size of the executive's office—the office she wants to inhabit. It's all part of her populist, northwest Grover Norquist schtick, and as the polls show, it's working.
7:30 When was the last time Hutchison rode a Metro bus? She dodges, but relates a tale about how she recently met some Metro bus drivers who—guess what?—had ideas about how she can make Metro more efficient. Just like in the last segment, when she talked about meeting a King County transportation worker at a Husky game who—guess what?—had some ideas for her about how to trim waste in the country transportation department.
7:35 Scandal lightning round! And now we see the genius of the Democrats' very recent complaints about Hutchison's financial disclosures. Merits aside—and there may well be a lot of merit to the complaints—the existence of the new complaints against Hutchison allowed this scandal exchange to turn into a wash. Republicans long ago filed complaints against Constantine. Those came up, but so did the complaints Democrats have now filed against her. So complicated! Who to believe? Most voters just tuning into the race probably said: Whatever. Next.
7:40 Hutchison claims that her donation to Mike Huckabee was just payment for a lunch that she never attended. And a sign of her openness to new ideas!
7:42 Hutchison says of the two candidates for mayor: "Neither has very much civic experience." Hmmm... who else does that description apply to?
7:43 Constantine, smartly, pounces. Yes, he says, people are concerned that both mayoral candidates lack experience. And, he continues, they know that whoever wins, it will be wise to have someone with a lot of political experience in the county exec's seat. That's him. Not Hutchison.
7:45 Oh gawd, the animals and the county animal shelters... Can you guess who's in favor of great animal care and smart animal shelter stewardship?
7:50 Good catch from Constantine on a question about public health funding: "I think I just heard my opponent say she supports raising taxes during a recession, and that she would oppose raising taxes during a recession. That's not leadership."
7:52 Hutchison uses her final "challenge" card to wiggle out of that one by proclaiming that she won't raise taxes and asking Constantine about his past decisions to raise taxes.
7:53 Closing statements. Constantine: "This is a race of clear choices... You have a choice of candidates with very different values. I am pro choice. My candidate is anti choice... I have been a defender of the environment, from Puget Sound to our rivers and forests and farms..." The choice, Constantine concludes, could not be clearer: him.
Hutchison, shades of Reagan: "There you go, changing the subject again. We have got a budget crisis and I am the only person at this table who has turnaround experience." She talks about her success at working to "save" the Seattle Symphony and concludes: "I'm just very grateful to place myself before voters as you make your decision in the next few weeks."
Applause. And we're out.
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You can really see Dow's pimples up close and sharp that way...
btw... is it me or is Dow reading from a teleprompter? his eyes are shifting a LOT
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It's like she's on some weird Talibangelist drugs.
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Anytime she says that take a drink.
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Love her answer on fare enforcement! 'bout time they make them pay!
Her answer to the Metro question is much better than Dow's
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She also rightly gives at least one seat to a Bellevue representative to the Sound Transit board. Wow! Only one? Why not at least 3 or 4?
Dow thinks he is the "expert" at Sound Transit, however he himself admits he joined the game late. He touts "standardization" requirements he lauded as a representative example of his expertise.
His answer was poorly worded. He doesn't sound good off the cuff...
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yikes!
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lol.... he looks positively gleeful trying to pounce on her
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Dow says he received the top rating for most ethical from PDC.
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lol
what do you say now Will? :)
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Susan's answer about her political donations is that she "bought" a lunch ticket but didn't attend the luncheon for Mike Huckabee... she handled the rest of the question very very well... no stumbling...
Uh Oh! Dow is throwing the challenge flag now! He feels Susan got off easy and wants to pin her down! He brings up the BIAW donations. Weak sauce...
Susan is almost laughing at his attempt. She says she is proud to be associated with the WA Policy Center. She's positively hammering him on her rebuttal response.
Good answer Susan!
Dow looked horrible on that exchange! LMAO
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By the way, if you don't know, the WSJournal and Washington Post have almost entirely conservative and neocon columnists.
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You go girl! :)
She knows that her and Mallahan and Gregoire will make a great team to get the tunnel hammered thru and completed!
Nice reply again to Susan...
She is clearly winning this debate.
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Good response from Dow.
This is disgusting. Why do we have moderators? Why do we even ask questions? Every single response from each candidate sounds as if he or she was asked to say something he or she would like to say about some general topic. I can't see them, but I'm pretty sure I can see their theatrical facial expressions based on the way they're delivering their answers -- scrunching their faces to express frustration or to show us how hard they'll work, smiling when they want us to feel good about what they're saying.
Hutchinson is scary like Sarah Palin with a bit of Karl Rove and bleeds-it-leads local TV news talking head thrown in, so I don't care what either of them says at this point, but it's disgusting nonetheless. I generally like Ron Sims, but I didn't expect to like him this much.
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I mean, fuck, this makes Yahoo! Answers look like the Bloomsbury clique.
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She said we can't raise taxes until God gives us Dinosaurs.
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No that was not a typo...
:)
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They really need a 2 hour debate every time. You can't have a question, 2 replies, and 2 rebuttals, and hope to cover more than 5 or 6 topics.
It's public TV damnit. They have plenty of boring airtime to fill.
Give them both large boxing gloves and tell them to GO!
First blood wins.
My $$$ is on Susan.
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Is that cause Ron Sims is in DC and Dow will take office before December?
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Poor final words...
Susan talks about the budget crisis and the work that has been done to try and slow the bleeding within 6 months. She says she is grateful to put herself on the guillotine's chopping block if only we promise to vote her Grand Pooba.
Susan wins.
Hands down, she was better prepared, and is a much better speaker on TV, which one would expect.
Next week is the Mayoral candidates! Bring em' on!
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gawd, what a multimedia wankfest. gack. and pshaw.
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Why did Susan say she'd send the Marines to fix the flood again? It was stupid the first time.
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Are we stupid enough to elect a celebrity? We didn't learn our less after Reagan and Arnold? I guess we'll find out.
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and she is dumb as rocks, also dull, and just plain evil.
and heck, I don't even believe in that moralistic crap.
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Strange advice she's getting.
But tough titty -- I already voted for Dow.
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EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE FAIL
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