CD 8 Candidates Meet / Exceed Debate Expectations

Tucson supporters of Gabrielle Giffords and Randy Graf stuffed the PCC auditorium past capacity a full 20 minutes prior to the 6:15 event, forcing the hosts to escort excess folks to another room to listen through a sound system. While polls vary from 8% to 19%, word on the street is that Giffords probably has a good 12% lead on Graf. She is clearly the front runner and faced the higher risk and higher expectations tonight. This takes confidence and courage.

The male candidates trickled in, Graf first, and lastly Giffords entered the room shortly after six. When she did, her supporters broke into applause and stood. Not to be outdone, Graf’s fans started chanting, "Randy! Randy! Randy!" until the hostess, seeing the place turning into a Packers game, grabbed a microphone and stood before all of us, "Calm down, people!! This is important!"

The energy and anticipation in the room were thick, and make no mistake, there were strong minded folk in this room.

This debate was a long way from Willcox, from the Nucleus club, and light years from that early democratic event at the Northwest neighborhood center.

This was not like any of primary debates.

All candidates looked comfortable, confident, prepared, and spoke well. The event was televised and will be rebroadcast, so will not waste reader’s time with the play by play, but will highlight items, well, worth highlighting.

On Iraq, a notable remark goes to David Nolan’s attack of the cute phrase “Cut and Run” used by republicans to attack criticism of the Iraq war, "What are you suggesting we do, Stand and Die?" Nolan, founder of the Libertarian party and a sharp individual, who must be given credit for his Nolan Chart, an interesting way of illustrating his fiscal conservativism and liberal social values.

Quick jumped on this as well with, "Cutting and running is not the same thing as leaving a country that wants you to leave."

The room seemed emblematic of the very bifurcation that exists in the country with the majority on one side or the other, and a smaller number with a different angle.

What was interesting was the clearly audible and rather consistent but controlled laughter and chuckling of the Graf supporters while Giffords spoke. Not sure about this laughter, but I had the sense that they either would not or could not listen to her.

Will spare you the guest worker program, medicare part D, the middle class, where we were treated to different political views each holding their own in terms of a debate. To meet expectations in my opinion, Giffords had to excel over the rest, in particular if the "one issue candidate" concept for Graf is to remain alive.

She succeeded in three areas. First was a question about the economic development of Cochise County. The men stumbled, and Giffords nailed it, noting the importance of the San Pedro river, Ft. Huachuca, the industries and businesses that support the fort, the importance of protecting the fort when the military looks at bases across the country, and drove in an additional point about education in the remaining few seconds.

In the second area, a question deep from the heart of your humble x4mr himself (could the moderator have read this blog Sunday?!--kidding), global competition and in particular China and India. I could barely restrain myself . Nolan made a cute remark, "We all want made in USA wages and made in China prices." Graf mumbled about trade policies, and Quick fumbled about with world labor market cycles that should stabilize (oh yea?).

Globalization is an economic tsunami, and that is no exaggeration. Giffords demonstrated genuine understanding of the concept and told a telling tale about how years ago, children were told to eat everything on their plate because some kid in India is starving. Now we should tell our children to do their homework because some kid in China wants your job! She spoke of the knowledge based economy, a vital component of the tsunami that Washington desperately needs to understand.

The third place where she excelled was her closing statement. Listen to it yourself on television, but her language about a good idea being a good idea, republican or democrat, about reaching across the aisle, about working together to do what it takes to get the job done simply surpassed the other closing remarks.

All performed well, but Giffords has cause for the most satisfaction. This debate devoted significant weight to the border, immigration, illegal aliens and guest worker programs, Randy’s favorite subjects, and she held her own.

Receiving little or no attention (perhaps a one liner from a candidate at most) were crime, the war on drugs and methamphetamines, economic policy, abortion, anything substantive on national health insurance (medicare D was discussed), corruption, and the environment including global warming.

The front runner went in and ran. One could speculate whether she gained ground.

She most certainly did not lose ground.