| The Cruzhurst battle came to Dallas last night for a runoff debate. The candidates largely agreed on the issues; they're both happy we entered Iraq and Afghanistan, they both want lower taxes, and they both oppose a guest worker immigration program. Because they're both such vile hacks, they have resorted to identifying small differences. Cruz claimed that Dewhurst wouldn't be a true fighter on Obamacare because he's spent his political life being a "conciliator" while Dewhurst pointed to Cruz's large national support as evidence that the Washington insiders are on Cruz's side.
At the end of the debate, the candidates were asked how, once in the Senate, they would actually vote differently from one another. An impossible question, the candidates for some reason answered as if they had been asked to compliment the other. Dewhurst said Cruz is a conservative but that he knows how to solve problems better. Cruz said, "Lt. Gov. Dewhurst is a good and decent man who in 15 years in office has been a conciliator...I will lead the fight to repeal every word of Obamacare." The indication that these two corporatists would vote any differently on any issue is a joke. KERA has a thorough liveblog of the debate.
There's about one total fact that was identified by the candidates in the debate: Cruz has a ton of outside support. While Dewhurst has received only 4.9% of his donations from out of state, Cruz has taken 39.2% of his donations from outside the state. In fact, Cruz has raked in more outside money than any other Senate candidate in the country. This is Dewhurst's primary attack; this week, his campaign released a slick video about the "DC PAC Man". Watch the video; it's very well made and inadvertently highlights the dynamic of the race: Cruz's strong outside support can mean one of two things: he's an insider, or he's an exciting newcomer who will shake up conservative politics.
After all, Marco Rubio won on a ton of outside financial support. Cruz and Rubio seem to hit the same Tea Party strategic sweet spot; "What could go wrong with a Hispanic conservative touting big business interests?" Well, when a politician has no principles, he's bound to be exposed, as Rubio demonstrated this week when he backed off of his own DREAM Act plan in response to political pressure. No matter one's race, a fraud is a fraud.
Oh, the excitement of figuring out which ganef will represent us in the Senate next! |
