Arkansas Blog: Round III

Sorry, I actually went to the gubernatorial debate and chatted with folks after for a while. Anybody tear themselves away from baseball to watch? Thoughts?

My quick ones:

Asa won on points. He's a more polished speaker and debater. His answers are more tightly focused and more packed with specifics. Mike filibusters and drifts into legislative wonk talk.

Asa is working on a more aggressive, combative approach. He's not exactly a bulldog, but he challenged Beebe sharply on his ideas on combatting illegal immigration. Beebe has a good sound bite -- prosecute the employers -- but Hutchinson has the edge on understanding of the specifics of the issue, even if I disagree with him philosophically. The state cops have enough to do without hauling itinerant laborers to lockups all over the state.

Beebe got to close and he finally put together his superior case on the grocery tax -- remove it, but do it responsibily -- in an effective way. The facts are in his favor, but he stumbled earlier in the explanation. Asa makes it sound simple. $700 million surplus. $270 million lost by removing grocery tax. But the $700 million is a two-year accumulation and the growth rate isn't guaranteed. Plus, Asa has lots of ideas for spending money, not only putting in more state trooper time arresting Mexican laborers. Beebe kept saying he had the facts to prove Hutchinson was wrong, but he never produced them or articulated his argument -- the superior one -- in a quick and convincing way.

Otherwise, the lead for tomorrow's newspapers might be Hutchinson's defense of Huckabee's gimmicky covenant marriage bill, a widely ignored and meaningless piece of base-currying legislation. Beebe's answer -- though nothing but true -- came off sounding flip. If you have a good marriage, you have a good marriage. If you don't, you don't and no second ceremony is likely to change that. It was a slightly uncomfortable moment for some in the audience, who knew that Beebe's first marriage ended in divorce. He made a reference that some people aren't mature enough for marriage.

Asa closed with God, guns and gays. Ho hum. But he perhaps offered a peek at a last-minute strategy with his reference to Beebe's failure to prevent the felonious excesses of Nick Wilson while a leading member of the Senate. This is rich turf. It could get ugly if he really tries to plow it.

Comments

Also of note was Beebe's talking about Bill Gwatney as a great reason why the covenant marriage is silly.

If I recall Beebe's statement it was something about Gwatney saying he wouldn't go home and tell his wife that they have a second-class marraige.

Didn't Bill Gwatney recently get divorced?

Posted by: JD Arkansas | October 17, 2006 09:22 PM

Do you suppose more than a dozen people state wide watched it?

Posted by: Cato | October 17, 2006 09:49 PM

Asa talk as if the Arkansas state police was the cure all for drugs, illegals. The state police are so covered up now how will they take on this added work and who will pay. The federal level has failed on drugs and illegals big time. Asa was on the attack but only in sound bytes in IHO.

Asa talked as if reading a page out of the Rove playbook. FEAR!

i'm sorry but I don't buy the God, Guns , Gays soundbyte that Asa professed. I was waiting for Asa to blurt out the If you disagree with Bush your UnAmerican soundbyte.

But anyway I will take BeeBe over Asa W Hutchinson

Posted by: Riverdog | October 17, 2006 10:43 PM

Don't know if you could tell on tv - but I was at the debate and Beebe was unhinged. He clearly lost focus, got angry and kept flipping his notebook up and down. Not his best performance.

Posted by: milrdc | October 17, 2006 10:56 PM

If I had been Beebe, when the subject turned to marriage, I might have been tempted to ask Asa about his bother Tim.
Guess Beebe is nicer than I would be when confronted with a hypocrit like Asa.

Posted by: BlueRidge | October 17, 2006 10:59 PM

I see the cla$$ is out tonight...

Posted by: rosso | October 17, 2006 11:19 PM

Well, actually, the credit for the slime is all BlueRidge's...

Posted by: JD Arkansas | October 17, 2006 11:27 PM

Must agree. Asa had the better performance. HE was in the assault mode. I think I counted Five times when Asa remarked Beebe was "flat wrong." Now that's good Central-South Arkie diction.

Beebe missed good opportunities to slam Asa on the state police business...sure our state police can roundem up and holdem, but get the Feds to cooperate...that's another matter. He should have challenged Asa to promise the Feds would come to the rescue when needed.

Posted by: Lwood | October 17, 2006 11:28 PM

What debate were you
watching? Mike Beebe kicked
HUTCHINSON's ass.
Hutchinson made a serious
tactical error using his closing
remarks to attack Beebe
when Beebe got to speak
last. I think he thought Beebe
would ignore his petty attacks
and proceed with a prepared
closing. WRONG

I just wish Beebe had pointed
out that half the stuff
Hutchinson was complaining
about was the result of
fellow Republican
HUCKABEE. I'd guess Beebe
didn't want to piss off he
many Huckabee Republicans
that are supporting him.

I love how Hutchinson bitches
about taxes when all those
tax increases resulted in the
surplus. Taxes are higher but
the state economy is
growing...explain that
dumbasa.

Posted by: The Bold and The Blue | October 18, 2006 04:38 AM

Re: Mica Strother, Beebe, marriage, etc...

To JD Arkansas and the rest of the Hitler youth running ASS's campaign:

Do you think that, if a woman and man talk to each other or work with each other, that automatically means they are having sex with one another? Because that seems to be your implication.

Posted by: sjp | October 18, 2006 06:15 AM

I thought Beebe looked like Bill Clinton, pointing that finger at Asa when he got pushed.

Man, Beebe does not like having his own record thrown at him.

After the first two debates Asa did what most wanted him to - get really agressive and press the details.
As Max and others have said before, this race is ran by two well versed political professionals and can oftten seem boring to most others (non-politicos).
I enjoyed it and i really like seeing Mike flounder around on Illegal Immigration, taxes and marriage. Way to go Asa!

Posted by: The Citizens Journal | October 18, 2006 06:27 AM

Beebe's mastery of complex issues is never a winning alternative to A$a's sound bites, especially when A$a connects with the fear and/or greed of voters. The race narrows, but Beebe wins... the Repub's national meltdown will reduce A$a's voter turnout, and just too many red voters in AR have already committed to Beebe.

But... the big unknown is... can the Cards win one of two in NY for a trip to the World Series?

Posted by: PVNasby | October 18, 2006 07:40 AM

A$a biggest mistake to me was his statements on school standards. He really should study up on the No Child Left Behind Act that his hero Dubya championed. That is a federal mandate that can not be changed locally.

Posted by: BR549 | October 18, 2006 08:47 AM

Arkansas Blog

Round III

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