I received a forwarded email from a Rick supporter who attended the debate last week...
Just before the debate you could see staff members for the campaigns scurrying trying to fill empty seats in their sections. Rick Perry's seats seemed the fullest. Medina's were the second fullest, and Hutchison seemed to have trouble filling her seats. The corporate seats right up front were the worst. Way to many empty seats for the big sponsors of the debate.
You could have cut the tension with the knife, and it was even more tense when the two ladies in red came onto the stage for what seemed like an eternity. JUst sitting there taking fake notes, they didn't really talk to each other, but they both came out on stage too early. This gave Perry a distinctive advantage psychologically. The crowd was dead quiet but started murmuring when Perry came out just before the debate started and shook both of the red suit wearing ladies' hands and sat down just in time for the debate to get underway.
The actual debate was exciting. The organizers of the debate warned us not to clap before the debate started, but it is hard to control your emotions. The crowd kept laughing when the candidates would say something. The problem for HUtchison is that the crowd was laughing at her, not with her. When she stumbled on Dave Montgomery's abortion question I think she never fully recovered after that. She was very self-conscious with the crowd essentially heckling her.
Perry kept winking at people in the crowd, or mouthing things to people in the audience. He seemed really relaxed up there. Maybe too loose at times but very confident and secure in his answers. I think he got in some good shots that HUtchison did not respond to very well. Her procedural vote in favor of sanctuary cities seemed to really fluster her.
Medina impressed a lot of people who thought she was going to veer off into crazyland, but she didn't really score any solid points either. The debates I overheard after it was all over were about whether Medina and Hutchison were working together. They looked like they had the same strategy, and Perry wiped that away by trying to say they were both trying to tear down Texas.
All and all, I think Perry won, but I hope he sharpens some of his facts for the next debate. I think Hutchison lost because the entire audience was pro-life, and she was trying to convince us all that being pro-choice was really the way to be pro-life. After that, her confidence and credibility were shot with holes and she was running up the wrong way on an escaltor.
Honestly I liked Medina somewhat but she was more of a distraction, and her placement right in the middle of the stage meant that Perry and Hutchison were not able to interact like they would have been had they been closer together.
When the debate wrapped up, the applause was big and bold, and the spinning immediately began. You could see the staff of each campaign jump to their feet and begin either wildly texting or seeking out and finding reporters.
I decided to check out the other after-debate parties just to see for myself what the other sides were thinking about the debate. Medina's party had maybe 40 people. Hutchinson's had maybe 30 people. I then walked down a ways to Perry's reception, and he had a crowd of 150 people easily. Radio shock jock Mark Davis was with him up at the podium, and they both were hamming it up with the crowd. I listen to Mark Davis all the time, but I didn't realize he was supporting Rick Perry until last night.
It was a great night. Perry's security team and top aides were there for a while, and then they all vanished at once. Some of us stayed around and discussed the strategy of the campaign. We are going to get together every Tuesday night for a little Perry campaign fellowship and brainstorming. I will fill you in when we get the details sorted out.
A pretty interesting behind the scenes glimpse at thing...
A friend of mine sent this to me – that a friend of her’s was actually there….It sounds to me like Rick at the debate had a lot of people in attendance, Medina had the second most people, and Kay had the lowest number of people...
We were in the audience and it was incredible! Goose bumps!!! The applause at the end was thunderous. We were so quiet and well behaved during the debate. No applause was allowed during the debate, but you wouldn’t believe all the quiet chuckling that went on ALL over the auditorium! Neither Rick nor Kay showed up for the after debate press conference that was scheduled. The press was in another room waiting for the candidates. They were supposed to go in turn and get 10 minutes each. Debra got all the attention.
I was interviewed twice, once before the debate and once afterwards. After the high dollar reception (we didn’t go!) she joined us at IHOP, her choice. We got there first to reserve some space, they had a separate section off to one side I thought would work best. I told them that the next governor of Texas was on her way over! They scurried around to get it ready!! It was GREAT!!!! The waiter asked for an autograph, the couple near us asked for a photo and they got stickers and buttons! The waiter had just come on shift. He was awakened by his friends texting and calling him from the campus watch party about how awesome the debate was! He was sorry he’d missed it all the excitement and he came to work and lo and behold, in we come with our little party!!!
The word from Cape Buffalo where the Dallas Tea Party had arranged a watch party was that before the debate about half the crowd clapped for RP (Rick Perry) and half for DM (Debra Medina), no one clapped for KBH (Kay Bailey Hutchison). After the debate the DJ asked for an applause meter to see who won the debate. No one clapped for Kay, THREE people clapped for RP (Rick Perry) and the room errupted in applause for DM (Debra Medina). The DJ was in shock…
It also sounds like Rick had the most people at his after party...
What that means... I don't know. I think we are still talking about limited numbers here... it wasn't like Rick's party had 1000 people and the other parties had 20 people...
So you have a Perry supporter's first-hand account, and not someone from Hutchison's camp. Good for you. You're also days late to report on the debate.
ReplyDeleteI reported on the debate the night of. I included accounts from Rick and Debra, but Hutchison's peeps didn't send me anything... I also just received this email today. Kay's peeps don't send me as much material as they used to when they had a different campaign manager...
ReplyDelete