Kay on April 15... "Rick just lost the race today"

Kay and her husband Ray Hutchison must be some of the worst political minds of our time... look at some of these quotes from them explaining just how Kay fell so fast so hard (link). Excerpt follows... quotes bolded...

Just days later, Perry went even further, saying he understood how frustrated Texans were with the federal government and how they might want to secede from the union. His rival, Kay Bailey Hutchison, saw that as a decisive moment: "Rick Perry just lost the race today," she told a staffer when she heard the comment.

This is such a Chris Matthews, Washington way of thinking. Secession in Texas is not an especially dirty word, not that Rick actually used the word... in Texas it is all about Texas once being its own country... it is about Texas exceptionalism...

Rick has been more careful about hinting at secession, but that moment was not a bad one for him... it helped him. It showed that he understood just how angry people were about Obama and Washington, and it signaled that he meant business in terms of standing up to Washington... see his recent lawsuit with Todd Staples and Greg Abbott against the EPA for more evidence of that.

Okay... another revealing quote, this time from Kay's husband Ray...

Early in the campaign, the senator and her husband, Ray, met with advisers in their living room discussing possible lines of attack by Perry, a Hutchison ally familiar with the meeting said. Earmarks came up, but Ray Hutchison downplayed the impact.

"Which one of these projects does Rick Perry want to say no to because Kay couldn't secure federal dollars?" he said.

That is amazing... and their response to Rick saying "you voted for the tea pot museum in North Carolina" has been the same throughout the campaign... "how dare you attack us for fighting for Texas." People see that interaction and the win goes to Rick every time. He is pointing out wasteful projects out of state... like an indoor rainforest in Iowa... and she says, well... so what, I am getting a lot of pork for Texas...

What about those wasteful projects out of Texas Kay? You never even tried to explain those.

Back to the tea parties... look at this quote...

Perry scrambled to appear at every Tea Party gathering he could on tax day. "I know for a fact that he called multiple Tea Parties trying to get on stage at as many as possible," said Houston Tea Party organizer Ryan Hecker.

Hutchison did not appear at a Tea Party on April 15. She was at a more traditional campaign event, at a Houston supporter's furniture store, where she criticized government spending.

Afterwards, at a fundraiser at supporter Ned Holmes' house in Houston, she learned of Perry's comments about secession and thought he had just handed her the election.

Rick was on the tea party bandwagon early... Kay and 95% of politicians were horrified by the tea party...

By August 2009, the Hutchison campaign assembled a focus group to test the message that Perry was hypocritical: he criticized the bailout but accepted $12.5 billion in stimulus funds. He had rejected one small portion – $550 million for unemployment benefits.

They didn't care. Perry got credit for turning Washington down.

Exactly... and it was Kay who was hypocritical for saying Rick should have taken all of the money then criticizing him when he rejected some of it... then criticizing him for not rejecting all of it I guess??...

More than that, why would anyone still waste money on a focus group?

Twitter is the modern focus group. Facebook. Grassroots events are the modern focus group. What gets the most retweets or likes and comments on Facebook... what gets the most applause at small grassroots gatherings in small towns... those are your own focus groups you need these days...

It probably wouldn't sell many copies but I would love to read a book co-written by the Rick and Kay teams about how Kay went from such a giant lead in the polls to such a giant deficit... even against an incumbent in an anti incumbent year... I would also love to listen in on a post mortem panel if anyone is thinking of doing one of those... I could contribute some pretty good questions to someone else to ask considering I have been covering this election in more depth than anyone else over the past year...