Patterico's Pontifications

10/16/2018

Cruz v. Beto

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:44 pm



I just realized it’s on now. (Sorry, too busy with work.) You can watch here.

UPDATE: It’s over. I started the thread way too late.

22 Responses to “Cruz v. Beto”

  1. Hi

    Patterico (115b1f) — 10/16/2018 @ 6:53 pm

  2. I’m drawing a blank.

    Kevin M (d6cbf1) — 10/16/2018 @ 6:54 pm

  3. Oh well it was almost over

    Patterico (115b1f) — 10/16/2018 @ 6:59 pm

  4. For some reason I just don’t want to watch televised political debates any longer. They all come off as so scripted and meaningless to me. And after the whole brouhaha with CNN leaking questions to the Clinton campaign, I have always assumed that they aren’t on the level and the media’s preferred candidate is given an advantage.

    Plus, playoff baseball is on this week, so there’s that too.

    JVW (42615e) — 10/16/2018 @ 7:03 pm

  5. I read a biased blog summary (CBS Dallas).

    All Ted needed to do was hold serve. He did at least that.

    Ed from SFV (6d42fa) — 10/16/2018 @ 7:19 pm

  6. Everyone in their post-debate show is saying Beto failed to move the needle. He’s toast.

    Patterico (115b1f) — 10/16/2018 @ 7:23 pm

  7. Everyone in their post-debate show is saying Beto failed to move the needle. He’s toast.

    So we’ll expect the CNN story’s headline to be “Beto Makes Strong Case for Senate in Debate with Flustered Cruz” then?

    JVW (42615e) — 10/16/2018 @ 7:26 pm

  8. Stephen Miller
    Stephen Miller
    @redsteeze
    Beto coming out against fossil fuels while there’s a motion graphic of a friggen oil well behind him is 👌🏻👨🏻‍🍳

    harkin (adce92) — 10/16/2018 @ 7:27 pm

  9. That’s not dialing to eleven that’s dialing to twelve, maybe he’s from remulak.

    Narciso (d1f714) — 10/16/2018 @ 7:46 pm

  10. @ JVW (#7): The current statewide news website of choice for progressives is the Texas Tribune, whose current headline reads: Beto O’Rourke swings harder at Ted Cruz in second debate:

    Over the hourlong event, the El Paso congressman took a series of harsher-than-usual swings at Cruz — including a couple of blows evocative of the senator’s battle with Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential race.

    “He’s dishonest,” O’Rourke said of Cruz at one point. “That’s why the president called him Lyin’ Ted and it’s why the nickname stuck because it’s true.”

    “It’s clear Congressman O’Rourke’s pollsters have told him to come out on the attack,” Cruz shot back. “So if he wants to insult me and call me a liar, that’s fine.”

    Trump, who is coming to Houston on Monday for a rally with Cruz, fueled a number of contentious exchanges during the debate at the studios of KENS 5, the CBS affiliate in San Antonio. Early on, O’Rourke accused Cruz of not being able to stand up to the president for Texans, while Cruz went on to dismiss the idea O’Rourke would be able to work with the president after expressing support for his impeachment. And “Lyin’ Ted” was not the only Trump-style insult aired in the debate, with O’Rourke telling Cruz multiple times that he was “all talk and no action.”

    Politics as usual, in other words. “Swings harder” ain’t the same as “hits it out of the park,” which is what Beto needs at this point.

    The Kavanaugh hearings unified the entire Texas GOP, and absolutely electrified Ted Cruz’ base — the Texas Republicans who gave Cruz 44% in the March 2016 Texas GOP primary, at a time when there were still twelve other candidates on the GOP ballot (including Trump, who was a distant second with 27%).

    Beto is the only statewide Dem candidate who still has a pulse, and a whole ton of his fanboys are going to roll back over on Election Day and decide that it really isn’t worth leaving the house an hour early to swing by the polls.

    Beldar (fa637a) — 10/16/2018 @ 7:57 pm

  11. @ Narciso (#9): Do you think Beto is ready to gnarfle the garthok? 😉

    Beldar (fa637a) — 10/16/2018 @ 8:01 pm

  12. Many interesting details in this Dallas Morning News writeup, including:

    Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said afterwards that O’Rourke is flailing because he’s fallen behind.

    “When an unconventional candidate becomes conventional, that’s when you get split like a cantaloupe,” he said. “The whole campaign, Beto O’Rourke has been making a liberal bed for himself, and tonight he tucked himself in.”

    The sharp retorts bordered at times on caustic. For O’Rourke, that risked undermining the post-partisan, open-minded brand he’s sought to project for 18 months even as he promoted unabashedly progressive policies.

    ….

    When the conversation turned to trade, Cruz insisted that “I’m against tariffs. I’m against a trade war. I’ve made the case repeatedly to President Trump” that “if we’re erecting barriers and shutting down trade, that is a bad thing.”

    O’Rourke, by contrast, is the only Senate nominee in the country who supports impeachment.

    “That is extreme,” Cruz said. “You want to talk about a shutdown? With Congressman O’Rourke leading the way – two years of a partisan witch hunt and a circus” that brings Washington to a halt.

    O’Rourke shot back.

    “Really interesting to hear you talk about a partisan circus after your last six years in the Senate,” he said, a comment that elicited some giggles in the small studio audience.

    Beldar (fa637a) — 10/16/2018 @ 8:19 pm

  13. Look for Beto to throw down and wear the dress… IF there’s another one…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/16/2018 @ 8:34 pm

  14. I think that’s self evident.

    Narciso (d1f714) — 10/16/2018 @ 8:36 pm

  15. Three weeks is an eternity in today’s politics.

    nk (dbc370) — 10/16/2018 @ 8:51 pm

  16. O’Rourke is giving up his House seat to run against Cruz, right? He doesn’t get to run for both of them, does he? It will be interesting to see what he does next when he loses. My guess is that he moves to Austin and either runs for governor in 2022 or hopes for a Washington job in a Democrat administration after 2020. He’ll probably write a crappy book too, while he’s at it.

    JVW (42615e) — 10/16/2018 @ 9:13 pm

  17. And, naturally, Raw Story’s headline (no link for those jackwads):

    Beto O’Rourke wipes the floor with embattled Senator Ted Cruz in epic Texas Senate debate

    JVW (42615e) — 10/16/2018 @ 9:16 pm

  18. Ted apparently showed a hint of spine by saying he opposes Trump’s tariffs and trade wars.

    /golfclap

    Dave (9664fc) — 10/16/2018 @ 9:17 pm

  19. So we’ll expect the CNN story’s headline to be “Beto Makes Strong Case for Senate in Debate with Flustered Cruz” then?

    CNN’s article is virtually identical to the Dallas Morning News piece Beldar quoted, even including identical quotes from both candidates.

    It notes O’Rourke’s harsher tone and adoption of Trump’s “Lyin’ Ted” moniker, and his worsening performance in multiple recent polls.

    Dave (9664fc) — 10/16/2018 @ 9:26 pm

  20. Watched it on CSPAN. Beto wore tie; Tedtoo should try decaf.

    DCSCA (797bc0) — 10/16/2018 @ 9:45 pm

  21. @ JVW (#16): Yes, Beto’s seat in TX16 will be taken either by Dem Veronica Escobar or Republican Rick Seeberger. Per Ballotpedia.org:

    The 2018 Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district is D+17, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district’s results were 17 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made Texas’ 16th Congressional District the 81st-most Democratic nationally.

    Clinton won this district in 2016 by 31 points, and Seeberger is running a token campaign with no money. So this is not likely to be a GOP pickup, even in a “red wave” year. Moreover, once it has a Latina incumbent, this majority-minority district will become essentially untouchable in the redistricting based on the 2020 Census, which bodes well for Ms. Escobar’s long-term prospects. She might well become “the next Wendy Davis Beto O’Rourke” — i.e., the next Great Dem Hope to Turn Texas Blue — to oppose John Cornyn in 2020.

    Beldar (fa637a) — 10/16/2018 @ 10:36 pm

  22. Slate being Slate:

    “He [Cruz] stuck to it on Tuesday night, suffocating O’Rourke with so many allegations to respond to that he barely had the oxygen to tear Cruz apart.

    If O’Rourke had his way, you wouldn’t be able to open your eyes in Texas without seeing an illegal immigrant having a partial-birth abortion. The economy would be in ruins as Democrats, led by Chairman O’Rourke, seized control to turn the nation into a bankrupt welfare factory—for illegal immigrants. Judges, with alarming word-per-minute speeds, would be typing radical left-wing regulations to ration health care and obliterate business. Border walls would come down, allowing the forces of Juárez to conquer El Paso and march to the east. Police? Forget about ’em. Banned.
    “Do we choose fear,” Cruz concluded, “or do we choose hope?”

    https://amp.slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/beto-orourke-ted-cruz-debate-texas-senate.html?__twitter_impression=true

    harkin (adce92) — 10/17/2018 @ 3:06 pm


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