The Houston Chronicle endorsed Strayhorn for governor??

From Kos...

SurveyUSA. 10/21-23. Likely voters. MoE 4.3% (9/16-18 results)

Perry (R) 36 (35)
Bell (D) 26 (23)
Strayhorn (I) 19 (15)
Friedman (I) 16 (23)

A Rasmussen poll to be released later has it Perry 36 (33), Bell 25 (18), Strayhorn 22 (22), and Kinky Friedman 12 (16).

For starters, it looks like Kinky is bleeding serious support after the emergence of his racist tendencies. The Kinky camp argues that Bell can't win, that only he can get rid of Perry. These numbers show that line of thinking is pure b.s.

If progressives currently flirting with Friedman's joke of a candidacy came home to Bell, he could pull off the upset in the four-way race. Kinky just ain't going to win.

 

this can't be right? can it?

 

I don't believe it either. While our school system is a big piece of crap, I highly doubt half of the kids drop out of high school. Now way.

 

I can't believe you guys are going to be stuck with another four years of a miserable governor like Perry due to a small plurality. That sucks.

 

No kidding.

Anybody know why there's no runoff system in Texas? What's the reasoning behind it? Who's idea was it? etc...

 

It's no surprise that a newspaper full of incompetent journalists who spew rhetoric with little regard to the fact would support an incompetent candidate for governor who spews rhetoric with little regard for the fact.

 

Kinky has peaked. He=Nader now -- only a less progressive, more racially insensitive version.

Perry will probably win, but the only chances to stop him are Bell and Strayhorn now. Texas voters know as much as they're going to about Friedman and they don't like what they see. I don't begrudge anyone (especially someone like RM Tex, who's worked for his campaign in whatever capacity) for registering a protest vote for him, but at this point that's what it would be.

I've never liked Bell and have said so here many times, but I'm hoping against hope now that he can pull out an unlikely victory.

 

If the Democrats who blindly support Chris "I'll Run For Any Office I Can" Bell would simply open their eyes and put on their thinking caps, they would see that Bell, just like Perry and Strayhorn, are part of the problem, while candidates like Kinky Friedman are part of the answer to the problem.

I've got news for you rimrocker....Bell just ain't going to win either. Welcome to Texas.

 

Batman, I've always liked you, but for you to buy into the "Kinky is a Racist" spin makes me wonder about whether your bullsh*t meter is fully operational.

For me, voting for Kinky is not a "protest vote". It's supporting a friend. Besides that, I'd rather not leave a Diebold machine covered in vomit. If I voted for Bell, Perry or Strayhorn, that is exactly what would happen.

 

I absolutely respect your decision not to vote for any candidate that makes you want to vomit. That was my exact defense for refusing to vote for Clinton in 92 and 96. I think Bell is lame as hell, but he doesn't make me want to vomit and his policy positions are closest to my own so I would vote for him if I were still registered in Texas and I hope he'll win. But I understand and respect you feeling differently.

It's funny you took "racially insensitive" to be equal to "racist." It's appropriate too, I guess, as I originally typed racist and then edited quickly to change it to racially insensitive. I don't actually think Kinky's racist at all, but I very much think he is racially insensitive. And I think your vehemence in denying that and chalking such criticism up to that old canard about political correctness is a testament to your friendship and loyalty toward Kinky. As was (I think) eloquently expressed in the Chron editorial I posted about Bell and Kinky a week or so back, Kinky's intentions may be pure (and I think they mostly or even entirely are) but he has a real tin ear for the power of words to harm. And hearing from a white guy -- even a Jewish one and even a Jewish one raised in the mostly anti-Semitic state of Texas -- that blacks shouldn't care about the cavalier and constant use of the word n****r strikes me as particularly out of touch.

All that said, I do feel for you. It sucks to care so much and to work on a campaign and lose -- especially when you continue to believe your candidate is far superior to the others. I've been there and I know that. And while I don't want Kinky to win and while his comments about Democrats being as complicit as Republicans in the Foley thing and the aftermath of it both struck me as utterly cynical, politics as usual BS and infuriated me, if he somehow pulls out an increasingly unimagineable win, I will at least be able to be happy for you.

 

Thanks BJ. You know that you and I share similar views on alot of things. Like I said, my support for Kinky has more to do with friendship than anything else.

His "cavilier and constant user of the word n****r", as you put it, needs to be put in perspective: He used it onstage, while satirizing racists, by impersonating a racist. The fact that the media has refused to put it in context, and Kinky's refusal to apologize for something he shouldn't have to apologize for (i.e. creativity) makes me think lower of the media and higher of Kinky than ever before.

By the way....a friend of mine was at Kinky's noontime rally downtown at the Harris County Admin building. He said a good quarter of the crowd was black, and they were just as supportive as the rest of the crowd. Just thought you might like to know.

 

Before you write off Kinky as racist, you should definitely read his works. He may not care about being politically correct, but he cares more about race equality than virtually any politician we have ever had in Texas. If you'd listen to what he says instead of the soundbites, you'd vote for him, too. (If every Texan would just listen to his immigration plan, he'd get that elusive majority of votes.)

 

HAH!

the dems pulled 40% of the vote in 2002
perry pulled 58%

that was a 2 candidate race... if you think bell is going to pull more than 30-35% this time you're crazy.

sadly, perry is going to win with 32-33%.

oh, and frank speaks out:

'Frank from Atlanta' says Friedman not a racist
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...N-frank_25tex.ART.State.Edition1.3e4b9e4.html

 

Damn, weslinder... I like you, but you keep posting things I really disagree with. First off, I'd like to make clear that KINKY AIN'T A RACIST! Having said that, he hasn't a snowball's chance in hell of winning after his performance in the debate. That was his big opportunity, and he just didn't make what he might have and should have out of it. That sucks for his supporters, like RMT, who's also a friend (my wife's sister is a close friend of a good, longtime friend of Kinky's, by the way... they were camp counselors for years at some place... probably was like that Bill Murray movie, LOL, knowing her and knowing what I do of the Kinkster), and it doesn't help Texas any, because one of these 3 people are the only hope of preventing, god help us all, Perry from being reelected.

Went off on a tangent, but what I strongly disagree with you about, weslinder, is this:

"he cares more about race equality than virtually any politician we have ever had in Texas."

That's simply not true. It's so far from the truth as to make me wonder about how long you've been following Texas politics. Ann Richards was a pioneer in opening Texas state government to minorities and women years ago. If Kinky can get within sniffin' distance of her regarding race relations, he'd be doing himself proud. Just wanted to point that out.

Like I said, I don't think Kinky is racist at all. He just, unfortunately, has had some tapes floating around of parts of his act from the past that no one gave a damn about until he decided to run for governor. (I think he could have picked a better campaign manager, as well, considering some of the things she's said) That's what the fuss was about. If he'd done well in the debate, he might have been able to explain it better and it might have made a difference. As things stand now, he just doesn't stand a chance.

As for the Chronicle? Hey, I live in Austin, the bastion of liberalism in Texas, and the stupid local rag, the Austin American-Statesman, endorsed Perry. I couldn't believe it. They must be looking to their ad revenue, because it is shocking. They've run countless articles criticizing Perry in the past, pointing out incidents of corruption, and they still endorsed him. It was kind of a back-handed endorsement, but still shocking to the majority of the folks in Austin. At least the Chronicle has enough backbone to endorse someone else, and they are right... Strayhorn would be better than Perry for education. That's like saying a mutt is better than a dead dog. It might be, but that ain't sayin' a whole hell of a lot for the mutt.

Folks, Bell is the only one with a ghost of a chance of beating Perry. Just look at the numbers. The only reason Strayhorn is polling as well as she is comes from the money she's been spending on advertizing, that so many people don't want Perry, and the fact that she has some name recognition, even if she's changed it too many times.

In my opinion, if you don't care much for Bell, hold your nose and vote for him anyway.



Keep D&D Civil.

 

I'm just curious why everyone supports Kinky?

 

you should vote for bell for 2 reasons

1) you agree with his policy
2) you think he has a shot at winning


i don't agree with most of what he said in the debate, or what he has outlined for his policy.

nor do i think he has any shot at actually winning... even if he had managed to coax kinky to drop out, he still wouldn't have a shot at winning it. the ulta left calls him "bush-lite" the ultra right still sees a democrat with democrat values and can't hold their nose and vote for him.

 

I vote for people for a host of reasons. If I sat around waiting for the perfect candidate to run for any particular office, hell would have already frozen over.



Keep D&D Civil.

 

I don't know when it changed because the Texas governor's race used to require a runoff.

 

I'd have to google it, I guess, but who knows? Texas has about 10 zillion amendments to it's constitution. It could have been slipped in there years ago. I know Ann Richards, in '91, won with around 49% of the vote, and there wasn't a runoff, so it's been that way for a while. There should be a runoff system. That someone could win with 35% of the vote is ludicrous. The system is badly broken.



Keep D&D Civil.