Oh yeah…she didn’t get elected.
The standing governor of Arizona is up of election. Not re-election. She was appointed to the post after the elected Governor took a position in the federal administration for President Obama.
I say that up front, because when you watch the video below, you’ll wonder how the hell this person could get elected to the president of a Home School PTA, let alone elected to Governor of a State.
Now…anyone could freeze on camera. It could happen to anyone. What’s so shocking to me though, is that this is a politician who is ahead in the polls, who has gone head to head with the federal government over immigration reform, and who is reported to be a strong candidate.
Unfortunately for her, this shows her to be just another talking head, who reverts to party-line talking points when she cant remember her prepared remarks.
I always wonder, in a debate, why you need prepared remarks, especially for the opening statement. It would seem like you could introduce yourself, your platform, and get all that from memory. If it’s too hard to remember what your position is on things, or too hard to remember your prepared remarks, maybe you don’t really believe in them in the first place.
On the flip side though, when startled, and she realizes that she’s forgotten everything, she reverts to the talking points routinely heard on Fox News and Right Wing conservative talk radio….
“we cut the budget…we balanced the budget” — ummm….was that before you accepted stimulus money from the federal government, when you railed against wasteful spending? or after you accepted federal stimulus money, and posted “stimulus spotlight” stories on your www.az.gov website?
“we pushed back against the federal government, we filed suit against Obama Healthcare...” — oh…you mean the healthcare reform bill that was passed that you gave no alternative for? You mean the one that attempts to give healthcare to everyone, for as cheap as possible, while you still argue that we should leave healthcare as a “for profit” industry, where decision are made based on profit margins, rather than health? That one?
“we passed senate bill 1070” — oh…the one where you get to racially profile people to determine if they are in the country legally? The same one that has a training video that states that even if racial profiling is happening already, there’s just more of a spotlight on it now, so be more careful when you racially profile? The same one where it’s explained that in order to NOT racially profile, you look for things like: “people in vehicles riding in tandem, vehicles that are overloaded, people being very nervous, not talking to you, no eye contact.”
So….basically if you’re riding with someone in a car, you could be here illegally. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of white guys riding in tandem being pulled over and asked to prove they are here in the country legally.
She provides good cannon-fodder and good belly laughs, but at the end of the day, I can’t believe that she’s in charge of several million people in that state. If she shuts down in front of a camera during her prepared remarks, then how good can she be at having intense policy discussions that affect the lives of everyone in Arizona. Or…maybe she just waits for the talking points to be delivered on the radio each morning before she’s ready to actually speak. Maybe that day was a re-run day and she didn’t know what Rush or Hannity or Rove wanted her to say just yet.
Facepalm.
Oh yeah….the day after this event, she said that she won’t be doing any more debates. She says “I don’t believe that things come out in proper context in an adversarial atmosphere.”
Yeah…i might say the same thing if i just saw my political career reduced to a youtube clip that made it’s away around the internet faster than double-rainbow. Funny though….I didn’t see any adversarial atmosphere…unless you count her versus facts and reality.
