Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Thursday, August 24, 2006 9:05:02 PM
I was lucky enough to see the debate that followed the sign waving. It occurred in a small auditorium on the 6th floor of Children's Hospital.
It is hard to call what I saw this morning a "debate." Rather it was a dual question and answer period long on answers with few questions
The audience was equally friendly to and appreciative of both candidates. It was mostly professionals.
If the moderator had an agenda, it was to try to get both candidates to commit to spend more money on "children." The nature of the questions made the cynic in me suspect that he would not have been displeased to turn the whole thing into a bidding war between the candidates.
Bill Ritter was more than willing to play that game. My guess is that he spoke between 20 and 30 minutes total-I didn't time them. In that period, he gave the Democratic code word for spending, "investment" no less than 28 times. I wish I had counted the number of times he mentioned C & D. I voted for C & D, and I don't yet regret that vote, but if Ritter keeps talking tax and spend like he did today, including multiple mentions of "Colorado Promise," it won't take long. (I also voted for Amendment 1, and don't regret that vote, either.)
Ritter's biggest mistake, in my opinion, was that he tried to hammer home the difference in the tax and spending policies he would employ and Beauprez' by stating that Beauprez had a zero rating from the Children's Defense Fund, as if that were bad. Beauprez was more of a gentleman about that than I would be. If there is one single bit of information that could get me to vote for a candidate, sight unseen, it would be a low rating from CDF. Anyone criticizing a candidate for a low CDF rating is telling the world that he plans to be a big spender.
The biggest surprise to me was that someone must have told Ritter how distracting his little pasted on grin had been on the KBDI debate. It was totally gone, which allowed me to listen to the questions and answers rather than watch that grin.
The best speech of the morning was Beauprez' closing speech. Nothing Ritter did equaled it
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For those outside Colorado, Amendment 1 was Doug Bruce's 1992 quite successful attempt to curb the growth of government. Some thought it a bit too successful, and a year ago, the voters narrowly passed Amendment C, which is a 5 year vacation from Amendment 1. D Didn't pass. Governor Owens was supporting passage, which divided the Republicans.
It was a gut wrenching vote for me and my wife, so difficult that we agonized over it for weeks before deciding to support it. My guess is that the same happened in many Republican households, though with different outcomes.