UPDATE: Last night’s painful 10th District debate
July 10, 2007 at 4:23 pm by Andisheh Nouraee in NewsStreaming video of last night’s 10th Congressional District debate between candidates Jim Whitehead and Paul Broun is now available, courtesy of Atlanta Press Club.
Broun and Whitehead were shockingly petty and inarticulate. Watching and listening to these two people embarrasses me as a Georgian and as an American. I’d vote for a leaky Magic 8-Ball before I’d vote for either of these two.
I’ve transcribed some of the more grim exchanges and added italics for skimmers.
Here’s Paul Broun quizzing Jim Whitehead on his pro-gun bona fides:
“You claim your endorsement from the NRA as being something that’s great, but when you did your screening with the state affiliate of the NRA, which I was endorsed by, and I’ve been endorsed by the gun owners of America and multiple pro-gun groups, I was told that you told them that you didn’t even own a gun and were not a member of the NRA. This smacks to me of political payback or something. Would you please explain to me how you got the NRA endorsement?”
And Jim Whitehead’s response:
“Well, I think, Paul, if you would think back, I don’t know where you got this about me not owning guns. I have a .38, a 30-06, a 12-gauge Remington automatic, and a .410, so I don’t know where you got this from, Paul. But anyway, the reason they endorsed me is I have a 100 percent voting record with the NRA and they think that’s good.”
Here’s Whitehead on how he’ll leverage a congressional seat to fund the Brain Train, the proposed rail linking Atlanta and Athens.
“I’ve been an advocate for it for a good while. The thing about the Brain Train is certainly it’s about transportation and I will try to find transportation funds that are available to Georgia for rail development.
“I know a lot about rail. My dad was with the railroad.
“But let me tell you this. It’s not just about transportation. That is probably the most valuable 60 miles anywhere around these parts, maybe in the United States, maybe equal to the Silicone Valley [sic].”
Brad Means of WJBF-TV in Augusta asked Whitehead about the U.S.’s unpopularity around the world:
“With the exception of Great Britain, maybe a couple of other countries, it doesn’t seem like a lot of people like us. What would you do to make sure that our relationships with our allies and our enemies around the world are the best relationships possible?”
Here’s Whitehead’s utterly nonsensical response:
“Well, of course Brad, what you have to do is make sure who your enemies are and who your friends are. I have been for sealing the borders and in every talk that I’ve been in, I said seal the borders, both in Mexico and in Canada. So we’ve got to do that.
“We’ve got to quit looking at things like the NAFTA superhighway as a good thing. I have not seen anything that’s good about that. But I tell you, we have got to support people like Great Britain, like Poland, who, where I have been and worked with their government quite a bit. We have got to find out who our allies are and we’ve got to support them, Brad. We can’t turn our back on them.
“We are the leader. We are the freedom of the whole world and everybody knows that. They don’t like us. When I was chairman of Homeland Security this past year in Atlanta, the figure that came to us is there’s already 40,000 terrorists in the United States. We’ve got a problem and we need to handle it now.”
Even though Broun said he’d consult the Bible to figure out how to vote on legislation, the evening’s most sanctimonious moment belonged to WBJF’s Means.
Here was his question about “Hollywood”:
“This is for Dr. Broun. I took my family to see a movie last week. It was rated G. One of the characters used the word ‘hell’ in the movie, a word I didn’t think was supposed to be in a G movie, a word that my 5- and 4-year-old boys have never heard.
“What can you do about Hollywood standards to make sure that they’re tough and to make sure that there is more family-friendly fare at the theaters?”
Broun’s answer:
“Brad, there’s been a lot of effort to rate movies appropriately. You’re exactly right. In fact, that word came out of the mouth of my opponent’s campaign manager.”
Puke.
July 10th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
I watched some of the debate and after hearing Broun say he’d consult the Bible to figure out how to vote on legislation, today I thought about sending a contribution to his opponent Mr. Whitehead.
But after reading your transcript above, I think they are both losers and are shameful to the people of the state of Georgia.
July 11th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Douches
July 11th, 2007 at 11:01 am
If Whitehead’s campaign manager used the H-word, well, we’ve got no option but to support Broun. I assume that Broun voted for Kerry-Edwards, however, after learning that Dick Cheney used the F-word on the floor of the Senate.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
And these are the people we want running health care?