Watched the Governor’s Debate hosted by Mississippi College School of Law and broadcast on WLBT last night. I missed a little bit of it because like most Mississippians, I was helping get my family ready for the next day. But here are a few observations from what I did see.
1. James Broadwater looked like he was about to cry the whole debate. He by far gave the weakest performance of the night. Kept expecting Borat to join him.
2. The Governor of Clarksdale (Bill Luckett) and the Governor of Hattiesburg (Johnny Dupree) will apparently face off in a race to be Governor of Mississippi.
3. The middle-tier candidates did all they could to get attention.
4. Hudson Holliday reminded me of my grumpy uncle.
5, It was Phil Bryant’s night to lose, he didn’t.
6. My twitter feed lit up when Broadwater suggested closing all the casinos. He was the most talked about person on my Twitter feed and it wasn’t positive.
7. Kept expecting Dave Dennis to rise up in a bucket lift.
8. Luckett and Dennis took the most shots at Phil Bryant. Wish I could have seen the look on his face when they made them.
9. Apparently Ron Williams got denied from a cushy deal by a fat cat. He talks about fat cats a lot. He was most animated of debaters.
10. Don’t think Hudson Holliday ever realized that the minority partner in Dave Dennis’ firm is his wife. Even after Dennis explained it to him.
A few things; I was at the debate. I thought Phil Bryant did lose. His primary is effectively unopposed. He will get the Republican nomination. I found him arrogant and out of touch. Preaching to one of the poorest, least educated states in the nation to pull themselves up by their bootstraps was deeply offensive.
I realize that is not a “few” things. Phone issue. To continue, Mr. Williams showed himself as too much of an outsider. Wife showed up in campaign gear and was the only person who did and someone plastered the law school lawn with his signs, dozens of them. All in poor taste. Finally, I don’t know if the television picked it up but there was an audible gasp when Broadwater mentioned closing the casinos. I don’t think the Republicans made a good impression at all.