So, what did y'all think of the debates Monday night?

[Syrinx]

I thought the one hour for the gubernatorial debate was too short, but a half-hour each for the other two was ridiculous.

I think that Baxley "won" the gubernatorial debate by a fuzz, but she is still in a very deep hole. I wonder how many people even watched... maybe 0.005% of the population? :shrug:

Folsom did a good job against Strange, but I'm surprised he didn't invoke HealthSouth. Wasn't Strange a lobbyist for them during the height of HealthSouth's crimes?

I thought the most interesting of the three debates was the final one. Troy King has a fetish for capital punishment, and Tyson pointed out a basic, fundamental flaw in King's reasoning.

Mr. King wants to use the death penalty against rapists, or at least against "serial rapists."

Mr. Tyson said that if, God forbid, his wife or one of his daughters is raped, he at least wants "to get them back." If the rapist is going to get the death penalty anyway, then he has every incentive to just kill the victim. He will eliminate a witness to the rape, without incurring any additional punishment in the event that he is caught, prosecuted and convicted.

Very good point, Mr. Tyson.

[trof]

1. Didn't watch.

I already know how I'm voting (straight 'D') and I figured Riley would just piss me off.
Did Tyson take King to task or that commercial with the woman who rants against Tyson?

[Gayla]

2. Have to agree that we swept the plate

I was pleasantly and unexpectedly pleased with Lucy,
Folsom came across as smart and common people while Strange Luther
dropped names. Strange was articulate but what did he say????
And John Tyson was magnificent!!! Passionate, credible, and very, very
prosecutorial!!!

[Syrinx]

6. doesn't Folsom have a cool accent?

I remember when Guy Hunt was removed from office and replaced by Folsom, a newspaper columnist, I think it was Tommy Stevenson at the Tuscaloosa News, commented that both men have very pronounced Southern accents. He went on to say that Folsom's sounded like Gregory Peck in "To Kill A Mockingbird," while Hunt's was more like Gomer Pyle.
:rofl:

[trof]

9. Met him a couple of weeks ago.

We had a candidates day at Baldwin Co. Dems office in Foley and he came.
I gotta say he's even better looking in person than on TV.
Very tall. I'm 6'3" and I was looking up at his face. Much thinner than he appears on the tube, too.
I mentioned that and he said "Yeah, they say TV puts about 10 pounds on ya".
Nice fella and very well spoken.

Best line: "Some people say this race is between rich and poor. It's not. It's between the super-rich and all the rest of us." Jim KNOWS who pays for the right votes in the statehouse.

[Syrinx]

11. great line!

He should put that in a TV ad.

BTW, I think my mother has a crush on him. :)

[Syrinx]

4. I think Tyson mentioned that the ad...

Features a convicted thief. He didn't make a big deal about it. Basically, he didn't have time.

[jody]

3. I saw parts of it and was impressed with Little Jim. I hope he's elected because he

would make an outstanding Governor.
P.S. Thanks Syrinx for doing an outstanding job with the Alabama forum.

[Syrinx]

5. thanks for the compliment

I'm just a insomniac on a message board. But it's nice to feel appreciated. :hi:

And about Folsom, I don't know why he didn't run for governor. He would've made a much stronger candidate than the current one. It's insane that he lost to Fob James twelve years ago, or whenever it was.

EDIT: I changed "poster" to "insomniac," because that is more specifically accurate. :)

[Gayla]

7. I actually asked Jim

why he didn't run for Governor at an event we had in Guntersville a few weeks back. He said that Lucy and Don had been running for almost two years and that he couldn't take the amount of time from work back when they both declared. Said things had freed up, so now he had time to campaign for LT. Gov. Also asked him if he had any regrets about not running as Gov, but he didn't answer that one, just kind of grinned.

[Syrinx]

8. thanks for the first-hand information

I've never met Mr. Folsom, but he seems like a genuinely nice fellow.

My dad used to tell me about "Big Jim." According to my father, "Big Jim" would go on TV and admit that he was going to steal money and take bribes, but that at the same time he was going to look out for the state. Something like "I'm going to get mine, but I'm going to make sure you get yours too." In a sort of perverted way, that sounds oddly endearing these days. However, my dad informed me, Big Jim blew it when he showed up for a televised debate three sheets to the wind.

I think "Little Jim" would have been a stronger candidate than Lucy Baxley. I think even Don Siegelman, even with his criminal convictions (mostly politically motivated, in my opinion), would have been a stronger candidate than Baxley, due mostly to his strong support among the African-American population. (Though, I guess he would be ineligible to serve even if elected, given felony convictions.)

[Gayla]

10. Yeppers,

Jim is a nice man. But he really amazed me because way back around 1990-ish, I worked with the domestic violence movement. Senator Bill Drinkard took me in to meet Lt. Gov. Folsom to ask for his assistance with some of our legislation. At that time, the LT. Gov. had much more power and influence in getting things on the calendar. Approximately 17 years later, he remembered me....

I agree Don was scape-goated. I got to work with him on some legislation when he was Attorney General (domestic violence stuff again), and I just don't believe he has a crooked bone in his body.
I just don't believe it.