Barber vs. Kelly, First Round: Hits and a Miss
May 17, 2012
By Michael Bryan
Last night Ron Barber and Jesse Kelly debated for the first time face to face. The result was a missed opportunity, and some palpable hits, by Barber.
In every race there are a few key issues that will decide which way persuadable voters will break. In this race, both campaigns and their proxies seem to be signaling that there are two major arguments that will decide this race: entitlements and jobs. Barber missed his opportunity to set the record straight on the former, and scored a solid hit on the latter.
Barber's campaign is also focusing on a character theme against Kelly: he's inconsistent. He's a radical who is now trying to moderate his positions. Barber did a generally good job of making that case, with one significant misjudgment.
See video and details after the click…
Extreme Makeover: The media villagers give Jesse Kelly 2.0 a pass
May 17, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
As I posted previously in Extreme Makeover: Jesse Kelly 2.0, "Blog for Arizona is going to go back through our posts from 2010 and repost some of them to demonstrate the "extreme makeover" the RNCC is doing to make Jesse Kelly 2.0 appear more palatable to voters in 2012."
Michael Bryan did a post on Every Republican Congressional Challenger in Arizona Supports a Flat Tax or National Sales Tax that contained this link to the Arizona Voter Guide with Jesse Kelly's 2010 Survey from the Center for Arizona Policy aka the Christian Taliban. http://www.azvoterguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/kellyj.pdf.
Some interesting highlights from Jesse Kelly:
Supports:
Q1. Replacing the current federal tax code with a flat tax or national sales tax.
Q5. Amending the United States Constitution to define marriage as between only one man and one woman.
Q12. Prohibitng abortion except when it is necessary to prevent the death of the mother [only].
Q13. Passing state laws that authorize local law enforcement officials to enforce federal immigration laws [i.e., SB 1070 type laws].
Opposes:
Q6. Setting a government cap on carbon emissions, requiring companies to buy emissions credits, and allowing them to trade any leftover credits (called "cap amd trade') [supported by John McCain and Sarah Palin in 2008 presidential campaign].
Q10. Adding "sexual orientation,' "gender identity," or "gender expression" to the protected classes of race, religion, age, sex and ancestry in discrimination law [The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) currently before Congress] [Related: the Violence Against Women Act amendments currently before Congress].
Q14. Repealing the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which states that marriage is the union of one man and one woman and declares states do not have to recognize same-sex marriage from oher states.
Fact Checking the KUAT Forum
May 17, 2012
by
by David Safier
Today's Star article covering last night's debate/forum reports the events accurately. If all you want is a "He said/He said" to tell you what went on, the article pretty much does the job.
But many points raised by the candidates which are discussed in the article can be fact checked. Since the Star didn't see fit to do that, I've listed every checkable fact I could find in the article and looked at whether they can be judged true or false.
My conclusion based on the evidence below: Barber's statements are far more accurate than Kelly's. It creates a false equivalence to simply say they attacked each other during the debate without fact checking the accuracy of their claims.
- "Barber painted Kelly as a man who has a pattern of telling lies and changing his stance on issues." True.
Since "lying" is in the eye of the beholder, that's a difficult charge to rate, so that's not really a checkable fact. But it's definitely true Kelly has changed his stance on a number of issues, most specifically his strong stands on privatizing and phasing out Social Security and Medicare, which he recently has tried to soften and/or deny. - "Kelly painted Barber as man whom President Obama and the Democrats are trying to buy as another "reliable far-left vote" and who has spent the campaign mischaracterizing Kelly's past comments." False
The "buying another reliable far-left vote" is in the eye of the beholder, so, like "lying," it is not a checkable fact. However, Barber has used Kelly's own words to characterize his past comments, and the context of the quotes doesn't change the meaning. The one exception is Barber's use of Kelly's "oil is a renewable resource" statement. More on that below. - Kelly said Barber "has run his entire campaign based on attempting to scare seniors into voting a certain way." False.
Kelly's main argument against Barber is that the $500 billion reduction in spending on Medicare will reduce senior's benefits, which has been proven false, so it is Kelly who's using a false allegation to try and scare seniors out of voting for Barber. The accurate use of Kelly's own words to depict how he will deal with Social Security and Medicare is the use of factual information, not a scare tactic.
Tucson Weekly Endorsement: Ron Barber for Congress
May 17, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Tucson Weekly on newstands today endorses Ron Barber in the CD8 Special Election — early voting begins today. The Tucson Weekly Endorsement: Ron Barber: There's a reason that Republicans who have worked with Democrat Ron Barber are stepping across party lines to support him. It's because those Republicans—former Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup, … Read more
The Tucson Weekly teaches the Arizona Daily Star how political reporting is done
May 17, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
How can we expect informed voters when the media fails to inform?
A classic example today is the Arizona Daily Star coverage of last night's CD8 Special Election debate on KUAT. Star reporter Brady McCombs focuses on the optics of the event rather than substance, falls back on his comfort zone of pure stenography (he said/he said) to create a false equivalency that both sides are lying – AND WHERE IS THE FACT CHECK accompanying article? Testy Barber, Kelly trade claims of lying during CD8 debate.
The Arizona Daily Star is almost totally useless.
Luckily we have a real political reporter, Jim Nintzel at the Tucson Weekly, who teaches the Arizona Daily Star today how political reporting is done. The Skinny | Tucson Weekly:
THE CD 8 AIR WAR ESCALATES
The stories about competing endorsements and shifting positions on Social Security and Medicare in the Congressional District 8 race have been overshadowed by the money pouring into Southern Arizona from Washington, D.C.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the House Majority PAC, a Democratic super-PAC, are spending at least $800,000 through Election Day; the National Republican Congressional Committee is spending at least $600,000, and the GOP ticket is getting a boost from the Citizens United, a right-wing super-PAC that announced this week that it would spend $100,000 on TV ads.
The Republicans are focusing on how Democrat Ron Barber won't support the complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare; the Democrats are focusing on all the radical statements Jesse Kelly has made about privatizing Medicare and Social Security, and eliminating the minimum wage and corporate taxes, as well as his other Tea Party rhetoric.
The NRCC ads, as we explained in last week's Skinny, rely on a claim that has been repeatedly declared "false" by the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-check operation PolitiFact. The Republicans have been pushing the talking point that Obamacare cuts Medicare by $500 billion.
Classic Krugman
May 17, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Paul Krugman blog: Killing Satire Isn’t Enough Some people insist on waterboarding it first. Former President George W. Bush will soon publish a book on strategies for economic growth.
Housekeeping
May 17, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: I will repost this link http://www.cracked.com/funny-3809-internet-argument-techniques/ which provides you with an effective summary of the worst practices of blog trolls. Enjoy.
The Barber-Kelly confrontation on KUAT: Observations
May 16, 2012
by
by David Safier Here are some observations about tonight's faceoff between Barber and Kelly on KUAT. [Note: Green Party candidate Charlie Manolakis was there too and did a pretty good job, but I'm going to focus on the two big guys.] WINNERS AND LOSERS: Barber and Kelly held on to their supporters tonight. Both of … Read more
