I have the sound off and the closed captions on.
LOL, Beto just got in a good lick on Cruz about his absence from the State of Texas to spend his time in Iowa. 
I’m surprised Cruz is so weak. He’s got nuttin’.
“What do you admire about your opponent?” :rolleyes:
“True to form.” Ooohh, burn.
Beto gives a sincere, unqualified answer.
Cruz gives a backhanded compliment. Beto responds, “True to form.”
Whoa! Beto criticized Cruz for voting for the tax bill that made wealthy corporations wealthier and Cruz comes back with, "Well, when Beto was on the El Paso City Council, he voted to increase property taxes. So there! "
Oh come on! He didn’t really say, “So there!” Did he? You’re makin’ stuff up!
I wish I’d seen more of it. I thought Beto was very strong, but it’s hard to gauge how Texans viewed it – which may be quite different from my liberal take.
Debates done and I don’t think either one did a very good job. I have allergic reactions to Cruz so it’s hard to be objective but I didn’t hear much from Beto that makes me think he’ll do the unthinkable and win.
Excuse me, but many of us ARE liberals. All the counties in Texas from Austin southward went for Hillary. Please don’t paint us wuth the same brush.
When asked what he admired about Beto, Cruz worked the S-word in again in reference to debating Bernie Sanders.
The president’s name was not spoken. Did anyone follow the Tweet Truck?
OK, who else wants to see Beto challenge Rafael to a BBQ cook-off?
He was thinking it.
How could anyone possibly hope to predict a win or loss based on a one-hour presentation?
That f’n audience. What part of STFU do they not understand?
Anyway, Beto did well, but I don’t think he did a good job of explaining why premiums went up in states that had republican gov’s because they refused to participate in the expansion programs. Or TC’s straw man fallacy tactics. I mean, he touched on it, but I don’t know that it sunk in.
You took offense where none was meant, and I apologize if I was not clear.
I simply meant that Texas is known for leaning Republican, and I wondered how the non-liberal folks heard Beto’s arguments.
I mean, it’s not Oregon down there. If you’re done with Beto, we’d grab him up in a heartbeat.
What was his answer to this?
^He kinda dodged and spun it by saying he decided to look past Trump’s insults in order to best serve his Texas constituents.
Apology accepted. The rest of the country tends to see Texas monolithically. It’s hard, even for us, to grasp how big the state is. From El Paso to Orange (on the Louisiana border) across the middle is 762 miles.
Actually, Austin IS Oregon… In fact, I think it was Oregon before Oregon was Oregon.
Re the annoyance of audience noise: take a leaf from my book-- turn off the sound and put the captions on.
BTW, what happened to thump’s plan to hold a ginormous rally to support Rafael? I’d love it if he would get Kyle Field and 1,000 people would show up. Seats 102,733.
Here’s a summary from the Texas Tribune
A pretty balanced wrap-up from FOXnews
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/09/21/ted-cruz-beto-orourke-clash-in-first-debate-over-trump-immigration-and-supreme-court.html
Native Texan here so don’t take this the wrong way but no, all the counties from Austin southward did not go for Hillary. In fact, none of the suburban counties around Austin went for Hillary. Harris and Fort Bend counties did and most of the counties south of San Antonio went for Hillary, but even there, not all of them did.
I get it that Texas is gradually moving further to the left.
I get that Beto is the most exciting Democratic candidate to run statewide in decades.
But, the Texas Democratic Party is very weak and in a great deal of disarray. As much as I would be delighted to see Beto prevail over Grandpa Munster, I seriously doubt it will happen. In fact, if Beto loses by 9% or less of the vote on Election Day I will be surprised.
Turning Texas blue will require a lot of community organizing and grassroots effort. I truly believe one of the most profitable things the national party could do heading toward 2020 is to pump millions into the state party for just this purpose. But it isn’t going to happen in the seven weeks remaining before Election Day.