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Debate round one: Score two points for Dino Rossi
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| Contributor | Ralphie |
| Last Edited | Ralphie Sep 21, 2008 11:40pm |
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| Category | Blog Entry |
| News Date | Monday, September 22, 2008 05:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Based on the Saturday night, Sept. 20, debate, we're awarding Dino Rossi two more points on the Guvometer. He held his own with Gov. Chris Gregoire, which is a kind of victory for a challenger. She was too wonky, boasting three-point plans for everything while Dino told anecdotes about his Tlingit grandmother and Seattle elementary schoolteacher father. And Gregoire's defensive attempt to blame the economic bad news on George Bush and Rossi's last term in the state Senate (wasn't somebody named Gary Locke the previous governor, and wasn't there something like the dot.com bust and post 9/11 going on?) was not convincing. Talking about hard times, meanwhile, just underscored the awkward spot the incumbent governor is in as the state economy succumbs and the Boeing strike persists.
Rossi's framing message is that Gregoire has spent so much money in the past four years that she will have to raise taxes, even in a recession, to correct her mistakes. He pounced right on her evasive phrase, "Now is not the time to be even discussing raising taxes." Latent in that framing message is a call for change and for a jobs-oriented, low-tax Republican to balance all those Democrats ruling Olympia and 24 years of Democatic governors.
Rossi then undermines his business-oriented commonsensical stance by engaging in some magical thinking: relieve congestion, take care of the "most vulnerable" (note the qualifier), build a tunnel for the Alaskan Way Viaduct corridor and eight lanes for the Evergreen Point Bridge, solve the huge deficit — all without raising taxes or even resorting to new devices like tolls. It's voodoo economics, but at least he counters Gregoire's claim to be the person with all the plans. |
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