DNC-VIP-4-A-GOP

I went to the Democratic presidential debate here in Austin last night. I was one of the lucky few who got in. I had no idea what a big deal this was to people here until we were transported from the Four Seasons to the Debate in a series of blacked out SUV’s, motorcade style, and watched as thousands of sign toting people screamed out to us thinking we were the candidates themselves. We waved and people exploded with applause and support, they could only see our outlines through those dark windows. It was wild. CR and I decided right then and there that we need to rent these cars at least once a month and drive around town like presidential VIP’s. I'm sure we get some free stuff or at least our own lane of traffic. Of course we were dropped off right in front of the door of the debate, in front of a marching band and what must have been 10,000 onlookers. We were whisked like total celebrities past the long lines and pushed through our own security detail. Our seats were directly on the floor about 12 rows back. We were surrounded by Texas and national politicos; Chelsea was a few rows up looking quite good I must say. The senators looked good. Clinton seemed warmer in person than on TV, Obama clearly had most of the support in the room (college kids are crazy for him) . We had to listen to some roll-your-eyes Texas DNC rebel rousing before we got to the meat of the evening. Campbell Brown and company were side notes to the 2 candidates, who started out very cordial towards each other but then eroded into some much needed mudslinging about halfway through. Hillary called barrack out on speech plagiarism and his penchant for generalizing and non-specification, Barack fired back at Hillary’s health care plan and accused her of elitism. I would honestly say that barrack had the evening tied up UNTIL the closing arguments. Hillary pulled out a show stopping wrap-up that brought the crowd to their feet. It was reminiscent of her famous campaign trail breakdown, commenting on how hard she’s working, how difficult this has been on her personally and professionally. She even addressed her own well-known marital issues and public set backs, but she brought the argument home by saying that this life she has forged for herself, despite the challenges and the the personal scrutiny has been worth every minute because she knows in the end she’s helping Americans.

I was interviewed by The Statesman on my way out and was asked if I had to vote for one of these two candidates, which it would be. I unequivocally said Clinton. When I'm forced to chose between the lesser of 2 evils, I'm gonna side with the one who has more experience, a more powerful sphere of influence and quite frankly, bigger balls. I think that about says it.