Posted by Courtesy of the Sparks campaign and Vimeo. It appears to be the debate in full and about 1 hour 14 minutes long, so might want to top up the coffee cup.
Maybe we will hear more talk about the proper role of the State, the value of a college degree, and other trivia (prisons, public health, state finances, etc) from the candidates this campaign season.
8/31/10 – let’s add a link to an Arab Tribune exit poll. they were able to interview 88% of the attendees, and found most had already had made their minds before the debate, 56.4% would vote for Bentley. sparks was the more persuasive of the two, convincing 4 of 8 voters who changed their minds to vote for him.
Bentley quote about college is going to hurt him.
Hey Danny,
There’s more going on in the world than rumors about Alabama politics. You are missing the big news, as usual:
Who Should the People of the Gulf Coast Trust for Payback?
The Federal Government or the State Court System?
http://blog.locustfork.net/2010/08/who-should-the-people-of-the-gulf-coast-trust-for-payback/
We will see jpo. The well stoked bipartisan anti-tax sentiment, it may come into play as well as the partisan factors.
I may be wrong walt but my I hear that an overwhelming majority support the lottery and that it alone causes a big swing in how people view candidates. The reason the lottery didn’t win in 99 is that its supporters are less rabid than its detractors. But in a presidential year (2012), the lottery would win big.
Could be, the lottery is the working man’s stock market/retirement plan and those long distance/instant win lottery cards do sell. But we’ll see in November and afterwards in the Legislature next year.
Be interesting to see some polling reports (with cross tabs) but those seem a bit scarce.
It was an interesting debate, but someone on Bentley’s campaign staff needs to remind him that he is speaking to people, not the floor. Now lets see how this plays out. On employment, Bentley is for continuing the tax incentives that we have already given every Tom, Dick and Harry that wants to establish a branch office in Alabama. Sparks wants to build roads, and wants to get money from the businesses with which we have established contractual agreements and have already given the tax breaks in writing.
This is a Draw. Neither have a good plan.
Bentley is against Obamacare, and rightfully so: he’s a Doctor. Obamacare limits the amount Doctors can charge the Federal government for Medicare and Medicaid services to 75% of the usual and customary, and guess what? They have to see Medicare and Medicaid patients or they will be subject to penalties. Bentley boasts that he read the law, but he forgot to mention that he has a personal financial stake in the process. Bentley rails that he won’t accept Obamacare, and that we should pass another Constitutional Amendment (Number what, 3,000?) saying we don’t like it. Fine and dandy. It still doesn’t change the fact that it’s Federal law, and Sparks is right; if we don’t do something to codify the law to help fit Alabama circumstances and needs, the Feds are going to take over our health care and we get the one size fits all program run by Washington D.C.
Point for Sparks for living in the real world and dealing with the problem.
On education, Bentley first (at 40 minutes) said that it is the responsibility of families to pay for their children’s college education. Then at 59 minutes he said that he’s going to tax the rich to pay to educate the poor. Which is it? Plus I’m sure that his Republcian handlers cringed pretty bad when he mentioned more taxes on the rich. Ron Sparks wants a lottery and gaming tax of 25 to 30 percent to pay for education. Well, I doubt it will solve all the problems, but at least it’s a start.
Bentley loses a point in addition to 2,000 undecided votes for saying “taxing the rich” as a Republican, and Sparks gets a point for at least trying to establish a tax stream.
On Immigration, Bentley wants to use the Federal system that is already in place. It’s called “E-Verify,” and is required to be queried on every employee, even if the employee can prove they were born in the U.S. Bentley acts like this system was thought up by him, and that we should use it. It’s been in place since 9/11. Bentley erroneously noted as a Republican candidate that “Big Business” is breaking the law, and proceeded to add a little zinger that Alabama is going to make its’ own Immigration Laws, like Arizona. Sparks simply says if you’re undocumented, you’re in “jail with no bail.”
This was the closest part of the debate. Sparks ekes out the point because he at least didn’t say that Alabama is going to tell the Federal government that it is not going to comply with the law. Bentley says he is going to “stand up to the Federal government.” At least Sparks understands that secessionist attitudes coupled with failure to comply with the law of the land result in nothing but activation of the National Guard. Remember desegregation? Bentley almost got the point because he correctly noted that “Big Business” breaks the law by hiring illegal aliens, and now Bentley will suffer the loss of money for his campaign from the Republican fat cats because they know their hiring policies that were protected by the Riley administration are in real trouble.
BP and the Oil Spill. Sparks says that “BP will be dogged.” Bentley side stepped the subject and said that we don’t need gaming, we need real jobs. Then Bentley talked about how in one year, businesses can benefit from his tax break by hiring a person currently receiving Unemployment.
Point for Sparks. Is Bentley receiving contributions from BP? Bentley should be salivating at the money he might be able to squeeze out of the oil giant.
Montgomery Politics. Bentley is going to “clean house.” Yeah, sure, how many times have we heard that? Bentley is part of the house that he wants to clean. Sparks says he wants to reach out across party lines at both the State and Federal levels to gain concensus to help solve the problems we are facing. Do I believe that? Not really, but it’s good fodder for the campaign.
This is a draw. Remember, Governors come, and Governors go, but Montgomery will remain and stay the same. Both Sparks and Bentley think that they can change the lobbyist (i.e., money) controlled legislature. It won’t happen in either your or my lifetimes.
On Unemployment. Both understand that most jobs come from small business. But Bentley didn’t even know who to name as the largest employer in the state. Bentley noted that he only made $110,000 last year, but qualified it by saying that he gave $15,000 to his church. Here we go again. . .I guess giving $15,000 to the church gains him entry and a special place in heaven. Bentley again stated that he will not take pay as Governor until unemployment in Alabama is 5.2%. Sparks was at least honest about the whole deal, he said that he would take the money because he has a mortgage to pay. Both want to build roads, and bantied around the figure of $100,000,000. Neither said where they were going to get the money. Then Bentley really stepped in it when he said that the 6,000 Alabamians put out of work in the gaming industry by Riley didn’t have “real jobs.”
This is a no brainer. Sparks at least appeared to be honest as a politician can be and said he would take the money. Bentley thinks that the 6,000 people in the gaming industry put out of work by Riley didn’t have “real” jobs. I guess those 6,000 persons paid their bills and taxes with “fake” money. Point for Sparks. I should deduct two points from Bentley for just being an idiot and not caring about fellow Alabamians, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt because he appeared nervous and just say he lost.
Well, there it is folks. So, by my calculations, Sparks wins the debate 4 points to -1. Bentley better polish his delivery and carefully phrase his statments if he intends to occupy Goat Hill. At this point in time, it wasn’t pretty, Bentley came off as a stiff marionette for Big Business even though he bit his handlers in the butt a few times, afraid (or bought) by BP, and daring the Federal govenmment to occupy Alabama over Health Care and Immigration.
Sooo, based on this, Bentley will change the way we do business in Montgomery. Of course, that will be under martial law. And Sparks is taking the tack of spouting for a consensus between Republicans and Democrats that will never happen because there is too much money and bad blood involved.
The Ron Sparks Drinking Game –
Any time Sparks makes a grammatical error, take a shot.
That’s suicide!
Grammer and spelling (Mississipi) not very important in Alabama
As Bentley said, “We know Alabama’s schools is in trouble.” I hope he will fix the education system by focusing a little more on *grammar* and spelling, as well as “through systematic order and accountability”.
Does anyone know the source of the quote above?
Both of our gubernatorial candidates think “grammar” is their mother’s mom, you know, that dear little lady that baked cookies for them at Christmas!
With Byrne out of the running, Robert Bentley as the best choice for Governor of Alabama.He’s the only candidate in the race who is not
completely opposed to the idea of charter schools. With an education
system that is ranked 44th out of 50 states, the state needs to exploit
every opportunity to improve the quality of our schools.
For more information, visit here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOh5nRjCBm0
[...] a debate in Arab, Bentley made controversial remarks about opportunities for children to get a college degree. [...]