The Comments Say It All...

Man, oh man! The debate last night was incredible! Dr. Lawson completely and utterly pummeled Dr. Price with the fist of his tongue.

I don't think that the Congressman knew what hit him. On question after question Dr. Lawson proved that he was no hack. The Congressman could really not pin much on Dr. Lawson so he decided (or should I say that his staffer(s) decided) that the best thing to do was to incessantly make references to BJ's party. He would say things like, "My opponent's party" or "Dr. Lawson's party" has done "x" and voted in "x" manner. Never really laying anything at BJ's feet because BJ has been clear in his opposition to some of the things that his party does.

I tell you what, there was some coverage about this debate that had some errors. Ms. Putterman, the Assistant State and National Editor of the Daily Tar Heel, and I were in contact today; she was very responsive and apologized profusely for the error. The error was attributing to Dr. Lawson an error that was made by one of the debate's moderator. They said that the correction would occur on the website immediately (which, as of 8:45 pm has not occurred). She also said that the correction to the print addition would be made on Monday or Tuesday. Then there was the Editorial Piece that was reported.

My goodness! I think that Mr. Yaniv Barzilai--the Editorial Board Member for the Daily Tar Heel--was at an altogether different debate than was I and the hundreds of other who were at Carroll Hall last night. This fellow says that David Price won the debate! What an absolute joke!

I got a call this morning from one of the campaign volunteers asking me if I had read the opinion piece in the Daily Tar Heel; I had not. Once I read the opinion in the DTH I was absolutely flabbergasted. I was not believing my eyes; I remember being on cloud nine after leaving Carroll Hall last night. On the drive home from the debate I called up Bonnie Hauser, the Grassroots Coordinator for Orange County (who could not make the debate). I told her that we should be so proud to be affiliated with this campaign right now and that BJ had done so well in the debate. Then, when I got home, my wife asked me how was the debate and I could not stop talking; I told her all of the ways that BJ simply owned in the debate and I also told her about the one thing that Price seemed to fall back on; BJ is a Republican.


So, imagine my disgust when the first thing that I read was, "The doors closed, the campaign pins came out, and the night’s battle for North Carolina’s 4th District begun. But through the debate, as incumbent Democratic Representative David Price faced off against Republican B.J. Lawson, Price came out on top."! I was most annoyed because this really personifies the political bigotry that I spoke of the other day here on the blog. This young man already had made up his mind before he even entered Carroll Hall last night. He already knew that BJ was a Republican and David was a Democrat. He knew what were his presuppositions of Republicans (albeit well founded at times) so he did not even give BJ a chance. Seriously, from the start of the day that guy was all over the Congressman.

I know that this was an opinion piece, but seriously, Mr. Barzilai, you could have at least gotten the facts straight at the rare instance when you gave facts. He said, "Lawson claimed that Price voted for the initial two-page bailout that would authorize Henry Paulson to use his discretion. But Price reminded us of his actual voting record, including his vote against the initial plan....Foul ball, Dr. Lawson." Actually, buddy, that was more like a home run! The congressman voted yes for the initial plan as well as the "tweaked plan". So, buddy, get the facts straight before you start to do this for a living. There was some good that came of this, however. There were some people who wrote to comment and set the young lad straight on the DTH website. My personal favorite was written by Eddie Beasley:

Oh Yaniv, I don't even know where to begin. First, I asked myself if you were even at this event. However this notion dissipated as I recalled seeing you hanging onto Price's coattail before and after the debate. Obviously you had made your decision before you arrive last night. But I must ask, did you have the outline of this little piece as well?

As for the debate, you cleverly failed to mention the monstrous applause and standing ovation for Dr. Lawson at the debate's conclusion, not to mention numerous applauses along the way. And as for vague comments, I must direct your attention to the responses of David Price. No matter what the question, he ranted about Lawson's political affiliation. I was unable to keep count of the occasions on which Price said he was supporting Obama. No one cares, this was a debate on the issues, not who were voting for next month. It was a cheap trick to appeal to students at the UNC. I for one am offended that he would think we as students would be dumb enough to fall for such tricks.

To conclude I would like to thank Yaniv for his diligence and unbiased opinion in his work. I just hope you wiped your nose after all the pathetic brown nosing you did last night!

I think that Mr. Beasley said it best. I will finish with that.

Oh, wait, Martin Avila, the Campaign Manager did some fact checking of his own; check it out:

http://blog.lawsonforcongress.com/2008/10/15/fact-check/