Tim Bridgewater

[Lunar]

I was't going to make a thread about this, but does this man listen to a question or does he just spew?  He's asked to summarize his candidacy in a sentence and he starts talking about Massachusetts and is still talking three minutes later before the next question?



http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2010/06/05/state-of-the-race-tim-bridgewater-r-cand-ut-sen/

I was going to support him because he wasn't Lee, but this just sounds bizarre


Disturbing that this man has a 50-50 chance at being a Senator.  If he got 3% more at the convention, he would have been guaranteed to be a Senator as Lee wouldn't have been let onto the primary ballot.

[Lunar]

I know it's a bit long and not visually interesting as it's a radio interview, but it's worth listening to imo.

His google ads that show up if you search his name (even in NY) go to a landing page that's basically a giant donation button without getting to the rest of his site (a common amateur mistake...you tell visitors to your site why they should donate to you BEFORE you ask them to donate) with the giant text:

SOCIALLY CONSERVATIVE.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE.
RIGHT TO THE POINT.

[Torie]

I was't going to make a thread about this, but does this man listen to a question or does he just spew?  He's asked to summarize his candidacy in a sentence and he starts talking about Massachusetts and is still talking three minutes later before the next question?



http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2010/06/05/state-of-the-race-tim-bridgewater-r-cand-ut-sen/

I was going to support him because he wasn't Lee, but this just sounds bizarre


Disturbing that this man has a 50-50 chance at being a Senator.  If he got 3% more at the convention, he would have been guaranteed to be a Senator as Lee wouldn't have been let onto the primary ballot.

Bridgewater was invited to state the raison d'etre of his candidacy in a "word, a sentence, or a paragraph." He started off fine, and went on for awhile, with the "paragraph" getting rather long admittedly, until he reached the bit about the Constitution, and the Feds violating it, and on and on and on. But the radio host was non compis mentis, so that is what happens. Politicians will keep talking until someone asks them to stop.

In the meantime, here is the text of an interview with Mike Lee. Notice how he gets down to the point, and understands "nuance?"  He appears to be a least the more educated voice here, or more facile with words, and well, a bit more sophisticated. I wonder if he is a lawyer.

[Lunar]

Yeah yeah, but the question was obviously for him to quickly summarize his candidacy. 

I've never seen any politician ramble so damn much for the life of me.

[Lunar]

Yeah yeah, but the question was obviously for him to quickly summarize his candidacy.  

I've never seen any politician ramble so damn much for the life of me.

And every politician with three brain cells since Ted Kennedy bombed the question "Why do you want to be President?" four decades ago is prepared to answer that question.  It's a famous mistake that EVERYONE has learned from.  This is like claiming to have served in Vietnam after Blumenthal's screwup.  

Listen to Marco Rubio, you can see that he is 100% focused on this kind of question for EVERYTHING he talks about, and other GOP pols are starting to copy him.  The answer, for them, is "For the first time in American history, I'm concerned that the next generation of children, including my children, may grow up in a country that's less well-off than the generation before it, and I had to do something"

Anyone running for office who can't answer the question "In a simple statement, why are you running for this office?" needs to rethink their career choices and get out of politics.  And any campaign manager, who doesn't prep their candidate for this sort of question needs to get out of politics as well.  This is like Politics 101.  This is like starting a campaign website -- how can you NOT do it?

 Being able to summarize your candidacy is probably about on the same level as realizing that maybe you want to get out of the vote in terms of campaign planning -- every campaign needs a simple theme that answers that question and every campaign needs to figure that out before the campaign even begins.

[Torie]

Bridgewater hit on the same theme, that he is worried about coming generations' standard of living, before moving on to this and that. That will become a common theme, not only in this election cycle, but more so, in coming ones, because the US standard of living overall probably will be declining, at least after tax, and maybe before. In any event, it won't be going up much. I suspect politics in that environment is going to get fairly toxic, more so than now, until American's view of their own exceptional status begins to come back down to earth a bit - and reality.

I added above a link to a short interview with Mike Lee. He does appear to be the "brighter" guy by a considerable margin, at least he gives a hint of that in his truncated conversation.

[Lunar]

Ah, interesting.

It should be added that RedState is an extremely strong supporter of Lee, and despite the kiddy-glove questioning, Bridgewater would have almost certainly treated this interview as walking into the lion's den and have heavily prepared for it, unless there were ground rules I'm not aware of.

Although, I guess Rand Paul's former campaign manager didn't figure out that the Rachel Maddow Show might treat a general election interview about the Civil Rights Act a little differently than when he was the anti-McConnell primary challenger.  Whoops! 

[Torie]

Ah, interesting.

It should be added that RedState is an extremely strong supporter of Lee, and despite the kiddy-glove questioning, Bridgewater would have almost certainly treated this interview as walking into the lion's den and have heavily prepared for it, unless there were ground rules I'm not aware of.

Although, I guess Rand Paul's former campaign manager didn't figure out that the Rachel Maddow Show might treat a general election interview about the Civil Rights Act a little differently than when he was the anti-McConnell primary challenger.  Whoops!  

And here is a TV debate one can view between Bridgewater and Lee, which I have not yet watched. It might be of some interest, since one of these guys will be a US Senator.

[Lunar]

Ah, interesting.

It should be added that RedState is an extremely strong supporter of Lee, and despite the kiddy-glove questioning, Bridgewater would have almost certainly treated this interview as walking into the lion's den and have heavily prepared for it, unless there were ground rules I'm not aware of.

Although, I guess Rand Paul's former campaign manager didn't figure out that the Rachel Maddow Show might treat a general election interview about the Civil Rights Act a little differently than when he was the anti-McConnell primary challenger.  Whoops!  

And here is a TV debate one can view between Bridgewater and Lee, which I have not yet watched. It might be of some interest, since one of these guys will be a US Senator.

Watching now.  But do you note what Lee says in the first 8 seconds of the opening segment?  

edit: And how he opens his introduction?

edit2: And how Bridgewater doesn't?

[Lunar]

watching Torie's video:

Bridgewater: "We should pull out of the U.N. ...  [rambles] because we don't have adequate representation in the Security Council... [rambles] they're decidedly anti family [rambles]"

The UN is anti-family?
 
edit 2: Lee is now complaining that poor people don't pay enough taxes.  But at least he sounds smart.  A Republican primary debate in Utah is a rather depressing affair.  

edit 3: I have no idea about what the hell Bridgewater is saying about about flat tax rates.  I guess he's worked in the private sector, he likes it, and some gibberish?

edit 4: Mike Lee can impressively say he wants to repeal Medicare without actually saying it.  Bridgewater's argument about Medicare apparently has something to do with the fact that he got 57% of the vote at the second ballot at the convention?

edit 5: I guess Bridgewater opposes repealing DADT because "A change in policy that may or may not be necessary" while we're in two different wars, which, he repeats, "may or may not" have an effect, [rambles] and "there are people from all walks of life."  What?

edit 6: This guy is like a raspy male version of Sarah Palin.  I'm out.

[Torie]

Bridgewater's voice is raspy, as if he were a heavy smoker, but he is Mormon, so I assume that is not the reason (Jack Mormon's don't run very well in the Utah GOP ). 

Thanks for the play by play Lunar. It sounds like it was a fun debate. I guess Bridgewater's hero is that Vaughn Ward dude up the road in Idaho.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Does it really matter whether Tweedledum or Tweedledee wins? If they don't act as wingnutty as possible, they'll just get bounced out in the next convention six years down the road.

[Lunar]

Does it really matter whether Tweedledum or Tweedledee wins? If they don't act as wingnutty as possible, they'll just get bounced out in the next convention six years down the road.

Well, there's a slight difference between someone like Tom Coburn and someone like Mike Enzi

I'm not sure who Bridgewater is like, but he sounds like he's permanently going to be like Sarah Palin on a bad day.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Does it really matter whether Tweedledum or Tweedledee wins? If they don't act as wingnutty as possible, they'll just get bounced out in the next convention six years down the road.

Well, there's a slight difference between someone like Tom Coburn and someone like Mike Enzi

I'm not sure who Bridgewater is like, but he sounds like he's permanently going to be like Sarah Palin on a bad day.

Probably a bonus for Democrats.

[SvenssonRS]

Does it really matter whether Tweedledum or Tweedledee wins? If they don't act as wingnutty as possible, they'll just get bounced out in the next convention six years down the road.

Well, there's a slight difference between someone like Tom Coburn and someone like Mike Enzi

I'm not sure who Bridgewater is like, but he sounds like he's permanently going to be like Sarah Palin on a bad day.

Probably a bonus for Democrats.

In UTAH?

HAHAHAHAHA--oh, you were serious...

[Lunar]

Does it really matter whether Tweedledum or Tweedledee wins? If they don't act as wingnutty as possible, they'll just get bounced out in the next convention six years down the road.

Well, there's a slight difference between someone like Tom Coburn and someone like Mike Enzi

I'm not sure who Bridgewater is like, but he sounds like he's permanently going to be like Sarah Palin on a bad day.

Probably a bonus for Democrats.

In UTAH?

Obviously he means nationally.  There are no Democrats in Utah.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Does it really matter whether Tweedledum or Tweedledee wins? If they don't act as wingnutty as possible, they'll just get bounced out in the next convention six years down the road.

Well, there's a slight difference between someone like Tom Coburn and someone like Mike Enzi

I'm not sure who Bridgewater is like, but he sounds like he's permanently going to be like Sarah Palin on a bad day.

Probably a bonus for Democrats.

In UTAH?

Obviously he means nationally.  There are no Democrats in Utah.

Yes. Duh. Though of course Salt Lake City, Summit County and Grand Counties are all still in Utah, so the second sentence is untrue.

[Brittain33]

It should be added that RedState is an extremely strong supporter of Lee, and despite the kiddy-glove questioning, Bridgewater would have almost certainly treated this interview as walking into the lion's den and have heavily prepared for it, unless there were ground rules I'm not aware of.

Has Sarah Palin told us which one is the patriot yet?