Dewhurst spars solo but lacks punch
ROUND ROCK— Shortly after the event, some wise-guy jerk asked Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst if he thought he’d won his Monday debate with noshow foe Dan Patrick.
Dewhurst, playing along, responded to my question.
“You know,” he said, “there were a couple of tough moments. But I think we squeaked this one out, absolutely.”
I agree, absolutely. There’s no way Dewhurst lost to Patrick, who canceled because his wife, Jan, fell ill en route to the Williamson County Republican Women’s meeting at which Dewhurst said all the right-wing things that are right for a right-wing audience. He’s for school vouchers, anti-abortion legislation, tightened border security, keeping government out of your life as much as possible, etc. So is Patrick and, as evidenced by his first-place finish in the March GOP primary for lieutenant governor, something about how he says it scores points with GOP voters.
Dewhurst, who said he showed up Monday “prepared to spar” with Patrick, instead used the one-candidate show to self-tout. Early on, he spoke of his mom’s efforts after her husband was killed by a drunken driver when Dewhurst was 3.
“She taught us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,” he told moderator Cari Christman, executive director of Red State Women (that’s red as in Republican, not red as in Red China).
When it was over, Dewhurst got a standing ovation for his solo performance. It seemed to be one of those courtesy standing ovations, not one of those spontaneous, wow-he-wowed-us standing ovations. Dewhurst doesn’t really do wow.
“We’re trying our best to introduce ourselves to people all around the state of Texas,” he said after the event.
After three terms as lite guv and one as land commissioner, it seems Dewhurst shouldn’t have to be “trying our best to introduce ourselves to people all around the state of Texas.” But that’s the deal.
Fact is, Dewhurst, by nature, is low passion, at least for public consumption. And when he cranks up the passion, which tends to be when his back’s against the wall, he cranks up nasty ad campaigns. He did so in losing the GOP U.S. Senate nomination to Ted Cruz in 2012 and is doing so now against Patrick, a state senator from Houston who is now the favorite in the May 27 runoff and who has fired back in kind (unkind?).
Save for close family (and perhaps wise-guy jerk columnists who appreciate that he plays along with their dumb questions), I’m not sure anybody really loves Dewhurst. Oh sure, people like him, but scant few passionately love him politically.
Patrick, on the other hand, is the passion in the race — on both sides. Patrick backers are the kind of folks who are passionate, sometimes to a fault, about the things and people they like. They also tend to be the kind of folks who may sometimes be wrong, but never uncertain. The passion of Patrick also cuts the other way, which means some of Dewhurst’s support comes from people who passionately dislike Patrick. Dewhurst is counting on that.
In a runoff, you want to be the guy with passionate backers.
Dewhurst tends to be white, as in devoid of color. Patrick, by nature and profession (he’s a radio talk show host) can be white hot. He can get a rise out of folks. That’s what makes radio talk show hosts radio talk show hosts.
At last Wednesday’s Dallas debate, Patrick riled Dewhurst into saying, “Do you have snake oil for the hair loss, too, Dan?” Seemed kind of sixth grade to me. Patrick disagreed. He said seventh grade.
After the Dallas debate, I asked Dewhurst if the line was pre-loaded or just popped into his head.
“It popped into my head,” Dewhurst said.
In Round Rock on Monday, Christman ended with the legacy question: “Once you have completed public office one day, what is it you want to leave as a lasting memory for Texans to remember about you?”
“I cared. I cared,” he said. “I fought for them. I did everything I could to leave Texas a little bit better after my years in office. ... That I stood for what Texans and I believe is right, that I did the right thing. That’s what I hope my legacy is: I’ve done the right thing.”
His fate is now up to GOP runoff voters, many of them passion-driven and many of whom believe the things Dewhurst’s done were not far enough right.