Debate - Does Not Compute

Shut Up, Would You?

If you happened to catch the gubernatorial debate on Saturday between Governor Ehrlich and Mayor Martin "I want to be just like Kennedy" O'Malley, you saw an interesting debate.

O'Malley was excellent at delivering his memorized platitudes and sucker-punches. His lack of details and condescending attacks were overshadowed by his pretty smile and his 'golly-gee, I can help you' mannerisms.

Ehrlich, who spent a good portion of his time telling O'Malley to shut the funk up during his own rebuttal time, spent the remaining time trying to redress misleading accusations. O'Malley's fantasy statements were to the effect of, "There are 2 Bob Ehrlich's. One that promises to help children and working families. The other Bob Ehrlich hates children and working middle-class families, unlike me. This is evidenced by the fact that Ehrlich raised tuition 40% and now hard working middle-class families can no longer afford to send their children to college."

Let's diagnose this.

* Bob Ehrlich does not dictate tuition increases. They are determined by the Board of Regents for the respective colleges. Ehrlich 1, Dumass 0.

* According to the Democratic Leadership Council's webpage, they state that the average college tuition in the United States was up 50% over the past 5 years ending in 2006. In other words, O'Malley's Democratic party is actually applauding Ehrlich for keeping the tuition increases below the national average. Ehrlich 2, Dumass 0.

* As mentioned before, O'Malley would not provide the courtesy of allowing Ehrlich free time to speak during his rebuttal. O'Malley continuously interrupted with such invigorating responses such as, "I know you are, but what am I?" and "Anything I say bounces off of me and sticks to you!" Most people, including my liberal wife found this really annoying. Ehrlich 3, Dumass 0.

* O'Malley did not answer one of the questions presented by the MPT moderator, but instead inserted Ehrlich ties to Bush and Enron. Ehrlich responded something like, "Way to go, Marty! You didn't answer the question. Way to accuse me of Enron's problems." Ehrlich 4, Dumass 0.

* O'Malley prided his city school's miserable accomplishments. He pointed out that City College, Poly, and Baltimore City School for the Arts are 3 of the 10 best schools in the state. Read the application process to get into these schools. It reads like a private school. "Are you saying that you have to apply to these schools and the schools can choose to only accept the smartest kids from the pool???!!!" Ehrlich 5, Dumass 0.


Fuel the Fire

I will be attending the Maryland State Teachers Convention in Ocean City this week. It's always a good time. It's amazing how many of them pride themselves with their outspoken liberal leanings. Leanings? Hell, they fell over. I will be wearing an 'Ehrlich / Cox" t-shirt. I friend close to the campaign got this for me. When I asked how much I needed to pay him, he replied, "anyone willing to wear an Ehrlich /Cox t-shirt to the Maryland State Teachers Convention gets a t-shirt on the house." Hoo-rah!

If you would like to volunteer or help out with election day, please visit this site:

http://www.bobehrlich.com/volunteer/