For three days after Fort Worth State Sen. Wendy Davis announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor, the Republican front-runner, Greg Abbott, seemed off-balance, first going to negative campaigning about Davis.
Some Texans wondered whether Abbott had a good idea about what the role of governor is, which could form a basis for his candidacy. Why does Abbott want to be governor, and what would he do?
Today Abbott released an almost-90-second advertisement. The ad reveals Abbott doesn’t have a vision for Texas in the future, and the ad suggests Abbott will rely heavily on trying to scare white Texans to outvote everybody else.
Here are my observations about Abbott’s ad as it came to me on Facebook, and the ad, below.
Greg Abbott first went negative when State Sen. Wendy Davis announced her campaign for governor last week.
He’s having difficulty finding a reason to run for governor, demonstrated by his video, below.
The video is impressive:
- Not a single Hispanic shown out of several dozen people. In fact, there appears to be only one, lonely woman of color in the entire thing. Texas is for white people, Abbott appears to be saying.
- Those white people in Texas need guns. It’s not like Texas has any shortage of guns, nor has the Obama administration done anything to restrict gun ownership or use, nor is it even an issue in Texas — but watch the video, you understand that the Texas white people shown in it, need guns. (Why? you may ask?)
- Abbott is all for low-wage, service industry jobs. When he talks about jobs in Texas, the ad shows a rickety, ramshackle BBQ joint. You may like BBQ more than Greg Abbott, but if you’re an aerospace worker, or you work for American Airlines, you would do well to question why Abbott worked so hard to kill American Airlines before Sen. Davis made it a campaign issue. (Abbott belatedly dropped his suit challenging the American/USAir merger, last week. Less than a week in the campaign and Wendy Davis is already improving Texas government . . .)
Faced with a pro-business Democrat with a proven record of making things work for business and Texas, Abbott is adrift. These appear to be issues he hasn’t pondered much, other than to reduce regulations on businesses that injure people.- Not a word about education. Where will all those gun-wielding white people send their kids to school?
- When he mentions water policy, something that comes far behind guns, BBQ, and the Tea Party in Greg Abbott’s Texas, he shows footage of Interstate 35 in Austin. One of Texas’s greatest problems (on the ballot in November with a Constitutional Amendment), but to Abbot it’s an afterthought. Maybe he thinks he can shotgun a few clouds to resolve the issues?
- Not a word about farming, nor ranching. Texas’s lack of a water policy, and inadequate work to mitigate global warming, pushed about 50% of Texas’s cattle and beef operations out of business on the GOP watch, just in the last four years. In Greg Abbott’s Texas, land is for shooting quail for rich folk, all you hamburger eaters can take a hike.
- Not a word about oil or gas, nor fracking, nor the abuse of eminent domain to ram a pipeline through Texas ranches and farms, killing the ranches and farms.
You’d think after two decades in state office, Mr. Abbott would have a better idea about Texas and Texas problems, and would run a campaign on how to improve things for Texans, not just out of state pipeline companies.- Abbott is running against Barack Obama, and he hates California. No good reason, but those are probably the only applause lines in his bereft-of-Texas stump speech.
You’d think some of those Million-Dollar-A-Year consultants would have worried a bit about Texas in setting up these ads. They must think their only chance is to scare their supporters out to the polls. They may be right.
Abbott’s campaign said:
Preserve Texas as the land of liberty. Watch my video below, and donate here: http://bit.ly/18UKBnr
What do you think, America? See any reason for anyone other than a paranoid white guy to vote for Abbott?
Conflict of interest note: Abbott is a Duncanville boy, a favorite of most residents of Duncanville we know.
More:
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott appears before a controversial tablet displaying the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol (behind the capitol building) in Austin, Texas, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
- Abbott: Davis too liberal for Texas (khou.com)
- Greg Abbott’s Top Political Adviser Tweets “Why Wendy Davis Is Too Stupid To Be Governor” Article (burntorangereport.com)
- Democrats have new champ, GOP new foil in Davis (kvue.com)
- Abbott leads Davis by single digits (politico.com)
- Republican Tom Pauken: If Wendy Davis runs for governor, she could beat Greg Abbott (trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com)
- Poll: Abbott Leads Davis by 8 Points in Texas Gov. race (mywesttexas.com)
- Greg Abbott: The Republican Wendy Davis Will Have To Beat For The Texas Governorship (talkingpointsmemo.com)
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[…] stark contrast to Greg Abbott‘s “Texas is for white people with guns” advertisement (addressed here yesterday), Wendy Davis‘s get-to-know-me ad paints a vision of a better Texas […]
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