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On elections, my state's polls won't close before this goes up but Texas did close. And I mention that because a number of e-mails (Ty stopped counting at 100) came in declaring how wrong in our March 2, 2014 "TV: Another idiot for the idiot box" for writing the following:
Texas women are strong and proud and they go about their lives as best they can. Like women everywhere, they know a thing or two about discrimination. But they keep going.
Where Texas is different than many other states is that you will see Democratic and Republican women pull together for strong women -- especially strong women who have persevered despite sexism, despite setbacks. Hillary was that in 2008. Ann was that when she ran for governor.
It's not just that Wendy Davis' resume is so light or that's she backed away from the stance that brought her national attention.
It's mainly that the national media created a narrative that would play on the national stage but won't play in Texas.
Davis is poorly trailing Greg Abbott currently.
That could change, the election is way off.
But unless Abbott implodes, he will likely beat her because she and her campaign don't know what the hell they're doing.
She can be strongly pro-choice and win Republican women in Texas -- they're not all anti-choice.
But Wendy Davis' big problem isn't her positions (except for backing off from them).
It's that she's a superstar.
She's a winner.
She's so very many things, crowned by the media.
Ann Richards?
Like many other successful Texas female politicians, Ann Richards was a fighter who battled.
She got knocked down and she got back up, over and over.
Did any woman take the failure to pass the Equal Rights Amendment more personally than Ann did?
They might have taken it as personally but it's hard to think they could have taken it more personally.
Ann fought and fought and fought again.
A minority of her supporters tried to dub her Queen Ann. (This move was led in particular by a man named Dennis -- does Cecile even know this story, does she even know her mother?) Ann very nicely told the group not to call her that. She was governor, she explained, and she was so happy to be that. Dennis then suggested governor and queen. And Ann lost the glowing smile she was famous for and used terms like "buster" and a loud voice to make clear that she didn't see being called a "queen" in a democracy as a compliment and that she had fought hard for every elected office she had held so don't insult her by calling her the "queen" of Texas.
Ann was never crowned.
Women -- Democrats and Republicans -- gave Ann the boost her campaign needed and she became governor and she's the last Democratic governor Texas has had.
Do not compare Ann to Wendy Davis.
If Wendy's got any real strength, she's yet to show it.
Texas women will bandy together around a female candidate if the woman reminds them of themselves or their mothers. Because they are bonding over hardships and setbacks. They will cross party lines if the woman reminds them of themselves.
Davis needs to lower the stardom and demonstrate how she can be a work horse.
She needs to lose the ridiculous hair, she's not Donald Trump's ex-wife, and either pull it into a ponytail (which Texas women relate to) or get it cut.
She needs to tone down the make up as well.
She's a little too 'starish' currently for Texas.
And Greg Abbott?
Greg Abbott is in a wheel chair. He has been since 1984. From that wheel chair, he's been on the state supreme court and successfully and repeatedly run for attorney general. That's the kind of can-do spirit that Texans admire.
Cecile Richards is deeply stupid.
Making Wendy Davis a media star only made her a vapid blond with big hair.
If Cecile knew a damn thing about Texas politics, she would have already realized that Greg Abbott's not going to be beaten by a glossy 8 x 10 photograph.
Sorry, Ava and I were right.
And I have no desire to rescue Barack but the Texas election was not really about Barack (yes, I know the Abbott campaign -- especially in East Texas -- did heavy ad buys saying Barack was on the ballot). I have no idea what happened elsewhere in the country but when people say I'm wrong -- and I can be wrong -- I pay attention to the race. Wendy Davis lost it all on her own. She was a media creation with no real courage or guts and, in the last month, she's yet again attacking Abbott for being in a wheel chair. It was low and it was disgusting. Equally true, she forgot the Howard Dean rule of: campaign everywhere. She thought she could cobble together a victory by focusing solely on big metro areas like Dallas-Fort Worth. She completely ignored the East Texas media market -- large cities like Tyler and Longview just written off as well as smaller cities and towns in the area. When I say she completely ignored that market, I mean she didn't buy any ads from October 1st forward in that market.
She never gave people a reason to vote for her other than that she was a celebrity created by the national media, one who went fundraising in California which always has a backlash in Texas. Sally Field is beloved by many but even she, when she campaigns for her friend US House Rep Lloyd Doggett, knows she has to walk a line -- it's partly a distrust of the entertainment industry, it's partly a rivalry between two of the biggest states in the union.
On other races, Stars & Stripes Leo Shane Tweets:
Now at 10 Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans in Congress, 9 GOP & 1 Dem. At least two more guaranteed (head-to-head races) http://projects.militarytimes.com/elections/candidates …
And Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America's Paul Rieckhoff Tweets:
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Iraq Vet Seth Moulton is elected to the House in the Massachusetts 6th: http://tinyurl.com/nsn58pa
@BostonGlobe#IAVAVotes
Paul (PJ) Rieckhoff
Barack may impact other races or he may not.
I haven't followed them.
But he is not responsible for Wendy Davis loss. She lost it all on her own. (And Abbott's campaign commercials struck a chord -- his late in the campaign ad featuring his Latina mother-in-law tested off the charts with all races and ethnicities. People found her warm, touching and truthful.)
And her problems were all evident in March of this year if anyone wanted to go beyond the gloss and pay attention.
