There’s an old joke that not much history can be made since so much has been made already — but we have had some seen made now in Arizona. That’s where incumbent Gov. Jan Brewer — a padlock, dried in cement, superglued definite to be re-elected after riding the wave of Tea Party-type positions on immigration and other issues — gave what political observers now call the very worst opening debate statement in political history. Chris Matthews ran a timer to show the 13 minutes of virtual dead space to when Brewer seemed to draw a blank.
Is this due to poor preparation? Campaign burn out? A sign that she really is not someone who should sit in the governor’s chair? Or just drawing a blank like someone running for student council in high school might draw, or momentarily flinching, or simply just losing a train of thought due to the intensity of the moment and being tired from the campaign? View it yourself:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.