Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Hannan / Media / Politics Eric Crafton Pulls Out of WNPT Debate? Part II
Posted by Caleb Hannan on Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 1:02 PM
It's got to be galling for Eric Crafton to be local politics second-biggest story right now. Here he is doing his best to spread the English Only gospel on national TV and radio, and all anyone seems to want to talk about are the after-effects of the Jimmy Naifeh hijacking. Damn you Jeff Woods and your insanely entertaining updates!
Anyway, it seems Crafton has finally decided once and for all that he will not be debating David Briley Friday night on WNPT. Nor will he send a substitute in his stead. The reason: He needs to focus on get-out-the-vote measures (I'll let you figure out for yourself why that cop-out is so head-slappingly ironic). That leaves Briley, moderator John Seigenthaler and one empty chair for what will now be a 30-minute, rather than an hour, non-debate debate. Should be fun.
As to WHY Crafton decided to back out, I think we can all draw our own conclusions. As one commentor noted the other day, Crafton seems to be the grandstander who's afraid of the grandstands. But it's even simpler than that. We'll leave it to Mike Jameson to explain.
"When you sit down in front of a well-informed moderator and a capable opponent that are clearly going to discuss the minutiae of your argument, it's only natural for your blood pressure to spike," he says. "I mean, why does meat fear the meatgrinder?"
Bingo.
(Image manipulation credit goes to D. Ricky Rodriguez. Thanks D. Ricky!)
Comments (4)
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Apparently Jon Crisp was asked to play the straw man and refused. Someone suggested Buddy Baker as well, but a dollar says that was just meant as a joke at his expense.
Since this campaign is aimed at the angry far right, who think Obama is Stalin, Huey Newton, and Boss Tweed rolled into one, and don't care about much except sticking it to the "lib Dems," and the low-information voter who thinks that this amendment will mean they won't be told to "press one for English" when they call their bank's 800 number, there's no reason at all for Crafton to justify his case. In fact there's a DISINCENTIVE for him to appear, as he would mobilize opposition with his arrogant, lying bigotry.
All that he needs to do is make sure that the idiots who write comments on the Tennessean's website turn out, and no one else shows up.
Crafton did not avoid a one on one with Dean on CNN Radio's Lou Dobbs Show...in fact Crafton pretty much made Dean look foolish. How do you reconcile he's afraid of Briley? As Winston Churchill once said...why talk to the Monkey when the Organ Grinder is in the room?
