Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
On God, “Fat Jack,” And the Governorship of Idaho
Idaho Governor Butch Otter — who, depending on your point of view, is either possessed of the most folksy name in American politics or the most homoerotic — is a canny guy. Facing a primary challenge from State Senator Russ Fulcher, Otter, seeking to minimize his challenger’s impact, agreed to a televised primary debate only if it included two other fringe candidates in the GOP primary. What resulted is likely to be the most viral vanity campaign since Jimmy “The Rent is Too Damn High” MacMillan.
Meet Harley Brown — biker, man of the people, and source of a 30-second delay for the debate broadcast because of his penchant for profanity. All of Brown’s answers are worth hearing, but if you’re short on time fast forward to his closing statement at 52:23. I won’t ruin it for you, but let’s put it this way: his reference to restraining orders from his ex-wife is probably the least unusual bit of the monologue. And if you come for Brown, you might as well stay for Walt Bayes, the candidate who follows him by connecting Chernobyl with the apocalypse.
Butch Otter is a genius.
Published in General
He would be an improvement on our current President.
This is either a brilliant piece of performance art or a cry for help. Maybe both.
Good to see Doc Wonmug from Alley Oop is running for office there at the end.
Nah Nah Nah neh nah nahh.
The Cigars in his breast pocket were the best touch.
I also enjoyed the exchanges starting around minutes 19 and 34.
And the public TV moderators were clearly having the time of their lives.
Harley Brown is a living embodiment of the Establishment Republican image of every Tea Party candidate. I’m tempted to believe that Mr. Brown is actually a sober Ernst & Young CPA on leave, trading in his Brooks Brothers suit for a season of indulging his Rovian alter ego.
Why can’t it be both?
In another generation a diligent historian will find this and be puzzled that the question was necessary.
“Don’t think I’m crazy, cuz I’m not.”
Well, now that that’s out of the way….
The thing is, in a healthy republic, these would be the sort of people who ran for every office, because government would matter so little in our lives that we could afford to have its offices squabbled over by two loons, a climber, and a guy with a great haircut. As it is, we have to pretend to care about “qualifications” and all this other Mr. Serious stuff. And that is truly sad.
When I was living in Seattle they had the guy from the “Kurt Cobain was Murdered” Party in the mayoral debate. If I remember correctly, he more annoying than funny though.
What are these four guys doing on June 26th-29th, I wonder?
Way to go GOP. This will surely improve your image.
Hello All; Happy Thursday!
This debate was epic! Love all of these guy’s! An honest debate of guys that care about their State and Family. They could turn a weekly version of this into a news hour. Very funny.
Chainsaw
Bayes has something stenciled in hot pink on the back of his shirt. I’ve just been listening to the audio mostly; did anyone catch what it says?
According to idahostatesman.com: “Abortion is murder”
Check out Harley’s website, see his Harleyisms, wonder what were the ones he and his wife edited out:
http://www.governorharley.com/
You know what, though, both Bayes and Brown are decent guys. I’d live next door to either one of them.
How much of the debate did you watch? I think that this was one of the better debates for office I’ve seen, with the marginal candidates offering a surprisingly helpful series of contributions, and some thoughtful ruminations on the nature of conservatism. If the eccentric closing arguments get people to watch the rest, that seems like a good deal to me.
A family member watched it all, and wrote:
I think the Biker is the guy I would love to see sitting next to Vlad “the shirtless” Putin. Sturgis would be a great place for that meeting.
I watched the sections where these two candidates were talking, as I was sure there would be hilarity in those sections. I was not disappointed. I’m not sure they said anything insightful or helpful about the nature of conservatism, unless Polish jokes, Potassium tablets and the freedom to shoot wolves are core conservative ideas.
But, I;m sure the Left will jump on the opportunity to portray conservatives in that light, and now they have the evidence to back it up.
I’d take either of those gentlemen over any elected official in New York.
I forget the lines I thought were helpful, and I agree that neither the personal story focus nor the biblical prophecy focus were great, but I thought that some of their asides were handy, and that they made the debate more watchable to people who aren’t political geeks.
I’d be surprised if trivial candidates in Idaho provided a lot of ammunition for anyone.
The homeland security in preparation for the apocalypse candidate? You’re often surprising, Fred, but this was a particularly pleasant surprise. I don’t think I’m down with the biker, but I’d be happy to see Bayes take office in New York, although I think AIG’s concerns would find applicability there.
The Left’s narrative is that “conservatives” are backward hicks, racists, obsessed with the “rural way of life”, opposed to modernity and want to destroy the environment. Every one of these points was hit quite nicely by the two candidates, in the eyes of any Leftist (even if you and I might make a …slightly…different interpretation. But even we would only manage a …slight…different view here)
On the other hand they view us conservatives as the evil capitalists who run all the industry and finance and the evils of the modern world (but that narrative isn’t as catchy, since most people like the modern world)
BTW they have already started using this video on leftist sites as evidence of what “Republicans” are like.
Double post
I follow Daily Kos, and it wasn’t the most, or second most, commented story from Idaho this week. Which sites are making a big deal out of it?
Mother Jones
Do you feel that that story confirms bigoted views of Republicans? The only stereotype I see there is the idea that Republicans oppose abortion, and include some people for whom this is the more important issue in politics. I don’t think that this debate is their strongest evidence for it.
MJ doesn’t appear to consider the video all that significant; it doesn’t except key moments in shorter clips or urge people strongly to watch it; indeed, I’d say it underplays the show. Looking through the comments, it doesn’t appear that many people watched the video.
I saw a butch otter one April night near the Epicenter in Charlotte. Thankfully Frank Soto had his gun with him and scared that critter clean away.
Cocktails followed.