Sunday, 22 November 2009
Grayson Wins Round 1
The first dust up of the campaign happened this week at the annual meeting of the Kentucky Associate of Counties.
I have two problems with this exchange. First Rand made a childish "why don't you learn to read" quip. You just can't make flippant comments like that and be taken seriously. It also makes him look thin skinned. Not exactly a trait I want in my senator. The second problem is his comments don't jive with what he said just a few months ago.On the Republican side, Secretary of State Trey Grayson accused Bowling Green ophthalmologist Rand Paul of posting a news release on his Web site indicating that Paul supports closing the prison for terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
At first, Paul denied Grayson's claim.
“Then I guess you'll have to change your Web page,” Grayson said.
“You might learn to go read,” Paul shot back.
After looking at a screen grab of the news release after the forum, however, Paul told reporters that whoever was responsible for the posting “is going to be in trouble.”
“I was not aware that it was on our Web site, and it's not my position,” Paul said.
Said Grayson: “It's beyond disingenuous to disown something that you put on your own Web page and you keep on your own Web page nearly six months after you put it on your Web page.”
Paul campaign manager David Adams responded later:
“This race is going to be heated for a lot of reasons,” Adams said. “I would hope the least of which would be an unauthorized, mistaken statement that was printed on Rand's Web site, unbeknownst to him, six months ago.”
Oops. Do I think this is a fatal blunder? No. It is not the end of the world. It is just the opening salvos in the election.
What the flap does illustrate is the differences in the quality of the two campaigns at this point in the game. Grayson had done his homework and came prepared. He laid the bait out and Paul jumped on it. The sign of a well run campaign. The Paul team on the other hand was left fluttering in the wind blaming the whole incident on some unnamed staffer. That is a lame excuse when you are caught with your pants down. They look like a bunch of amateurs.
The Rand campaign needs to learn from this experience and get their act together. They aren't going to win if they don't become a better oiled machine. Especially if you are going to lay down a gauntlet of debates. At this point, I would think they would be more concerned with shoring up the team rather then putting themselves out for more potential embarrassment.
Grayson has won the opening round of the campaign. Fortunately for Paul the incident happened in November and not April. He still has time to right the ship in the coming months.
