Somebody Call an Ambulance: Holt Beats Down Halter

I defy anybody to the right of Hillary! to watch this debate, especially the second half, and tell me that Holt didn't win this thing hands down. Don't rely on any printed media reports about this event. If you have any doubt, click the link and see it with your own eyes. Hear it with your own ears. Don't let the newspapers tell you what happened. It took Holt a bit to really get warmed up. If you only have 30 minutes to spend, just watch the last half.

I grant you that Halter had a smoother opening statement, but what you can't tell from the video is that Halter, in violation of the signed rules agreement, brought his opening and prepared notes to the podium. We did not catch it until right before showtime. AETN staff removed Mr. Halter's notes, like a teacher taking a cheat-sheet from an errant student, once it was brought to their attention just before show time.

The longer the debate went on, the more Holt dominated. And he dominated on fiscal issues, as well as Halter's abscence from the state for the last 25 years.

Halter tried to make the case that to bring high-paying jobs to Arkansas you need to have quality pre-kindergarten for 3, 4 year olds. Holt said that to bring high-paying jobs to Arkansas you need a friendly business environment, and you can't do that by constantly increasing government spending as Halter has proposed. Holt argued that building up a higher-ed structure before the jobs were here would just result in Arkansans paying for the education of people who go elsewhere to find jobs and pay taxes- like Halter himself.