With only a short time before the election where our four main gubernatorial candidates square off, they had their first and only debate on Friday evening. Quite a bit of it was comical, and the funny stuff wasn’t coming from the one who usually tries to be. Rick Perry, Chris Bell, Kinky Friedman, and Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn were all put on the spot by a panel of media questioners in Dallas on Friday, and gave Texas the first real chance to see what their candidates are really made of. Not surprisingly, with the exception of current Texas Governor Rick Perry, the other candidates don’t have much going for them.

Our own angry Grandma, Comptroller Strayhorn looked incredibly uncomfortable and spoke very awkwardly from the first time she opened her mouth until she had the last word in the closing speeches. Unfortunately for the viewers, while she was stumbling over her own bottom lip, she managed to repeat the same things for an entire hour. We knew within the first five minutes that she plans to “shake Austin up”, and she kept saying it for the rest of the hour, with not many real ideas on how she plans to do so. She also shot plenty of barbs at Perry, which didn’t do much good. I’ve known that she’s absolutely nuts for a long time, but being the epitome of an Austin insider, I would have at least expected a small amount of professionalism. I’m amazed she’s even more of a screw-up than I had first though.

Kinky Friedman didn’t do very well, and he admitted to the Star-Telegram that he was struggling throughout the debate. One of the moderators called him on quite a few of the figures that he’s been using, and Kinky was unable to back himself and his campaign up. His clichés and euphemisms ran cold throughout the whole thing, and I think it gave him the first real taste of politics. About thirty minutes through the debate, Friedman said that he felt that everyone was ganging up on him for no reason, even though he was the first to begin bashing Perry in a question to the democratic candidate, Chris Bell. Possibly after publicly displaying his inadequacies, the end is in sight for Kinky’s jocular joust through Texas politics.

The least colorful of the challengers was former congressman Chris Bell. He was calm, cool, and condescending. His speeches and answers relied heavily in the hopes of mobilizing democrats to get to the polls. He began by bashing Tom DeLay. Last I checked, DeLay had nothing to do with the gubernatorial race. Later on, Bell refused to stay on topic on an issue so he could keep talking about another that was just left behind. Bell attacked almost all aspects of our public school systems, but doesn’t offer much in the way of reforms. I believe those in his party nationally are proud of his negative, vapid campaigning. He does obviously have an enjoyment in referring to himself in the third person, which he did regularly throughout the evening. One of the moderators even brought up that former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez was not supporting his run. While he remained cool, he found plenty of problems within the state, but failed to offer feasible solutions.

Perry was taking abuse from all sides, and handled it steadily with real answers. He was very knowledgeable from issues ranging from the broadest Texas programs to the electric bill at the Governor’s mansion, when the angry grandma had no clue as to who Felipe Calderon, the President-Elect of Mexico was. Governor Perry handled every question with figures and his track record, while the rest had some interesting spins on what they want the voters to consider truth. Even during the toughest questions about his property tax reform and the Trans-Texas Corridor, he successfully defended his policies while still remaining respectable throughout the entire thing. I find it amazing that the most successful politician on the stage that night did less politicking than his supposed outsider challengers.

After this debate, the gubernatorial race should balance out quite a bit, because it truly showed who was fit to hold office, and who isn’t fit to hold a towel in a restaurant restroom. The comedian flopped, the angry grandma just worked as hard as possible to remove any doubt that she was absolutely incapable of having any ideas except those written for her on the campaign trail, and Bell had plenty of complaints but no real solutions. After this, the choice is clear for me, and that’s sticking with Governor Perry.