Who are these people? What do they look like?

I'm not sure how many folks treated themselves to a viewing of last night's mayoral debate but if you were one of them you may recognize the title of this post as the quote of the night. It comes, of course, from Nagin who, while he acquitted himself quite well, missed an opportunity to knock one out of the park when questioned about his latest public (mis)statement in Houston. Nagin told an audience of evaccuees this week that many of the candidates in the race "don't look like us". This has drawn further criticism of Nagin for race baiting. Nagin should have addressed this in the same way that Rev. Tom Watson did. Watson challenged the field of white candidates to explain why they suddenly feel emboldened enough to run if not through a cynical diagnosis of the racial makeup of the electorate. If Nagin responded to his critics this way, he would be unstoppable. Instead he tried worm his way out of it explaining his most recent comment thusly, "I was at an event where people kept coming up to me and asking, 'Mr. Mayor there are a lot of candidates running against you. Who are these people? What do they look like?'" Um.. sorry, Ray, try again.
Despite this, I really think Nagin came away the winner last night. Any time you put together a room of people where Ray Nagin comes off looking like the most mature and sane of the bunch you have to give hizzoner some credit.

Other observations:

• Peggy Wilson claimed that there are "dozens of other companies dying to come in and compete" with Entergy to restore power to the city. This cannot possibly be true. Unfortunately no one asked Ms Wilson, "Who are these companies? What do they look like?" The follow-up instead focused on the fact that Wilson had somehow managed to include the phrase "welfare queens" in the same breath as her dubious claim.


• Rob Couhig is a nut and a bulldog and he pulls votes away from Forman. Let's hope he sticks around a while.


• Landrieu did well handling Couhig. He also hit on a nice theme when he evoked the image of New Orleans in the mid-sixties (a city that competed with and outshone Houston and Atlanta as a Southern metropolis) as a model for his rebuilding and repopulation goals. Forman's and Wilson's base would just as soon see us on a par with Savannah. We are better than that. Mitch needs to keep making that point.


• James Arey. Wouldn't it have been more fun if they had invited the Hat Lady?


• You have to love a political debate where the moderators are obliged to announce that one of the invited participants is unable to be there because she is in jail.

Unscientific poll of the day:
I really really really wanted to make Butler an option here.