Whataburger defeats White Castle in split decision

It was a close contest all night, as both men spoke rapidly, sweated profusely (Ted guzzled more water than Brett Kavanaugh), and lashed at each other like a couple of guys with bullwhips.

Yes, Beto brought the boxing gloves, although there were only a few knockdown punches thrown by the challenger.  Ted's smirks, snorts, and chortles were his defense.  This review summarizes the conservative POV as well as any I found: accurate in its description of Cruz's obnoxious condescension, amiss in its interpretation of how the Cuban Canadian's authoritarian demeanor goes over with anyone not a MAGAt.

Just consider the stunning hypocrisy of the Zodiac Killer's close.

Ted Cruz devotes his closing statement to painting a fear-mongering nightmare picture of all the horrors a vote for his opponent would bring and then bizarrely asks “Do we choose fear, or do we choose hope?” What?

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 17, 2018

Also painfully unaware of the studio's lighting away from his podium.

Ted Cruz stepped into the stage center for his closing statement. The lighting says he shouldn’t have. #TexasDebate pic.twitter.com/b5Wisay54d

— Josh Klemons (@jlemonsk) October 17, 2018

Yes, Ted Cruz is as tough as Texas a stale bag of shitty out-of-state hamburgers.  A man who eats his own boogers (when he's not eating Trump's ass, that is) but who cannot stand the taste of avocados is simply not someone to be trusted on his culinary decisions, to say nothing of his judicial or legislative ones.  We have nevertheless been blessed by Jeebus with all three of these wisdoms for the past six years, and if that's not enough to convince you that there is no God, you aren't open to persuasion.

When the local Fox affiliate loses you, you've lost.

I simply don't have confidence -- as many of you are already aware -- that Beto will represent my interests often enough to give him my vote.  I just can't bear to watch him be more Joe Manchin than Bernie Sanders should he make it to Washington.  For many of you reading this, he's good enough, so good on ya.  Like most of our options this election year, "not the GOP" comes up aces more often than not.  We're all going to make as best of the situation as we can.

Last night a poll revealed the numbers may be tightening back up, so that development bears watching.  Here's some related reading.

#TexasDebate: Three key moments (Vox)

Scott Braddock at QR: Beto learns to make a fist

TexTrib: O'Rourke swings harder

With respect to tomorrow night, two updates about whether it will be Beto-only or that Cruz will join.  From RG Ratcliffe at Texas Monthly (first link, top) with the CNN Tweet embedded (via Patrick Svitek at the TexTrib).

This likely was the final debate between Cruz and O’Rourke. CNN is hosting O’Rourke to a town hall in McAllen on Thursday. Cruz turned down the offer of one of his own, but asked Tuesday if the Thursday event could be converted into another debate. CNN officials said the network would agree if O’Rourke would. Since Cruz at the close of this debate referred to it as their last, that does not appear to have worked itself out.

"The biggest stadium in Texas we can find"

As big as his hands.

Not only is the arena Trump picked not the biggest in the state, as he promised, but it’s not even the largest in the neighborhood. Nearby NRG Stadium – different from NRG Arena – holds tens of thousands of people.

As the Dallas News pointed out, “At least one venue in Texas holds more than 180,000 and NRG Arena isn’t even the biggest venue in Houston, let alone in Texas.”

But it is the biggest one they could find.  Allegedly there's something like 50 high school football stadiums in the Lone Star State that can seat 8,000, so settling for the place where the Houston Rodeo holds a horse competition is probably due to the fact that Poop just isn't very familiar with Texas, as Texans already knew.  Sometimes it's hard to believe Trump called Cruz "Lyin' Ted" because Ted wasn't smart enough to nickname Trump that first, isn't it?

Ashton Woods has a terrific idea for you disruptors out there.

Step 1: Reserve tickets.

Step 2: Don't attend.

Step 3: Celebrate the emptiness of Houston's third largest stadium. #FuckTrumphttps://t.co/2aYzRwf5ue

— Ashton P. Woods (@AshtonPWoods) October 16, 2018

(Don't use your real name.  Trump is having peaceful protestors arrested, you know.  Has been since his inauguration.  So be careful out there.)

Whataburger vs. White Castle tonight

In San Antonio, or on your teevee (or laptop, or tablet, or cellphone).

This was to be the third debate in the closely watched race, but the second debate, scheduled for Sept. 30 in Houston, was canceled because of Cruz's participation in the Senate's confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. While the first debate in Dallas was focused on domestic policy, this one is expected to cover domestic and foreign policy.

All the same advice I gave Beto for Thursday night's CNN townhall solo (so far) applies to this evening's debate.  Whether he takes my advice or not, for the sake of Texas Democratic fortunes down the ballot and across the Lone Star, let's hope he has upped hs game.  This is still too weak, IMO, to cut the mustard.  Don't bring a pillow to a gunfight, Bob.

W/r/t Thursday night ... this message is approved (and maybe even paid for) by Ted Cruz.

In what he is calling the largest single campaign complaint in history, Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Neal Dikeman is alleging that a planned town hall meeting by CNN amounts to an illegal $10 million in-kind campaign contribution to Democrat Beto O’Rourke.

Dikeman filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission on the heels of news last week that O’Rourke shattered fundraising records with a $38.1 million take in the final quarter before the November 6 election. Dikeman alleges in his complaint that a town hall scheduled for Thursday in McAllen violates federal election law because it will give O’Rourke an hour-long prime time forum worth millions of advertising dollars.

“Politics should not be about money, and corporations should not be funding politicians,” Dikeman said in a prepared statement. “Particularly in this race as Congressman O’Rourke is running fundraising campaigns touting his exclusion of special interest money. Excluding a Libertarian nominee from the debates because you think I’ll take more votes from you than the other guy is one thing, politics is politics. But violating campaign finance laws, especially on this scale is much bigger than that. The scope of this violation should give every American pause.”

Neither the O’Rourke or Cruz campaigns responded to a Texas Monthly request for comment.

That's one way to get the publicity you seek.

Third-party nominees being left out of the conversation is, as everyone already knows, a chronic condition in our so-called democracy.  Just can't have the duopoly questioned, challenged, or so much as casually intimidated.  Texas is one of the worst states in the Union at this shitty disenfranchisement game.  Texas Democrats, with a helpful assist from the TXGOP in the state Lege via the Election Code, are the primary reason you don't have any Texas Greens on your ballot this season.  But the corporate media, which is making millions upon millions of dollars in advertising revenue this autumn -- at a time when they cannot lose or squander so much as a dime -- is the two-party systems' partner in these electoral crimes.  If you'd like to suggest some other reasons for the traditional electoral blackout of any party other than the two that can afford wall-to-wall television advertising, I'll advance your premise here or feature it in a follow-up post (your choice).  Because try as I might, I have not been able to come up with any good ones myself.

So best of luck to Mr. Dikeman in his legal challenge.  I suspect it may become moot, as I'm betting Poop Cruz winds up on stage in McAllen Thursday night with Beto and Dana Bash.

Somebody order a bag of White Castles delivered to the debate hall, please?