There is some controversy concerning and ad attacking Greg Abbott. In the ad the Wendy Davis campaign references a accident that made him differently abled and the multimillion dollar reward he received from the homeowner. This ad is definitely aggressive, and is most certainly an Hail Mary in a campaign that is tailing by double digits. On the other hand, in a campaign where Abbott's. and conservatives in general, only reason not to elect her is that she is 'Abortion Barbie', the ad is nowhere near as inappropriate as conservatives think. In fact it is clever and speaks exactly to the prejudices and weaknesses of the conservative ideology. It forms a perfect counterattack to the name calling and religious fear mongering that Texas conservatives use as the only weapon in their arsenal. Recall how Perry won against Bill White, a well respected fiscal conservative, by mobilizing the evangelical churches to push the idea that White would expand gambling, even though when he was mayor he continued to push gambling to the surrounding small cities, where I can tell you gambling is rampant.
So follow me below the fold where I unleash my inner conservative and postulate why this ad may significantly close the gap.
In Texas, and perhaps everywhere, conservative homeowners live in fear that some kid, like Abbott, is going to is be horsing around the perimeter of their house and get into an accident. Even worse, they may be stalking out their house pretend, maybe, to jog around like Abbott, and have a tree fall on them. The only thing worse than that is when a criminal busts into your house, trips over the carpet before you have a chance to shoot them, and then gets to sue you for $10 million because they stubbed a toe. In the case of Abbott, was he jogging down the most exclusive neighborhood in Houston looking for a payday. Did he and his friend know that after major storms the tree line streets would form a clear and present danger, and that he was suddenly going to be a rich man?
These are the takers as Romney so eloquently discussed. These people never plan to do a hard days work. They live their life waiting for a big payday from the people who do the work, like the homeowner who has spent their lives building equity only have it taken away because they can no longer afford insurance. Which bring us to the next topic. That insurance salesmen have about as much trust in Texas a car salesman. In Texas we hope that insurance salesmen would find a more honorable profession, like drug dealer. And when a insurance person and a lawyer get together, we have an injustice like the multimillion dollar reward for having a tree fall on you, a reward rigged by the lawyer son of an insurance salesman.
So now this kid from a single parent home had made it in the big city. He was able to use his injury to leverage his way up to Texas Supreme Court. He himself provided the danger of a lax reward system, so he changed the rules so that no one else could get a free payday, in exchange from numerous donation. He is now in the position to be governor, now in the position that he gets free money not form lawsuits, but from donors who need favors.