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Ann Kirkpatrick's macaca moment
August 12, 2009
Arizona's Espresso Pundit
Some errors are not survivable: George Allen's Macaca comment, Dukakis in the tank, George Bush checking his watch at a debate and now Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick walking out of her own town hall in Holbrook.
Some errors are not survivable: George Allen's Macaca comment, Dukakis in the tank, George Bush checking hi
s watch at a debate and now Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick walking out of her own town hall in Holbrook.
I've heard about the video, but didn't realize how devastating it was until I watched the whole thing.
Before I watched the video, I thought that Kirkpatrick had been surprised by an ugly crowd and decided to leave. However, the video makes it clear that's not what happened. These look like ordinary people who simply wanted to hear what the Congresswoman had to say.
The fundamental problem with the event was logistical. Kirkpatrick is in the lobby of a grocery store and is meeting with constituents one-on-one at a table in the corner. Perhaps as many as 50 people are waiting in the lobby for the chance to talk to her but she looks like she's taking confession. No one can hear what she's saying and few can actually see her. The crowd gets more and more impatient as they stand packed in the lobby. Eventually an elderly woman yells out the obvious point that "there's no point in being here if we can't hear what's being said."
Ultimately, the crowd begins to lose patience and someone yells out that he has a question while others chime in that "this was billed as a Town Hall." Kirkpatrick gets up and looks like she is going to address the group. The crowd calms down for a second until they realize that she's not getting up to say something--she's getting up to leave. Without a word, Kirkpatrick simply walks out and gets into a waiting SUV and drives away.
Meanwhile someone in the stunned crowd says "what a nitwit" while someone else yells, "Don't come back." Finally, someone points out that the SUV has California plates.
This doesn't look like a set up to me. This looks like real constituents who are frustrated because they can't hear and aren't allowed to ask questions. They thought they were attending a Town Hall, but instead were told to stand in the lobby and wait.
Kirkpatrick could easily have defused the situation by simply standing on a chair, taking a few minutes to list her priorities and say how great it is to be back in the District and taken a few questions. Instead she showed that she is--as the audience proclaimed--a nitwit.
When the RNC cuts the video down to one representative minute and broadcasts it 100,000 times in her district...it will all be over.
