THE OTHER WINNER
Did a bobcat steal the election? Runaway Democratic primary winner Bill Whiteloses to ...
The Democratic gubernatorial primary carried less legitimate suspense than the most formulaic action movie. As expected, former Houston mayor Bill White walloped his six party foes, rolling to nearly 76 percent of the vote in the returns reported so far.
White did this while the media did their best to ignore him.
Sure, the race for the Republican nomination (where Kay Bailey Hutchison conceded to Gov. Rick Perry) carried all the drama — and deserved the lion's share of the coverage — but there were times the pushing aside of White seemed extreme. Fox 26 cut away from White's acceptance speech just as he started talking about how important Houston was to him. This was a Houston station leaving a Houston candidate's acceptance speech from a Houston hotel.
Fox 26 — and all the other local stations — did find the time to go in depth on the story of the bobcat that wandered into a downtown Houston parking garage. The bobcat was spotted inside the garage on Rusk Street near the Bob Casey Federal Building in the middle of the morning and captured without incident.
Still, that crazy bobcat received tons of play in all the 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts. Definitely more than a lion's share. Probably more than White, who is only running for the state's highest office.
Good thing, we have our priorities straight.
This isn't a political issue. It doesn't matter if you want White to topple Perry's long reign or if you want the governor to destroy White in the general election — or if you're still upset that they won't be making more raps about Democratic challenger Farouk Shami (and who isn't).
This is just a wonder about everyone's focus on one of the most interesting Texas primary days in state history.
Who knew Bill White had to worry about a bobcat?
