Mr. Story had obviously had some rest since I last saw him. His energy level was high and he was his old self again. Although he isn’t a scholar in national security and foreign affairs, he is a very knowledgeable layperson, having taking an interest in those areas many years ago. He discussed Iran/Iraq, Honduras and the overall global climate.
Also present was Manouchehr Mohammadi, who led student protests in 2001, was imprisoned for several years and finally escaped. His brother, unfortunately, was beaten to death for his part in the protests. A translator was available to assist with questions, a nice touch. My question was “how do you say cheese in Persian?” – hey, I wanted him to smile in the photo! It worked.
You always learn something unexpected when you attend these meetings. A couple of things from last night stand out.
The first one was when the leader of the club, Stan Smith, talked about the candidate committee interviews. I recalled that on Monday night, two of the CD-29 candidates had concerns about the committee endorsing a different candidate. I didn’t mention his name in that post but it seems appropriate now to say that they were concerned that Mr. Story would get the endorsement. After listening to Mr. Smith, I can understand why. He flat out said that he was endorsing Mr. Story and related a story about the interview they had with him. Seems one of the questions was about not changing positions if he gets elected and a chuckle went up from the committee because “everyone knows” that Eric is a man of conviction and will not change. Interesting and makes it more important that they do not endorse anyone in this particular race because they are too familiar with Mr. Story. Individual endorsements, such as Mr. Smith’s are fine, but the committee as a whole should not.
The second bit of enlightenment was when Dorothy Olmos gave her spiel as to why she was the best candidate. The last of her three main issues really irked me – I’ll personally purchase a copy of Dr. Thomas Sowell’s Economic Facts and Fallacies for her. Or his book on the housing crisis, Houston Boom and Bust. Listen to her third most important issue:
{mp3}dorothy-olmos_eric-story_egcca_01282010{/mp3}
Wow. Please, Ms. Olmos, please, watch these videos (Economic Facts/Fallacies or Housing Boom and Bust) and learn about the effects of regulated land use. I realize you’ve only been a conservative for five years but seriously, people need housing! Land use restrictions solely for the purpose of “beautification” and “lifestyle” only serve to drive UP the cost of housing. Yikes!
The meeting also included a speaker supporting Sen. Hutchison and Claver was there supporting Mrs. Medina. No one bothered to show up for Gov. Perry.
A few pictures: