I believe his overall point throughout the entire debate was to cut big government across the board, get them out of our lives, and to the extent that there needs to be regulations, give it back to the states. That’s the way I took it. I didn’t see it as lacking specifics, but as being consistent.

Let me say that I think Behney’s problem in the debate was a problem of perception. “All of them” is an answer that may well correctly characterize his beliefs, and those beliefs may well be good for the country — but it tells us nothing about his grasp of the issues. It was an easy answer that played well with a large part of the audience, but it was an answer that almost anyone, regardless of his competence, could give. Answering “I would cut Medicare, and here is how and why” would give me more confidence that he would be an effective legislator and wouldn’t be in over his head when he reached the United States Senate.

The question originated as which Constitutional Amendment the candidates would promote (barring the latest proposal from Rep Pence). Three candidates voiced their opinions, then Bates went. He meandered through several appointments – instead of picking just one (typical political pandering – get as many mentioned as possible before picking just one). During that process, he specifically mentioned term limits (but didn’t pick it as the ONE he’d go for – he just mentioned it to dig at three of the others).

After Behney’s response, in which he said he’d go for term limits (Behney is on record as saying that his first bill introduced or sponsored would be for Term Limits), Coats followed up with the insistence that he had term limited himself in the Senate and fulfilled a promise.

Then Stutzman jumped in to dodge the term limits question: “I think that we have other opportunities and that we can do without a Constitutional amendment on Term Limits,” and instead went down the path of “citizen legislature with limited time in DC (a good idea -but still a dodge on Term Limits). Coats followed up with the insistance that he had term limited himself in the Senate and fulfilled a promise.

Hostettler then rebutted, and asked Bates for clarifications on his remarks. Bates called Hostettler out about signing the Contract with America

Then Bates used a rebuttal card to say:

“I think it’s interesting to note that the three [current or past politicians] on this stage who have spent quite a lot – all of them – in politics, are not honoring the term limit pledge…”

Hostettler then used his rebuttal to question Bates about which “term limits pledge” he was referring to. Bates responded with the Contract with America:

“One of the pledges in the Contract With America” was that we would push for term limits”

Hostettler then corrects Bates – rightly so – that the CwA does NOT say that the signators to the CwA would push for term limits. It specifically says that:

“Thereafter, within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, we shall bring to the House Floor the following bills, each to be given full and open debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote and each to be immediately available this day for public inspection and scrutiny, ” and includes item #10 term limits.

Hostettler was correcting Bates miss-stating his record – for which I applaud him. As much as Bates has bragged about spending his money on hiring Mike Pence’s former election team – one would think that these gents who Bates calls “The best team in the business” would have educated their candidate better.

I believe, after listening to the video from that section of the debate several times, that Hostettler is out of touch with the Tea Party folks who see long term politicians as the problem – not as the solution. That was what they were booing: that he didn’t support term limits – not that he was calling out Bates.

Overall, once the situation of the CwA is understood – Bates looks like the loser in this one. Hostettler isn’t far behind due to not supporting term limits – but then again – neither does Stutzman.

Behney is the one guy who doesn’t care about politics the conventional way. I love that! He cares about getting the people’s voice into DC, and is depending on the people’s support to get him in there. You may say that he didn’t provide specifics…I say he did. He wants to start by cutting the budget by 1% – that covers everything! He’s an anti-entitlement guy, so he wants to get rid of all of them. Why choose one? If more men like Behney would stand up across the country and be elected into congress, maybe they’d make some strides towards returning our country to the people, and stop messing around with our money and our lives.

Northwest Indiana Politics on Senate Debate at Warsaw Tea Party