Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s “Deer In The Headlights” Moment

From last night’s debate, an opening statement that has to be seen to be believed:

FILED UNDER: 2010 Election, US Politics, ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Jeff says:

    Outside the Beltway …  Inside the DNC …

  2. reid says:

    I don’t like her, but I’m very sympathetic.  (See if anyone remembers the “sympathy poll”.)

  3. IT’s the opening statement!  How do you not know what to say during the opening statement!?  It’s the one part of the debate you can practice beforehand!

  4. Honestly, I’m not unsympathetic. I’m in a profession that sometimes requires me to get up and speak extemporaneously for a long period of time and, sometimes, your brain just freezes.

    That said, the odd part of the video is that she appears to have notes in front of her and still isn’t able to figure out what to say.

     

  5. reid says:

    It was an impressive brain freeze.  When it’s that bad, the only thing you can think about is how your brain is freezing and you must do something other than panic.  You can’t even read notes in front of you.  I would expect it to happen to a rookie, not the incumbent, though.

  6. anjin-san says:

    between this and the video of her running from reporters questions after the debate, she almost looks like she has brain damaged.

  7. tom p says:

    That said, the odd part of the video is that she appears to have notes in front of her and still isn’t able to figure out what to say.

    What I saw wasn’t quite that clear. I was watching it and thinking, “what idiot doesn’t bring her crib notes???”

    That makes it even worse.