Undecided voters at debates like that one can fault a candidate for the rudeness of his supporters, though. It’s not clear whether the audience member shouting, “Show some respect!” was referring to Del. Black mispronouncing Mr. Poisson’s surname or the other audience member screaming that Black was a jerk.

Posted by The Jaded JD on 15 October 02005 @ 10pm

If he really mispronounced his opponent’s name on purpose…well, that’s lame.

Posted by Chad on 15 October 02005 @ 11pm

I feel worse for the people in Black’s district, who’ve been represented for years by a four-year-old. I really hope Poisson clinches this, and I have great hopes for his campaign.

Posted by Shaula Evans on 16 October 02005 @ 5am

I especially liked Black’s contention that we have to cut taxes because the economy is about to go into a “downward spiral.” That’s pretty amusing considering that the entire justification for Gilmore’s “No Car Tax” (that Warner just dug us out of) was that we didn’t need anything to replace it because “economic growth” would always pay for it. I guess if you’ve already decided the answer is “Cut Taxes!,” it doesn’t much matter if the reason makes sense.

Posted by Jim E-H on 17 October 02005 @ 11am

What we saw was the disbelief that this man can actually get elected over and over finally reaching the boiling point. Reasonable people assume with every election that this time, surely, people will turn out in droves to rid themselves of the embarrassment that is Dick Black – and every time low turnout has allowed his little band of self-righteous clones to dominate the polls.

Here’s the lesson. We can’t count on reasonable people automatically getting their butts to the polls because it’s so obvious that Dick Black is insane. Those of us who have seen him need to make sure that they go. Drive them. Call them. Do whatever it takes. Turnout is the only thing between us and actual representation by an adult.

Posted by blackbegone on 17 October 02005 @ 1pm