If stuff like this is being published we should be informed about it, I've always preferred to study all the angles.

Just throwing this story out so there's full disclosure, eh?

You know, taking into account different perspectives, lifestyles, views and working from there towards a goal?

I certainly don't believe "my side" is right on all issues. And that there are plenty of things to learn from other sides.

but it doesn't work for Stile.

On this side, the citizens will speak, and others are just supposed to say 'knr'.

I really don't understand your statement on a democratic message board. Are you suggesting that it's wrong to want to hear "all sides of the issue". Is it better to put your fingers in your ears and just tune out any opposing views or points?

If your ultimate goal is to be persuasive and convince others to agree with your stance on an issue, being educated as to WHY they believe what they believe is quite important.

The primary purpose of many on this "discussion board" is to be part of the choir. Great sermons are then greeted with a harmonious chorus of "amens" and "hallelujahs".

Heresies, OTOH, are usually just barely tolerated, if at all. And less tolerated from somebody who has not proven themselves by passing through the crucible of the "700 club". (over 800 posts, when you have over 699 posts you are said to be in the "700 Club&quot . Somehow I became a pet heretic, barely tolerated, but much of DU has me on ignore too so they can "read no evil".

The aim is NOT to persuade those on the other side. Many will argue, from bitter experience, that this is a hopeless cause., that conservative sub-humans are simply not amenable to reason and facts. Plus, it is simply more fun to insult them and try to tick them off, especially since the latter is so darned easy.

We already KNOW "why they believe what they believe".

1. because they are idiots
2. because they are racists, sexists and/or homophobes
3. because they are wilfully ignorant
4. because they have been brainwashed by Rush/Fox/Beck/Will

As such, we generally have little interest in hearing, much less debunking their current lies.

personal story at all relevant to anything?

How much time passed between his seperation and divorce? When have you ever seen this happen or be regarded as scandalous?

yes, she was 21 when the divorce was finalized but the point she was making about being a single teen mom was accurate.

Of course.

The opposition research team is trying to make something out this. I have given money to Wendy in the past and I am planning to do so again. Nothing in these stories have changed my mind.

It is also clear to me that Greg Abbott is worried if this is the best that his opposition research team has found on Wendy

Such as stating that she was divorced at age 19. Should these details matter? No. Will they matter? Hopefully not.

Is it a good thing that stories like this are posted on DU. Absolutely. Allowing them to be vetted here so that Democrats are armed with the best responses to those who would make a mountain of this molehill is better than pretending that they don't exist and allowing them to go unrebutted.

remembers the day-to-day details, in chronological order, of such a tumultuous time as their late teens/early 20s, save those with the trait of hyperthymesia.

Is there some nefarious aspect to this on Wendy Davis' part? Did she actually "lie", or simply make a mistake about events that took place more three decades ago? If so, to what end? And, if not, then why are we perpetuating it and allowing it to be made a bigger deal than it is?

Perhaps I'm genuinely missing something here about why this is a big deal, to anyone besides a piece of shit right wingnut anyway?

what we'd be screaming if a wingnut did it!

to ignore my point. Should we or should we not call for her to step down as the Democratic front-runner because that is what we would be screaming for a wingnut to do? Are you going to stand by your own words, or not?

I probably would be arguing that it is irrelevant to the issues and that he (the Republican) probably forgot.

Clearly proving what a troll I am.

We are supposed to use what Engels called "Hottentot logic" where the Hottentot says "When I steal my neighbor's wife, that is good. When he steals my wife, that is bad."

At least I think it was Engels. Hell, I probably read that book, or part of it, some thirty years ago.

Thus "when a Republican forgets, it is a lie, when a Democrat forgets, they just forgot."

Logic, as the imaginary Chad Mullins wrote, is the principle governing human intellection.

You certainly have a penchant, regardless of its lack of accuracy, to prophecy what "we" would say if X happened. You will of course, supply us with a like example to better validate your claims of absolutism, yes?

I can't precisely recall many details of my relatively recently 'tumultuous,' or at least unusual and difficult life, and I don't fault anyone for forgetting or misstating such details.

Where's the U.S. Attorney on this one?!?!?!?!!!!?!??!11/1/11/1

putting your fingers in your ears and singing "LA!LA!LA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" will not stop other people from hearing, or in this case seeing, the muck being raked.

I spent my career in marketing communications and PR. If you don't know what the opposition is saying, how the eff do you expect to counter it?

Do you really believe there is anybody on DU that hasn't already heard about the RW attempts to smear Wendy Davis? Really?

One can spend many, many hours on DU and still have many, many threads slip by.

But, as a "marketing communications professional", I would think you would be able to recognize the difference between simple information .......and advocacy/propaganda!

your help. But thanks for playing.

Her campaign probably decided to get it out early so it's eventually old news as soon as possible.

human.

unsurprising.

I can only guesstimate at how long ago things occurred in my past. Does this make me a liar?

life of me I have no idea why you are being attacked for reporting it.

... there are people here that don't want to "hear all sides of an issue." Just look up a few posts.

It's the way it was posted.

I see little commentary and the article itself. What was the "way it was posted?"

Thus, 73 was not posted yet. Unless you were able to channel your future self reading comment 73, I fail to follow your logic.

Post 73 explained it already. If you want to understand go read it. Bye.

It is basically a regurgitation of the original article with the writers saying it is not a big deal. Sorry, but this is not the huge revelation you seem to be selling it as.

Overall, I don't really care too much about this. As I said below, if I were to care, I would focus on the multiple people who seem to think she was content to ignore her kids/family for her career. This saddens me when I see so many men do it and it saddens me here equally. However, as selfish as it sounds of me, I don't care too much because she is clearly the best candidate and that is most important for me.

... that any error, ANY ERROR she makes along these lines will be picked up by the Abbott team and beaten to death. They are NOT going to campaign on the issues they are going to try to assassinate her character, that's what maggots like Abbott do.

If she is serious about winning this race these kinds of mistakes cannot happen.

IMHO.

I think it was simply an error of recollection, but she does need to be more careful about that. Her opposition will be well funded and able to pummel her on TV ads. Even if it is a BS issue, why give it to them.

Professionals polish their turds just like their colleagues.

Running in a state like Texas - a Democrat has to run an almost perfect campaign to win a state-level office.

While most people on this website don't see this as a big deal, "missteps" such as this one (and I use the word missteps because that's exactly what it will be called by the MSM) are MUCH more difficult to overcome in an uphill battle like this one.

This is not to say the race is lost by any means. What this should tell my fellow Texans is that we will need to work even harder to help Wendy Davis win the Governor's seat.

The GOP opposition researchers are trying to poke holes in Wendy Davis' life story and the details that she got wrong are not significant. The date of her actual divorce is when the paperwork was finalized and not when she was separated from her first husband. Does it make any difference when the divorce became final when the point of the story was that she was a single parent at the time of her separation from her first husband?

As to some of the other details, Wendy's second ex-husband and her father are defending her http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/wendy_davis_admits_fudged_facts_in_bio

Jeff Davis said paying for part of his ex-wife's education wasn't a "big deal," and told the Morning News that her past financial struggles were real.

“A lot of what she says is true,” he told the newspaper. “When she was 21, it became a little easier for her. The first 21 years were about working one, two and three jobs, trying to get through, raising a kid, driving an old Toyota pickup truck that was the smallest you could find."

Davis' father, Jerry Russell, also defended his daughter's successes in an October interview with Texas Monthly.

"She is who she is, I promise you that," Russell said. "The whole situation with the mother working at Braum’s--that’s all true."

And I've called myself a 'single parent' of 4 for that whole time. My divorce is not final yet, but I'm definitely a single parent. There's no other parent in this house helping me out, that's for sure. One does not need to be legally divorced to be a 'single parent'.

I predict this will backfire on them, because this is too common of a predicament for divorcing women. It will be seen as extremely petty.

a sexist media.

But hey, dance along with the tune if you must.

Why this even matters? I guess . . . I'm too forward thinking rq.


When we get through all of David Vitters details the media, the right and YEP - the left can get back to me.

Until then - is she qualified to do the job? Yep.


Case closed.

The 'media' lost me when they reported that President Obama was a Muslim and kept on with the nonsense that he was not a US citizen. After that -on a go forward basis - I'll be my own 'moral majority'. She passes my test. She's good. Proceed Ms. Davis.

And in both cases these idiotic attacks were motivated by fear. Good.

Yet Wendy Davis is getting excoriated because a couple of dates are wrong?

Yeah...no sexism in our vaunted "liberal media" at all!

to accomplish what she did as a single parent. I'm truly impressed. I didn't know all these things about her, and I applaud her determination and grit. Only an extremely extraordinary individual could accomplish what she did under those circumstances. I could never have accomplished what she did, no matter how hard I worked at it.

So...

A) She did live in a mobile home park. She just didn't say for how long. Big whoopdeedoo.

B) She did get academic scholarships and student loans to help pay her way through college. She just didn't mention that her ex helped her pay for college. Big whoopdeedoo.

C) Her divorce became official when she was 21. She had already been separated from her first ex for some time. Big whoopdeedoo.

So really, WTF? These are somehow earth shattering revelations? More like desperate grasping at straws. Because of that article, which made me aware of just how extraordinary she really is, I'm going to send her some more money today, because she is one seriously tough, smart woman, and she'll need to be smart and tough when she is governor of Texas, because weenbag good ol' boy Texas conservative misogynist pigs are going to do their best to rip her to shreds and try to prevent her from accomplishing anything, just because she is female.

You go grrrl, go kick all their fucking sexist bigot hypocrite asses.

He wrote the Bush's Brain book. As the reporter of this whoop dee doo non story he's definitely not a "weenbag good ol' boy Texas conservative misogynist pig."

A) Yes, as far as I know, Wayne Slater is a liberal. I never said otherwise, and I knew he was a liberal before I wrote that post.

B) I never indicated in any way that I considered Wayne Slater a "weenbag good ol' boy Texas conservative misogynist pig."

C) It is very possible that he was doing Wendy a favor by reporting these minor discrepancies.

reminds me how the RW assholes tried to make an issue of Elizabeth Warren's heritage.

Ask Scott Brown how that went.

True, she used the age when she separated from her first husband as the age she was when their divorce was final. She also had to make some difficult choices as a single parent. The only people these two minor things will resonate with are the ones who already hate her because she doesn't have an R behind her name.


There's also the fact that they're making so much hay out of her life as a single mother could well backfire on them. The media in Texas will give much more credence to a story against a Democrat, even if it's only partially based in fact, than they will one about a Republican. That's just the way it is in the red states. In this case they're also risking alienating a large portion of the women by attacking a working mother unfairly. The Republican's still don't quite get how to not offend women and bring them to their side. I think they spend too much time around the RW fundamentalist Christian women, and they're the type who are easily led about and controlled. Not true of the rest of us.

this is quite a hit with a lot of new low post count DUrs. Just saying.

Abbott cannot win on the issues, so they are shaming her.

Her private life has the opposition frothing at the mouth; they are hoping they can trip her up or reveal something sordid to bring her down. Unless she's done something illegal or told an egregious lie, IT DOESN'T MATTER.

Quit posting this garbage.

who are you to tell people what to post?

If I don't like reading posts promoting censorship, I can just ignore the fuckers that post them.

I guess I should say "If you find yourself reading garbage, just stop"

The ignore option is a great tool...

Anything in written form will be found by her opponent in the election. Better to get it out now than let them use it.

Sometimes I log in to DU and think I've time traveled to the 1970s. This is the era of information overload, get it out there ASAP. None of this looks serious at all, so better to set it straight now. Americans are thinking about the Super Bowl anyway, this will barely register.

... a damn that they were finalized later

She WAS a single mother, the father wasn't around... even if they were married.... that's stupid to pick that apart...

This is desperate, Texas turning blue is scary

She's a Texan. Would love to vote for her here in Michigan.

As for "skeletons" or "big problems", her opponent has a BIG ONE:

He's a REPUBLICAN!

Go, Wendy!

This is so embarrassing for Republicans, who’ve taken to attacking Democratic State Senator Wendy Davis (TX) on whether or not she was technically divorced at the age of 19 when living alone in a trailer with her daughter.

Apparently the Texas Republicans haven’t met Wendy Davis yet. Wendy Davis is a fighter for all people, and she isn’t about to let a few cheap shots at her family or her personal struggles take her down. State Senator Wendy Davis issued a statement today, saying in part, “The truth is that at age 19, I was a teenage mother living alone with my daughter in a trailer and struggling to keep us afloat on my way to a divorce… I am proud of where I came from and I am proud of what I’ve been able to achieve through hard work and perseverance. And I guarantee you that anyone who tries to say otherwise hasn’t walked a day in my shoes.”

Conservatives were claiming that Davis lied about her status at the age of 19 because she wasn’t technically divorced yet and thus couldn’t possibly be a single mother (don’t ask), but as I explained earlier, before the divorce one gets the separation and before the separation, one gets the unraveling of the relationship which often impacts the living situation. Then there is the time spent after filing for divorce. Welcome to reality.

I have given money to Annie's List. Here is a statement from an e-mail that I received this afternoon http://annieslist.com/2014/01/20/annies-list-executive-director-responds-to-attacks-on-wendy-davis-personal-story/

Annie’s List Executive Director Grace Garcia Responds to Attacks on Wendy Davis’ Personal Story

Today, Annie’s List Executive Director Grace Garcia released the following statement in response to recent attacks on Wendy Davis’ personal story.
“We’re not surprised Republicans have attempted to undermine Wendy Davis’ campaign by calling her past into question – we have seen similar attacks launched against women candidates before. The recent personal attacks on Wendy Davis and her family are blatant attempts to thwart her campaign and undermine her success. Just last week, the Davis campaign announced impressive fundraising numbers from donors in every county in Texas. Greg Abbott is running scared and for good reason. Senator Davis’ personal story is a compelling narrative of perseverance and hard work that millions of Texans have responded to. It is appalling that Republicans would attack the details of that story rather than focus on the issues affecting Texas families.

“Disputing the details of Wendy Davis’ life is especially offensive to the many Texas women who can relate to her story. In trying to tear down Senator Davis’ campaign and her personal story, Republicans are also tearing down all Texans who have overcome difficult circumstances. It’s clear Greg Abbott doesn’t understand Wendy Davis’ struggles and the struggles of millions of Texans, nor does he want to.”

for posting the ACTUAL TIMELINE. To the OP: If you wanted to "get the story out there," you should have done your homework instead of helping the Republicans smear this wonderful lady.

Here's the REAL story:

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/01/20/wendy-davis-fights-sexist-attacks-dignified-truth-bomb.html

on this thread jumping on the Republican band wagon, all ready, willing and able to go along with the smear without spending one second doing any sort of investigative work to find out if any of it was true. Started a goddmaned OP about it even! Ten seconds and a perusal down GD Threads and I found Segami's thread. Amazingly easy it was.

It appears many people who have been near her say she couldn't bother herself with her kids if she wanted to further her career.

That said, who knows if it is true and I, personally, don't really care. That his her thing and my thing is making sure the best candidate wins.

Two anonymous gossipy quotes = "many people".

Wayne Slater should be ashamed.

She gets some dates wrong and suddenly it's a big scandal and she's damaged goods or something? And that's assuming that she actually LIED and didn't just get the information wrong at the time. There IS a difference. Anyway, what would she gain by deliberately changing dates? If the story is about her being a single parent, even if she wasn't "legally divorced", it doesn't change the fact that she was raising a child by herself for a period of time. Geez.