Another rookie mistake

by | Sep 5, 2014 | 2014 Elections, Debates, Editor's Blog, US Senate | 26 comments

Thom Tillis is a man who can’t get out of his own way. In the debate, he looked more comfortable than Kay Hagan and stuck to his talking points. He should be feeling good. So why did he refer to her as “Kay”? 

I don’t believe he did it to demean her. I think he did it to appear more familiar, but that was the wrong the setting. It was a formal debate and she referred to him as Speaker Tillis. Maybe he didn’t notice, but what does that say about him?

I also don’t believe that he came up with that idea himself. I promise you, he did a lot of debate prep and his team discussed how to refer to her. Whoever made the decision to call her “Kay” blew it and Tillis agreeing to it shows, once again, that he’s a candidate who’s just not quite ready for primetime.

In 2010, I went through a series of debates with a sitting Senator and sitting secretary of state. Both candidates referred to their opponents by their titles. Richard Burr always called Elaine Marshall “Secretary Marshall” and Marshall always referred to him as “Senator Burr.” It’s a matter of respect for both your opponent and for the office. I can’t even imagine Marshall on a podium chastising Burr and calling him “Richard.”

If Tillis didn’t anticipate a backlash, he hasn’t been paying attention. Women voters have been saying for years that the GOP is out of touch with them and their needs. If nothing else, Tillis should have erred on the side of caution. When she repeatedly referred to him as Speaker Tillis, he should have taken his cue. Instead, he came across to some women as boorish and condescending. It was a self-inflicted wound.

Throughout the campaign, Tillis has made rookie mistakes that make him look less than senatorial. When Hagan originally accepted the invitation to the debate, she released an innocuous statement urging Tillis to accept a debate schedule “worthy of the people of our great state.” Instead of agreeing, his repeated attempts at snark on twitter make him seem petty instead of clever. 

Maybe the criticism is overblown and fanned by partisans, but that’s not the point. Tillis and his campaign should have seen it coming. The fact that they didn’t indicates they don’t understand the political environment well. Part of running a successful campaign is anticipating reactions and managing expectations. They failed.  

26 Comments

  1. Betty McGuire

    The thought that came to me last Wednesday was that when Tillis callied her “Kay” it was like the proverbial person scratching their fingernails on a blackboard. Every time he said “Kay” my hair stood on end. Tillis was rude, discourteous, patronizing, ungentlemanly, arrogant, disrespectful and not worthy to be a United States Senator. It is so satisfying to see so many people agreeing with me.

  2. Daniel Gilligan

    Reminds me of the 2002 Dole/Bowles debates, after a few times of Erskine calling her Sec. Dole she interrupted him to say “You can call me Liddy, you do in your attack ads.”

  3. Ken

    Let’s care more about substance than style. Can we do that? It’s oh so Southern of us to insist that people use the correct forms of address, honorifics, etc. It’s really not about the issues to some people. It’s all about giving the right respect to other people, courtesy, etc. Good grief. I will vote for Sen. Hagan probably because she’s not as conservative as the paleoconservative Tillis, but there are real bread-and-butter issues that matter in this state, and the difference between “Kay” and “Senator Hagan” is not one of them.

    • Troy

      That’s not the point, Ken. It isn’t just a Southern thing (although manners and decorum do thrive in the South, moreso than some other regions), but follows protocols of respect. You can disrespect the person, but you respect the office. That is the irony of Speaker Tillis.

      He demands respect, yet offers none. He shows his manifest and utter contempt for the office he wants in refusing to address the person holding properly. And yet he has the unmitigated gaul to offer himself as a representative of the people by sitting in that office? By asking people to elect him to that office? If he holds Senator Hagan in such disdain, can you imagine the reception someone from this State would receive should they go by his office or call and request a few moments of his time? If you’re not on his level in title or stature, you are not worthy of being talked to or listened to.

      Yes there are real issues. Tillis either avoids them or bends the facts to the point it reminds me of a dog chasing it’s tail; mildly amusing for a short time, but doesn’t really get anything done or get anywhere.

  4. Paul Shannon

    It will be interesting to see how Tillis addresses her at the next debate. My guess is he will continue to address her as Kay depending his poll numbers at the time. It’s red meat to his base. We know this election is going to be won by who gets their base out. Tillis’ tactic is straight from the national Repub to run on not giving any respect to Obama or his allies. It shows how desperate he is because it can easily fire up the other sides base too.

  5. donna

    Dear Tommy and staff – your arrogance is nauseating.

    • Tim

      Truth hurts, doesn’t it?

  6. feedup republican

    I am sure if the situation was reverse and he was the senator and she had called him by his first name he would have been irate about it, but he is so far out of touch with what is actual that I doubt the light bulb went off for him. It appear to me that it was intentional and he was being disrespectful to her,

  7. Tim

    I believe it was an intentional slight. I saw the debate and slighting her title is the least of it. He came across as condescending and demeaning, just what the lunatic fringe base wants and yet another example of no respect for women from Tillis.

  8. Susan Pope

    By not referring to her as Senator I believe he was trying to demean her. I believe it was intentional.

  9. Vicki Boyer

    Paula is totally right–all politics and ALEC’s policy preferences. He is the Koch brothers’ man and has no nee for women. I assure you, since Wednesday night, this is the only aspect of the debate that has been discussed on social media.

  10. Ray

    This is what we’re left to talk about from a one-sided pro-war pro-debt infomercial with the Libertarian forbidden to be heard. How one demopublican spoke the other one’s name. Can’t fault you for shallow analysis of a shallow charade.

    • Troy

      Yawn. Does this play have any more acts or is it “Poor Pitiful Libertarian Thwarted by the Demopublican Hordes” until the final curtain?

      • Thomas Ricks

        Yes. Act 2: Economy collapse because Impure Non Libertarian Society.

        Act 3: Gold loving libertarians are prosperous in non fiat based economy where righteous libertarians show the world the SECRET SECRET interpretation of the constitution and the worthy live. The rest starve.

        Why do you think they REALLY hate the Federal Reserve?

        • Troy

          I have several theories. But they each have the same conclusion, none empirical; which in summation is what you proffered. They prosper, everyone else starves. A cut and paste right from the Tea Party/Republican 1% playbook, although it does favor a different socioeconomic sub-set.

          I’m setting here and the theme from “All in the Family” is scrolling through my brain. However, rather than using a man like “Herbert Hoover” we need another WIlson or FDR. Someone with the guts to level the social strata between the classes rather than keep them fighting amongst each other.

          Frankly, I wouldn’t turn my hand over for the difference between them; Libertarian or Republican.

    • Thomas Ricks

      RandGoldOwl. Gold! Gold! Follow the Yellow Brick Road! There’s GOLD in them there hills I tell you! Follow the secret map on the declaration of independence to learn the SECRET SECRET SECRET knowledge of the constitution that only the libertarians posses! Oggleboggleboggleboggle.

  11. Bob Geary

    A committed few saw the debate. This is the only element of the debate that matters — and you’re completely right, Thomas.

    Speaker Tillis made a bad decision going in about what to call Sen. Hagan, and then he compounded his error by not realizing that she was respecting him … and he needed to do the same with her.

  12. Wide Awake Independent

    Tom Tillis is a repackaged version of Jesse Helms. He is an arrogant and outrageously evil minion who is hell bent on destroying ANY semblance of positive progress for the middle, working class, women, education, children, the elderly, and health care. The right wingers have shown their true colors and they are grey and red. They, the GOP/TP, should ALL be sent packing back to hell where they came from.

  13. JD Walker

    Exactly right. Tillis just re-enforced the idea that he is not in tune with women’s issues and rights

  14. thepaulatics

    Oh, it was demeaning, alright. And disrespectful. No class. No manners. All politics and no policy.

  15. me1an1e

    Republicans are bullies and this is just par for the course with them – their base would eat it up.

  16. Diane Moses

    I can guarantee you that women noticed!

  17. James Protzman

    And now from MSNBC, we find him saying that “the process worked” for two men wrongly jailed for 30 years.

    I’m not sure these are rookie mistakes. More like rank arrogance.

    • thepaulatics

      Sad ignorance.

  18. Jeff Tippett

    Well said, Thomas. It was a mistake. Huge mistake.

  19. Nancy G. Rorie

    He has no class.

Related Posts

GET UPDATES

Get the latest posts from PoliticsNC delivered right to your inbox!

You have Successfully Subscribed!