Posted on 10/22/2004 8:10:49 AM PDT by agenda_express
Candidate's Stage Fright Ends Debate
Parra: 'I Just Can't Do This'
October 22, 2004
FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- A northeastern Indiana congressional candidate said she abruptly ended a debate because she got stage fright.
Democrat Maria Parra walked off a television stage Thursday, ending what would have been her only debate with incumbent Republican Mark Souder in the 3rd District congressional race.
"I'm not used to being in front of the camera. ... I couldn't get my words out. I was just overwhelmed," she said after the aborted debate, which was being filmed at WPTA and would have been aired this weekend. The matchup has not been rescheduled and is not likely to be, The Journal Gazette reported Friday.
Parra said she "absolutely" thought backing out of the debate would hurt her politically, but hoped people would understand.
(Excerpt) Read more at theindychannel.com ...
Democrats will vote for her anyway. If she's pro-choice, that's all that matters.
WOW! If you can't stand up to a camera how can you stand up to a terrorist? Oh, never mind, the DIMS kool-aid drinkers won't care...
I understand... I understand that if you can't handle a debate you can't handle congress. Thank you for playing.
Heard exerpts from the debate. Poor woman suffers from mentally being a midget.
Now that's the kind of strong leader this country is looking for!!
Who in the DNC-Indiana thought this lightweight would be a good candidate.
good answer.
Glad it was a Dim and not one of our candidates.
Oh, and she did this TWICE. Walked off once, then came back and then walked off again.
Yup.
Loyal dem voters or not, stick a fork in her candidacy, it's DONE!
I almost felt sorry for her. Then I remembered she was a dem and chuckled some more.
A Democrat woman backing out of a debate because of stagefright? She'll win in a freakin' landslide.
IIRC, Souder is a conservative's conservative (one of the few 'Pubbies to oppose Bush's new drug entitlement). I don't think she stood much of a chance, anyway.
To be fair, she first voted to walk out before voting to quit.
Can't wait for the first time this woman has to make a speech before the whole congress! Where's Traficant when you need him?? Beam me up!!
She'll get a huge sympathy vote and win in a landslide
Yep. It must have been the mean-spirited, insensitive republicans that INTIMIDATED her.
I feel sympathy for people with stage fright.
One of my daughters has it and had to give a speech to the student body to graduate high school. She fainted dead away. It was dreadful.
Then we discovered Inderal and /or Xanax, both cure stage fright if taken right before appearing. It is miraculous.
No I don't think the mean pubs did it.
I am dismayed at how mean spirited we are becoming. For crying out loud, this election season has turned us into as mean a group as I have seen. A fellow human being succumbs to something that is quite common, humiliates herself, and everyone has a har har about it.
I hate it when freepers act like dems. Do we forget who we are? Is is just politics all the time? If we become that, we are them and we are lost.
This is good news as to their further demise.
Her parents (FIDEL and Maria Luisa) moved here (from Mexico?) in 40's.
From her webpage: "I lived in the East for a number of years and worked for IBM, DuPont, and CS First Boston. I also lived and worked for one year in Mexico City for CVC Telemercado Alameda. I returned to Fort Wayne and worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield and am currently working as an insurance agent. Click here for a detailed work experience resume. (pdf resume)
You are kidding, right?....lol
Oh good grief. If this woman can't stand the scrutiny in her own state, how the heck is she gonna manage her nerves when she's shown on C-SPAN (for starters)? Ye gods.
i voted for the debate, before i voted against it
I agree with you. I wouldn't vote for this woman but I think it is wrong to mock her. Hey, she tried putting herself out there to run for congress - good for her. Watching these canidates in debates, I'm a little amazed because I'd never be able to do it.
Any word on how Souder responded? Was he classy and patient, or smirky?
Too bad she ran away. Sounds like she could've used some helpful tips from sKerry on how to debate. He would've told her to just stand there and say absolutely anything! The truth is optional. Promise the little people the sun, the moon, and the stars. And later, when you can't produce a d*mn thing - just say it was Bush's fault.
That Parra sounds about as strong as Nicole Parra here in CA..................
No word on Souder's response. Trust me, if he would have laughed, it would be all over the papers.
No, I think we ought to be nicer than this. Maybe just because I had a stupendous double latte made right at home with my new super auto coffee machine that grinds the beans, frothes the milk and I used Brazilian coffee that costs a mint. It has me in a nice mood.
Politics is about communication and persuasion. Or it should be... several Dims pop to mind that are better suited for a job in the Janitorial Arts...
well, they do other things. She could take bribes, cater to special interests, go windsurfing, sell her vote. There are many thing she could do.
Souder's response is shown on the video link. Very gracious, as you might expect from a Republican.
Sounds like she's not only phobic, but completely unprepared for prime time.
He's not the type of man to laugh or say something disparaging. I felt sort of sorry for her after the first time she walked out, then she started in on what "an embarrassment" Mark Sounder has been then she walked out again and my sympathy evaporated.
Priceless!
Hey, I never begrudge anyone for failing. The only people who don't fail are those who never put themselves out to be in a position to fail and that is a lot less admirabe in my opinion than coming off looking foolish.
Honesty from a Democrat? Doubtful. Probably blew an o-ring in her Depends.
Mark Souder responded with graciousness and tact -- exactly what you'd expect from him.
Boy, is she in the wrong career. She probably doesn't like shaking folks' hands, either.
I can understand that statement, but what I imagine (I don't really know the woman) is that this is not an example of the little engine that could, but an example of a poser... Someone who enjoys pretending to be some romantic concept of a noble idealogue "stateswoman" and when it came to a time for her to actually perform, her fraud was exposed. The same lady trying to make some speech at the local PTA and having the same thing happen would likely be expected to be given a large degree of sympathy and gracious encouragement. But this lady is running for a real office, and it is not at all inappropriate to acknowledge her failure to perform in this venue as evidence of her masquerade, as well as evidence of her inability to perform effectively in the office which she seeks.
How come Indiana is so much more Republican than all the other Midwest states? Are there more Southern descendents there?
I don't know... I'm from NC. :o)
Indiana has always been very conservative (indeed, our governor even refused to call our state legislature for the entire duration of the Civil War--in the process running the state government out of his own pocket--for fear that the state legislature would vote to secede), but for a serious answer to your question, I believe it has to do with the fact that Indiana does not have many big cities.
If you look at the other Midwestern states around us, they are all fairly conservative places, but the big cities "cancel" out the votes of the conservatives. Central and Southern IL are pretty conservative, but you have the massive population of Chicago that swings IL to the democratic side. Same with Ohio. Same with Michigan. But look to Kentucky, without any bigger cities, and you have conservativism.
All that aside, though, as a native and (former) 22 year resident of Indiana, I can tell you that it ain't all that conservative.
Yeah, I agree with you there. And if I were able to vote in Indiana I would never vote for her... But then based on her ideology I wouldn't vote for her if she sounded like Winston Chuchill :-)
Maria, here's a tip, If you are nervous in front of an audience, just picture yourself naked.
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