Local political watchers offer words of wisdom for Martinez's RNC speech

Posted at: 08/28/2012 7:04 PM | Updated at: 08/28/2012 7:56 PM
By: Stuart Dyson, Eyewitness News 4

Gov. Susana Martinez

Veteran watchers of New Mexico politics have some words of wisdom for Governor Susana Martinez as she gets ready for her big prime-time speech to the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

KOB Eyewitness News 4 has talked with a lot of Democrats as well as Republicans and you might be surprised how many of the Democrats are pulling for the governor to look good and perform well on the national stage.

For this story, though, KOB went to two of our favorite veteran nonpartisan analysts, and a couple of other icons, too.

We don't know who the governor's favorite baseball player of all time is, but if it's Ted Williams, he might tell her something like this: see the ball, hit the ball, and if you've got two strikes on you forget the long ball and just connect.

"I think Gov. Martinez frankly just needs to show up and be articulate," said University of New Mexico political science professor Christine Sierra. "The party needs her."

"Get a good speech," advised politics blogger Joe Monahan of joemonahan.com. "If you happen to hit a double or a triple, more power to you, but a solid single will get the job done for Gov. Martinez."

Bill Clinton infamously went for the long (we mean long) ball at the Democratic Convention back in 1988, boring the audience with a seemingly interminable rambling oration. Martinez does not want to go there.

"This is a Republican party that is aging, that is dominated by white men," said Sierra. "Unless they see the writing on the wall they need to change and she represents the future."

"It's a pretty big moment in American politics," said Monahan. "The first female Hispanic governor, who happens to be from New Mexico. This is the first time this has happened in the nation's history and for a lot of Americans Wednesday night will be the first time they've ever heard of it."

The Governor's speech is scheduled for about 8:00 PM Wednesday night, right after America's Got Talent on KOB-TV. Here's hoping Howard Stern feels merciful.

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