Wendy Davis Whoppers

Regarding "Politics twists slight errors into blatant lies" (Wednesday City & State), Lisa Falkenberg makes the case that the mistruths on gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis' biography were not really due to any intention on Davis' part to deceive, but rather, that the statements of public figures get blown out of proportion.  The problem is that what is known does little to support this notion. 

 

First is Davis' portrayal of herself as a single mom with her and her baby relegated to a trailer home.  Contrary to that narrative, though, she and her first husband Frank Underwood moved in to that trailer home with their daughter together, and she took up with her eventual second husband, Jeff Davis, almost a year before she got a divorce.  Afterwards, Underwood paid her child support.  Her bio also allows you to believe that her father virtually abandoned her, and yet, she worked at her Dad's restaurant when she met Jeff Davis.

 

Davis portrays herself as funding her own education, but all of the available evidence suggests that 100% of the funding for all of her education not covered by grants and loans came from Jeff Davis.  They were cohabiting before she even started her freshman year in college, and she divorced Davis mere weeks after he had paid off the loans he took out to fund her post-grad degree.

 

Her portrayal as a devoted Mom is belied by the fact that she lost custody to Davis and at one point had restraining orders because of her partying ways.  She never regained custody.

 

To me the biggest "lie" Davis tells is in giving herself credit for the selfless actions of her second husband, Jeff Davis.  To this day, none of her official bio even mentions his name.  Still and all, I give credit to Ms. Falkenberg for at least calling Davis' untruths "lies".  Most other mainstream articles used words like "gaffe" or "flub"; One went all pop culture and called it "blurred lines".

 

The last person to get the benefit of so many doubts was candidate Barack Obama.  I believe most reporters now regret that decision.

 

Pete Smith

Cypress, TX