Left In Lowell

Debate Debating

2 Responses to “Debate Debating”

1. Paul@01852 Says:
   September 8th, 2006 at 5:09 pm

   I was embarassed for Tom Reilly. Watching him berate CG for what supposedly his campaign was responsible for, i.e., releasing the St. Fleuriasco report to the Globe was painful to watch. And it wasn’t even responsive to the topic under discussion (the tax rollback). As Lynne said above TR really *isn’t* any good at politics. It was a totally inappropriate response and Jeanne Shaheen even tried to get the discussion back on topic unsuccessfully. It’s almost too bad that the first question wasn’t the one re: preparedness to manage the response to a disaster. I thought this was Tom’s shining moment throughout the entire campaign. He explained how he immediately returned to the center of his area of responsibility (unlike someone who was catching up on the grammar school literature he missed the first time around and then taking an airtour of Middle America while his staff decided what he should do next). He explained that he mobilized the State Police to begin the investigation of the role of Logan Airport in the hijacking and began mobilizing to protect the Commonwealth. Maybe if he focused on this theme instead of the unnecessary task of hand-picking a Lt. Governor candidate this race would really be close among all three instead of a two-horse race.

   I was definitely impressed with CG. He had understandable explanations of his proposals. In fact I think I even “begin” to understand his plan to cut the tax rate from 5.3 to 5.0%… I repeat — BEGIN! He was personable and even funny at times (although DP won the Comedy Central Award for several comments including a jibe at TR after he finished going off on CG — Are we still talking about taxes?) Even so I still think the debate was a dead heat between CG and DP. TR not only shot himself in the foot, I think he also committed suicide in political terms.

   Deval was the person we have all come to admire. Many of his answers were much more detailed than other campaign talks that I have heard. I think he could have been even more specific however. Also, there is a controversy apparently noted first by the Herald that Deval was sweating during the debate. Someone even compared him to Richard Nixon! Dan Kennedy [discusses http://medianation.blogspot.com/2006/09/no-sweat.html] this today on his blog and concludes that it was the lighting. I have to differ — it was definitely sweat but it’s possible the lighting contributed to the appearance. I noticed it immediately and thought to myself “Uh oh! Deval should have had a better makeup job.” However, I do not believe that it was tension causing this. DP was his usual assured, calm self. It was probably just the hot studio lighting. And as the debate progressed I did not notice any other time when it was noticable.

   Jeanne Shaheen needs to learn to tone it down a bit! She acted like Pee Wee Herman on crack! Someone give the poor lady a Xanax or something! The “rotating reporters” asking questions is boring. I wish someone would come up with a better method of conducting these debates. The second round where the candidates were allowed to interact more freely was interesting but as Lynne pointed out above CG tended to hog the mic. I wonder if a more “traditional” format would work? Something like “Resolved: the Mass tax rate should be lowered to 5.0%” and giving each candidate maybe 5 minutes or so to explain in depth, then allowing each opponent a minute or two to respond. Give each candidate a different question and keep away from the obvious (like reducing the tax rate to 5.0%). I know this would only allow a few questions at most but as long as the chosen questions weren’t disclosed in advance I think we not only would learn the candidates position on the issue(s) but we might actually get a glimpse of their “thinking on two feet” as they will have to do when/if they take office.

   One other point that I have not seen discussed elsewhere — DP and TR’s staff should have requested stools or something to even the disparity in the height of CG vs their candidate. I think that CG seemed more dominant than the other two just because of the difference. I wonder if I would have scored the debate so closely had Deval been “on the level” with Chris.

   I am looking forward to the next go-round on Sep 13th (WBZ-Ch4)! It will be interesting to see how each candidate changes their tactics.

2. Abbe Says:
   February 6th, 2007 at 3:12 am

   Nice..nice post.

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