From the Healey Committee web site back in May:
Healey’s Debate Challenge — Still Waiting for a Response
So far, only Deval Patrick has accepted Kerry Healeys debate challenge
On April 25, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey challenged the announced candidates for governor to participate in a series of four debates between Primary Day and Election Day. All candidates that qualify for the November ballot would be eligible to participate in the debates and provide Massachusetts voters with multiple opportunities to hear directly from the candidates on the issues.
Thus far, only Deval Patrick has accepted Healeys challenge writing, I am glad to accept your invitation and to join you in a series of debates between Primary Day and Election Day. I look forward to working out the format and hope we will arrange to have them in different regions of the Commonwealth.
Healey said, Im pleased that Deval Patrick is willing to make a commitment to participate in four fall debates. Even though we have starkly different visions for the future of the Commonwealth, at least the voters will know where each of us stands on the key issues. I urge Tom Reilly, Chris Gabrieli, Christy Mihos and Grace Ross to make the same commitment as Deval Patrick and accept my debate challenge.
The debate schedule, format and locations will be finalized as sponsors come forward and indicate their interest in hosting an event, including one in western Massachusetts.
Back then, she wanted them all in, and publicly hectored anyone who hadn’t accepted her “challenge.” Now, not so much, no doubt because she’s figured out that Christy Mihos not only has her number on the Big Dig (among other things), but is taking votes from her, while Grace Ross helps Patrick by making him not be the most “liberal” guy on the stage.
Healey’s been hoisted by her own petard, I’d say. Honestly, if she’s going to make a big stink about now wanting a one-on-one with Patrick, she should at least get stuff like this press release out of public view!
HT: alert commenter Max for reminding everyone about Healey’s “challenge.”
And thanks for putting this back on the table, David.
As far as I can tell from the Globe article, she’s not against all candidates debating, but is looking to get a one-on-one with Deval. Has she now said she’s against further debates that include all hopefuls on the ballot?
It’s a fair question, but either way, it’s not until after she got slammed by a four-candidate field that she suddenly started asking for a two-way debate. It’s very transparent and shows that she’d rather play political games than actually win on her merits.
this little tidbit is scrubbed from the Healey website?
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Gentlemen and ladies, start your engines.
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I say it’s gone by tomorrow morning.
Healey’s debate performance was so off-balance that I don’t think she can handle the multiple candidate format. Just doesn’t have that skill set. Deval shouldn’t let her welch on her challenge but giving her a 1-on-1, which just serves to give her a clear shot at him and boost her relative debating strength. If she won’t debate all candidates like she said, Deval shouldn’t agree to debate her at all. The other 3 candidates can do a debate without her, and make Romney the punching bag instead of Healey.
I think Deval should take her on in any reasonable forum she would like. Obviously, I like the 4 candidate matchup as I mentioned in my debate wrapup last night, but if she wants a one-on-one Deval should take it.
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Kerry Healey doesn’t have it. Deval does. Much better to take a two person major party bang-up than to be dogged by accusations that he’s afraid of such a format. I think DP would do fine either way, it’s Healey who polls show needs to land knockout punches right now.
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The caveat is that under no circumstances should all of the remaining debates be one-on-one. The simple reason is that there are in fact 4 candidates in the race, and I think everyone but Healey will readily recognize that. But, if she is going to make an issue of the race and wishes to whine about wanting only the ‘contenders’ to be in a contest of ideas, give her what she wants and kick her ass in the process.
David,
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I believe the expression is “hoist with one’s own petard” not hoisted by.
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Or, at least that’s the original, according to your favorite source, Wikipedia.
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Still, as to the substance of your post, I agree. Let her stew in her own juices, to use another phrase.
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Or, as others have noted, Deval will cream her no matter what the format, so, who cares?!
shows several variants: “hoist by,” “hoisted by,” and “hoist with.”
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Shakespeare had it thus:
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But note the variant spellings.
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Personally, I like “hoisted by” because it sounds funnier.
There’s no reason it should be only one way; it isn’t as though it was somehow a canonicalized Saying, which could be phrased only one way, before Shakespeare used it (indeed, in his day, rules of spelling and grammar, never mind variants of phrasing, were rather looser than we’re accustomed to now), and it’s not as though it was just some nonsense words he strung together, either: the meaning is quite clear1, so as long as the meaning is kept, the Bard himself wouldn’t complain about the tense of the verb. Er, as long as it still fit the meter, that is.
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1After all, as everyone knows, enginers were the folks responsible for sapping and mining the walls of enemy castles during a siege, and a petard was an explosive device.
The beauty of the situation is that it is of Healys own making. She could have had the big dig problems out as old news and having defeated Mihos in the primary made this independent run a last minute gambit unlikely to gain traction. Failing to understand her opponent or learn from history she chose to shut him out of the primary process. He made a big noisy exit when slighted by Jane Swift and kept the controversy in the alive well into the Romney administration. Where did Healy get the idea he was just going to lie down and go away for her ambitions? All efforts to neutralize Mihos will make the problem worse. She could be in an exclusive cartoon spot if he is shut out of the debates.