So, Kerry Healey has complained about the “noise” from Christy Mihos in the last debate, and wants to take on Deval mano-a-mano. This is obviously a self-serving request: She has a better shot making her points against just Deval than vs. the tag team of Deval + Christy + Grace.
But as a matter of simple fairness and civility, I think she’s actually got a point. The way Fox25 had all the candidates crowded around the small table, she was close enough to Christy to smell what flavor Slurpee he had with dinner. And Christy interrupted her on several occasions, which is really out of bounds. The shout-down may be good enough for Bill O’Reilly and pro wrestling, but it’s really bad for trying to decide who’s the best candidate. The public isn’t served by that kind of crap.
So here’s my solution:
1. For crying out loud, give the candidates some personal space. Give ’em podiums, stools, La-Z-Boys, whatever, but don’t crunch them all together like they’re riding the subway during rush hour. That’s just unnecessary.
2. Somehow there’s got to be made a price to pay for debate-thuggery. Bullying or stepping on another candidate’s response is totally unacceptable. The organizers should be creative in ways to enforce this: specific admonishment and embarassment aimed at the offender; mic-cutting; a penalty box; caning … Do what you gotta do.
Look, if Mihos is a real candidate, then he should be allowed in the debates. (And obviously I’m delighted with the role that he’s played in the campaign so far.) Healey’s right to complain about the “noise” from the last debate, but the solution is not to try to totally silence Mihos. You just have to have rules of debate, and enforce them.
Update: “Greater Boston’s” Emily Rooney thinks Fox25 blew it, too.
The solution isn’t to exclude anybody, but to invite one more person – a competent moderator who will enforce the rules of debate.
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IMHO, so far, Jon Keller has done the best job on that score.
Emily Rooney? Or perhaps Chris Lydon, Dick Gordon, or Tom Ashbrook?
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Monday’s circus is about what I’d expect to see from a Fox television station. I’d prefer a more NPR/PBS approach to future debates.
…(I’m trying to be polite here) but the others would be fine.
When I heard about Healey’s suggestion, I thought Patrick should respond with this proposal: If Kerry Healey is willing to debate Christy Mihos 1-on-1, and Grace Ross 1-on-1, then Patrick will do the same, and also debate her. We’d have a series of 8 debates with each candidate combination. Of course Healey wouldn’t agree (and if she did, she’d come out of all 3 of hers clobbered).
Good luck getting the TVs to cover that one …
What about if Mitt Romney goes 1-on-1 against Danny Ainge in basketball? They’re both Mormon.
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charley, an instant classic.
The funniest part of this is that if you go to wehirealiens.com or http://www.wehireali… and look up the companies reported to have or hire illegal alliens and then go the state contributions website http://www.followthe…. Most of the companies that hire illegals and donate , donate to the republicans.
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Will mihos be invited to Deval’s victory party?
While we’re at it, if she wins, it’s really not fair for her to have to deal with all those Democrats in the legislature — she’s explained how upsetting that is to her. So we need a plan for evening that up too.
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Fox25 Morning News has a good discussion on the topic this morning. For a TV station that pretty much set up Kerry with Chris Wallace and loaded questions it’s pretty interesting.
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http://www.myfoxbost…
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It went along the lines of:
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– Kerry Healey can deem who is a candidate and who is not?
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– Since Deval is up by 39 points so he should debate himself?
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– Healey took a bad situation and made it worse by running scared and calling for the 1 one 1 debate and trotted out Mitt.
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– She didn’t look like a leader in any way shape or form.
Don’t get me wrong…I think it’s only fair to have at least one Healey-on-Patrick debate. First of all, those are the only two candidates that have any shot worth winning. It can be justified with a number of measures — at least 10% in any poll of the race, gubernatorial candidate for a party running in X districts across the state, etc. But having Grace Ross up there on a consistent basis is not that far from putting on stage any random person who starts printing ballot-sized stickers in their basement.
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If the Democrats refuse, then it really does look like Deval Patrick is hiding behind Christy Mihos. Deval could certainly do very well on a one-on-one debate against her, and we need to dispell or forestall any impression that Healey’s problem is Mihos. It’s not — her problem is her record.
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That said, make her beg. If Kerry really wants a one-on-one, the Democrats should be able to extract a favorable format — topics, moderator, forum, etc. I’m not sure what his campaign thinks would be his strength in debate styles, but this is something Kerry desperately needs, and she should pay dearly for it.
There is a serious choice to be made here.
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Using Mihos and Ross to draft behind might make for great “debate strategy” for Patrick, and fun web fodder for those who are going to vote party line anyway. But it does absolutely nothing for the undecided voter, who needs to make an informed decision on who will be the CEO of the Commonwealth for the next four years.
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The assclown parade that these two also-rans create will waste the already limited time available for the real candidates to educate us about their philosophies, their character, and their plans for Massachusetts.
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We had to endure the moronic spectacle of Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton taking up stage space in the last election cycle.
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This shouldn’t be a WWF tag team event. Let’s at least get the two contenders in the ring alone, where neither one can hide.
The Green-Rainbow and independent candidate did their work by getting on the ballot. Now lets respect our process by making sure the voters are informed on all of the candidates. No one is entitled to votes and no one is entitled to coverage- both must be earned and Ross and Mihos have earned their coverage and ballot access. The Fox25 format sucked, not enough time to get any point out there, I’m sure there is a creative way to make sure each candidate gets equal air time.