All praise for the two-paper town is in order today, since we’ve got wall-to-wall coverage of last night’s gubernatorial debate. There is really some terrific writing in today’s papers — good old-fashioned attitude-laden ink-slinging. Interesting also to see the mostly liberal-ish Boston Globe’s writers express horror over the Tom Reilly self-immolation, while the more rightish Herald’s scribblers passed the popcorn. Here are some of the best lines. (Thanks to Hub Politics for putting it all in one place.)
After all these years as Claude Rains in Casablanca, rounding up the usual suspects, suddenly Reilly morphs into Joe Friday on crack.
This debate competed with the fourth of July on fireworks. The gloves are off and the Fleur is flying. It would have been a blow out victory for Deval Patrick if it had not been for his over zealous sweat glands and lack of makeup.
Did he jog to the debate?
Visually Chris Gabrieli was the winner. He towered over his opponents like the Jolly Green Giant …
And here’s the Globe’s Scot Lehigh:
Grim and angry, Reilly was in full prosecutorial mode from moment one …
… [W]ith his expensive ad-driven campaign, [Gabrieli] exists like one of those cerebral, disembodied hologram figures that shimmered on screen with greetings or warnings whenever the Starship Enterprise entered an unexplored quadrant of the universe.
Brian McGrory (yes, Brian McGrory):
Reilly … strode into a Harvard University auditorium loaded for bear. Whether he hit anything remains to be seen, but the early impressions are that the puddles of blood on the floor might well be his own.
… And Patrick was as smooth as always, his often ephemeral points gliding along perfectly rhythmic sentences as he rammed home his theme of hope. “Good ideas will die on Beacon Hill if we don’t change the culture of inaction and neglect,” he said.
Stuck between the towering millionaire, Gabrieli, and the shorter, smoother millionaire with the grass roots, Patrick, Reilly blew a chance to play up his mere Watertown credentials. He instead took an opening question about taxes and tried to turn Gabrieli into Richard Nixon.
… Reilly’s self-immolation drained the debate of meaning.
I saved the best for last. Here’s the Globe’s Lisa Wangsness:
Anybody who believed the Democratic gubernatorial race lacked feeling was in for a surprise last night. The candidates smirked, pointed, scowled, sweated, and guffawed their way through a grisly hourlong debate, leaving the viewer feeling as if he had overdone it at an all-you-can-eat emotional buffet.
“Grisly” … awesome. Two thumbs up.
