Posts for October 25th, 2006

Wow. I spent last night and this morning watching and rewatching the Florida Governors debate between Attorney General Charlie Crist and Congressman Jim Davis. I was equally flummoxed and amused over the course of the debate. In some ways, it was almost a rerun of the Davis/Smith debate - just with a taller opponent against Davis and no Big Sugar references. From the debate - if you read the papers - you’ll hear:

Crist: Empty chair. People’s governor. You have the worst record. Rhetoric has to stand up to your record. You can see it on my website.
Davis: 40% reduction in insurance premium. Not just show up, you have to stand up. Stay the course or change course. $1B down payment. Special interests have to pay their fair share.

My favorite moment was Davis’ showing his insurance premium statement to Crist - totally surprising, but Davis looked kind of stiff, where Crist looked fluid. The laugh was well needed.

My biggest disappointment regarding this debate was that there was lots of political policy talk, and little in the way of explaining nuance or reasons. Both candidates could say whatever they wanted - and, for most viewers, looking into the details is almost impossible to do so. So, you are left with believing the messenger versus the content. Given the format of the debate - and the content - I am not surprised that anyone was able to “stay the course”.

As I did the last time with the Smith/Davis debate, I will try to summarize what each said with each question and give my opinion on success of the candidates. Understand, your mileage may vary since I am not a talking head for any major television network…

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