In politics, there are tricks aplenty that candidates use to avoid high-profile debates. One can do as wily veteran Ted Kennedy did in 2006 and accept a single debate on a well-regarded but relatively low-profile media outlet like New England Cable News. He or she can agree to debate only on a night when viewers are sure to be watching more enticing events, or can insist on debates that occur before voters are fully focused on the race. And let’s not forget Tom Menino’s 2005 trick of doing a radio debate as one of his few encounters with an attention-starved rival.
Over the years, Massachusetts voters have seen all those stratagems and more. They shouldn’t let either of the candidates in the US Senate race get away with any of them.
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I can definitely see Brown backing out of a serious formal debate right after spending twenty minutes our so yukking it up with Jim amd Margery. Oh, I mean "debating" Elizabeth Warren. If Jim could be convinced to stop talking about himself for two seconds we might even hear the candidates answer a question or two. Love them as I do they are just not the best forum to compare the candidates.
Lizzy and Scotty are both lawyers. The major thing that lots of debates, whether on television or radio, will prove is which of the candidates has a better stage presence. I suspect it would be Lizzy due to her constant classroom perforamances (they are constant, aren't they?). But if Brown can fill a notebook with enough Lizzy spin claims, maybe he would have an actual chance of benefitting from debates before tv cameras. All the way from her memories of being poverty stricken in Oklahoma while she drove a sports car to high school to her sudden 1986 realization that she was a sort of an Indian maiden and how that claim lasted her a good decade in the law school faculty directory. Before she realized that it wouldn't help at Harvard, where she might be expected to take part in some real Indian-relate devents. And how she mentored all the mini-thugs that claimed they would "occupy" whatever they want. And the Travelers Insurance bankruptcy case advice, and the refusal by Barry the O's cronies to put Lizzy up for U.S. Senate endoresment to head the federal consumer watchdog agency she purportedly created amidst her very own grey cells. And the beat goes on....
Dan Rea is not a smart, knowledgeable journalist. He's a pure partisan who caters to right-wing listeners, has pretty much endorsed his buddy Scott Brown, and uses a mean-spirited, derisive humor to put down all poeple and issues he disagrees with while calling himself "the voice of reason." Gee, why doesn't he say fair and balanced, too?
Have you read margery Eagan's work......talk about knowledge.
We can all agree that Elizabeth Warren is more educated, more intelligent and more concerned about the middle class than Scott Brown. There is ample evidence for this. Scott Brown however, it the sitting US Senator and the more experienced politician. When they face off in the important debates (not on radio) Elizabeth Warren will have to utterly destroy him to be considered the "winner." Scott Brown merely has to stay even to survive. This almost sets up a no-win situation for Warren. Unfortunately, my crystal ball is not working properly, but in the end, the more big-market, prime time debates, the better. Let's hope Warren takes the gloves off and confronts Brown's sorry voting record: with the exception of two or three votes, he is so far in the tank that the word "bipartisan" is a misnomer. Bipartisanship is over rated anyway.
The problem is that Scott will have to open his mouth during a debate and people will realize how he he is a whiny airhead with cery little on his mind except to keep the government gravy train for himslef and the spotlight on the loretta lynn girls.
Its my understanding that The Framingham Board of Selectmen sent both candidates an invitation to debate at Framingham Town Hall. If that happens, not only can the local cable stations be there to tape, but im sure the consortium would be welcome. I dont care where they debate, I just want to see them debate the issues more than just a few times. I suggest all towns get on the bandwagon and start inviting the candidates to their town. The more invitations they receive, the more chance we can see them.