I watched the George Nethercutt/Patty Murray senatorial debate last night, and came away with several observations.
Right away, I noticed Senator Murray’s demeanor while waiting for Representative Nethercutt to finish speaking. I’m not one for appearances over substance, but even if I was a die-hard “Patty fan”, I would have been distraught by her sour, blank-as-a-slate expression.
George at least tried to look engaged and even smiled a few times, but Murray never broke from her monotone, clipped mannerisms. I know a debate’s a serious thing and all, but the candidate must try to convey at least a modicum of…not-so-grimness.
Nethercutt gets kudos for mentioning his daughter and wife, and coming off a whole bunch better, playing a grandfatherly figure. The debate itself was a nice, restrained affair, led by King 5 news anchor Dennis Bounds, with Nethercutt and Murray answering questions from a panel of local journalists (in much the same manner as the Rossi/Gregoire debate), including the Seattle Times’ David Postman.
The two candidates even managed to agree on a couple of things, like trying to get replacements for the KC-135 tankers based at Fairchild Air Force base in Spokane (the KC-135’s are almost fifty years old, having been based on the Boeing 707). So, all in all, it was a good little (televised) discussion; a bit dry, but good.
As a closing note, I feel I must address a fellow blogger (I don’t do that very often, I must admit ;-). Sierra, I’m getting tired of the I’m-a-jaded-young voter” routine (Ed: see post below) (“The young are following the election more closely”). I mean, come on, how many times have you actually voted? Once? Twice? One of my friends from the UW says he hasn’t seen this much excitement for an election in a long time.
Just the other day, when the last debate was playing on the TV in a coffee shop near the ‘U’s main entrance, he estimated that forty-five students were crammed in there trying to watch it. You say:
“I have to admit, I too turned off the third presidential debate halfway through: too much rhetoric is bad for the brain.”
That’s kinda’ sad: even if the whole thing was big political show full of rhetorical wind, don’t say the whole thing was pointless. Tell that to the 1000+ soldiers’ families who’ve died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tell that to the hundreds of thousands more who’ll be gone for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I agree, we have a right to grumble, but it’s a bit distressing when the grumblers could very well be the ones fighting. You and I are about the same age as many of our soldiers serving overseas. Let’s keep the grouchiness down, for their sake.
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