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In and outs of the political campaigns, focusing on Michigan and Lansing, Tim Skubick will report regularly throughout the primary and then general election campaigns.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

So...Who Won?

You can count on it. Anytime a political journalist covers a
candidate debate, the first question out of the box is, of course, who
won?
Fact of the matter is it doesn't matter how the reporter scores
the thing; the real winners and losers are picked at home by the
viewers, readers and listeners. And while that sounds like a cope out,
it's true.
If for example your forte is a fighter, scrapper, and somebody
who is willing to take on an opponent, Attorney General Mike Cox was
your winner as he was the only one on the stage taking the fight to the
others. It was a risky move but being down in the polls, why not give
it a shot?
Cox sparred at first with front runner Congressman Pete Hoekstra
over federal bail outs but that paled in comparison to the two rounds
he went with the Nerd, Rick Synder.
Cox, who reminded the audience several times that he was a former
Marine, once said it was a Marine's job to protect nerds. He did no
protecting in Wednesday nights first TV debate with all five GOP
candidates.
Sgt. Cox was not asked by the panel to discuss sending jobs to
China, but he went there anywhere as he accused business guy Rick
Snyder of questionable business stock trading practices and alleged
outsourcing to foreign lands.
Snyder denied it, as he has done in the past, and after the
debate he tried to turn the jab into a counter-punch as he dismissed
Cox's performance as a typical "career politician" doing what c.p.'s do
i.e. attack and distort. Cox handed that to him on a silver platter.
Therefore if you favor the underdog when he is being whacked,
Synder turned out to be the winner.
Senator Tom George of Kalamazoo showed a little passion of his
own as he characterized his opponents as a sheriff, Mike Bouchard, the
business guy, Snyder, a Congressman Peter Hoekstra and then "another
attorney general" referencing the fact that the current governor was an
attorney general just like Cox.
It was a good line but Bouchard managed to one-up George by
noting that in the old days of John Wayne it was the sheriff who went
in to clean things up.
For everybody under 30, they went John who?
As for Mr. Hoekstra, he did not bring his "A" game to the table.
The quintet will go at it again down the road.

2 Comments:

Blogger The Law Blogger said...

Tim, thanks for covering this. Between your blog, and your Fox 2 News comments, you'd never even know a debate had occurred. Who do you think is the "front runner" these days?

April 22, 2010 at 4:04 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The favorite would probably be Hoekstra, although not sure what the polls say. Bouchard may give a good account, and George seems credible, if unknown. Cox will fade, I suspect. Snyder's a nerd, and shoulda run as a Democrat. He mighta won over there, but the Repubs will scorn him ultimately.

Dillon against either Bouchard or Hoekstra... should be a good race.

April 30, 2010 at 1:26 PM 

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