Funny thing happened on the way to the Snyder town hall meeting. Virg
Bernero showed up, sat in the front row and then afterwards, in front
of the Snyder audience, asked his opponent to sit down over coffee to
work out the debate over debates.
The two shook hands but Mr. Snyder did not agree to the sipping
coffee stuff.
He agreed to read Mr. Bernero's letter about the debates.
It was not quite a half a loaf, but it did represent some progress.
Up to this point, Snyder, acting on the advice of his handlers, had
said there would be no debates. Period.
Benero went on the offensive calling on TV stations to hold a debate
and he would show up with or without Snyder.
It looked like this would be a stand-off with the voters the real
losers in all this.
This state has a long history of televised debates for governor even
though Mr. Snyder opined the other day "this isn't necessarily this
great tradition." It is and it deserves to be extended especially in an
election where the citizens know squat about these guys.
Having said all that, the next move is up to Mr. Snyder. After he
reads the letter, what will he do?
If he decides to do the mano-a-mano thing he will get high marks for
that. If they both agree, without the handlers, to have debates, they
are both winners, but the score right now puts Bernero one up as he had
the guts to show up and try to move the debate ball down the field.
Snyder gets high marks for allowing his opponent to talk in the
meeting and when the audience seemed upset, Snyder lectured them to let
the mayor speak. Good move.
So a good gig for both of them with more to come?