Soooo, ya gonna watch Sunday at 7 p.m.?
You know, THE governor's debate between the Virg and the Nerd.
Here's what to expect.
Virg Benero has more riding on this than Rick Snyder. He needs to
pull a rabbit out of his hat to jump start the passion meter in the
base of the state Democratic Party and lure back into the fold the
independents who are gulping the Snyder kool-aid.
Snyder's agenda on the other hand is to avoid, at all cost, a prat
fall that the D's could turn into a game changing commercial. Snyder
and his handlers are well aware that this guy is not a seasoned
debater. Hey, when you are a CEO of anything, you don't do a lot of
debating; you merely tell everyone what to do. So Snyder is in shaky
territory here although in other debate formats, he was pretty good.
Problem is even at his best, Snyder isn't Bernero who could debate
with both hands behind his back, just as long as there are no
restraints on his mouth.
Which brings us to a major concern in the Bernero camp: That mouth.
Weeks ago when they were debating about not having a debate, some
worried that their guy could go over the top, blow a gasket, and offend
a ton of voters who don't cotton to that kind of behavior.
Bernero has been on his best behavior all fall and if he stumbled,
nobody in the media caught it. But the temptation to mop up the floor
with Snyder will be real.
The aforementioned Snyder folks have done everything humanly
possible to lower the chances of a screw-up. The restrictive debate
format, the time of the debate against other more "interesting"
programs was calculated to lower the risks and the chances anyone would
see it, if he happened.
"Let's just get him through this one night," has probably been
muttered once or twice on the Nerd Mobile and "then we can coast to
victory."
So the chances of a knock out punch landing on Snyder's
chinny-chin chin? Don't bet the farm.
The chances that Bernero can score some points? Much better, but
if nobody is watching, so what.
Maybe Mr. Snyder will remind viewers that he would not be offended
if they turned to the football or baseball games. Heck, he might even
announce the scores instead of answering some of Bernero's attacks.