A petulant finish
EGGED ON by a rambunctious audience, the candidates for governor ended their series of televised debates last night snapping at each other like a group of campers snowbound together for many weeks.
The exchanges were already getting testy when Kerry Healey shot a harsh response to the ever-aggressive Christy Mihos. "You have one idea," Healey said, "and Deval has none."
Deval Patrick soon turned to Healey, saying in clipped fashion, "You are better than the campaign you have run."
Overall, Healey was as well-rehearsed and substantive as ever, but didn't manage to create any new openings. When she challenged Patrick's self-description as a prosecutor, he described the duties of the head of the civil-rights division of the Justice Department, but didn't answer the question about actual experience in a courtroom. On the other hand, Patrick twice asserted that the Romney-Healey administration's cuts in local aid led to a reduction of 700 in police manpower statewide, and Healey never responded.
Often, the candidates seemed tired and bickering -- almost ready, at times, for a pie fight.
Two lessons seemed clear:
If such debates are to have live audiences, they should be better controlled. Otherwise, a big crowd, especially for a final debate, spells trouble.
Despite some contributions from Mihos and Grace Ross, Patrick should have relented and agreed to a two-person debate between himself and Healey, the major-party candidates. Neither Mihos nor Ross was ever a contender.
In the end, Healey reminded people that they would have to live with their new governor for the next four years. She said Patrick is a bad choice for that duration. But the admonition may not help Healey. Even in this edgy debate, Healey rarely diverged from the dour, finger-wagging candidate more intent on pulling down her adversary than advancing herself.
Patrick was plenty prickly, too, at times, but also showed another side, complimenting the Romney-Healey administration on some of its policies, as he has done in every debate, and appealing to people to vote their own aspirations.
Healey's view of government's proper role is leaner than Patrick's, but the other key difference is that Healey wants to deliver her policies from on high, while Patrick talks of an inclusive government that challenges citizens at all levels to take part. At a time when so many people feel so alienated from their polities, it is a refreshing and stimulating challenge.
