It's tough to say what the low point of the night for Kerry Healey was--she certainly had her share. Let's take a look at the ways she fared poorly tonight:Most egregiously, she refused to criticize Governor Romney for making Massachusetts the butt of his jokes and the foil for his rightist campaign for President. She couldn't have had one teed up any better, and she whiffed. Instead of taking the opportunity to both stand up for her state and separate herself from a governor with high unfavorables, she just grinned. Healey looked like a jilted schoolgirl who had just been told that her jock boyfriend was cheating on her with someone else and refused to believe it. Face it Kerry, Mitt doesn't love you anymore.
But that was just the worst of her night. She looked to be stunned that Deval Patrick actually came out aggressively when asked about Ben LaGuer and the Healey advertisements, and seemed flat and unsure of her response. She appeared to be unprepared for an aggressive response, and I thought she fared poorly in the first couple of segments, culminating in Patrick's admonition that Healey "get off her high horse."
She was a little too cute on the charter school question. She was on strong ground right up until the end, when she proposed to scrap the oldest public school system in the nation in favor of a collection of charter schools. Her odd little quip ruined what otherwise should have been a good issue for her.
Finally, she ended the day as she started it, getting nearly booed off the stage. This morning she was heckled by 700 oldsters and their canes. Tonight, she earned hoots by trying to goad Patrick into a one-on-one debate.
Deval Patrick was OK. I thought he did a decent job on the question of the Healey ads. He refused to take the bait on whether or not the ads have the taint of racial politics (I think they do and he probably does too, but he was smart not to go there), and finally defended himself on LaGuer. He was helped by the format: Healey didn't get to respond until after Grace Ross and Christy Mihos had their say, and by that point she had been battered by all three candidates and couldn't respond directly to Patrick.
I thought the "high horse" comment was a little over the top, but it seems like many others thought it was a good moment for him. It may have been his high point: as the debate moved into the areas of taxes and education, he started to take on water a little bit. He just can't seem to talk specifics. Ross got a good shot on him about his fuzzy positions on education (Remember, his running mate actually came out in favor of the MCAS as the sole graduation requirement on Tuesday, which would be a huge change in policy), and Mihos attacked him credibly on his inability to articulate specific details of his plan to ease property taxes.
I continue to think Grace Ross is the most comfortable with her positions. If she looked like Kerry Healey and had the money of any of the other three candidates, I honestly think she could be a significant factor. But she's broke and doesn't look gubenatorial, so she's not. If Patrick had defended himself on the LaGuer issue as strongly and confidently as Ross defended him, he never would have been in the mess he found himself in.
Mihos had a couple of good lines, but it seems like he just likes to hear himself talk. My wife says he reminds her of a bobblehead doll.
Tags: Massachusetts Election 2006 Debate Kerry Healey Christy Mihos Deval Patrick
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