Last night at 7:00 EDT in a TV studio in Richmond the final of three bebates between the two Virginia gubanatorial candidates Jerry Kilgore and Tim Kaine took place. It was advertised as the only debate to be "broadcast statewide". Dispite those lofty claims by Larry Sabato, it's higly doubtful that many Virginian were watching the debate live or even on a delayed basis last night --
Virginians face with the choice -- watch the 3-0 Redskins attempt to eek out an upset against the Denver Broncos or flip to the debate, that is if you were lucky enough to live in a TV market that was actually carrying the debate live. The person/groups behind the
Not Larry Sabato blog candidately admited that they chose Redskins over the debate.
Me? I had my plan all lined up. I was watching the game live while a Tivo'd the debate on Newschannel 8, a DC based all news cable channel. Much to my dismay however Newchannel 8 let Virginians down. They cited "technical difficulties" in preventing them from actually airing the debate. Other DC channels refused to air the debate live -- not even Alexandria based PBS station WETA could be bothered to air the debate live.
WRC, the local Washington, DC NBC affiliate eventually aired the debate at midnight, so I set my Tivo again but I ended up watching it live as I hadn't gotten sleepy yet at midnight.
While really silly Not Larry Sabato had a point in highlighting the snark
Tim Kaine's bushy brow was obviously aroused by the presence of Larry Sabato's hairpiece. I hear Kaine's brow and Sabato's toupee made "sweet love" after the debate."
Kaine's eyebrow manerism did look silly and Larry Sabato as always is in dire need of a better rug! Good thing then that Kaine signed the agreement with Kilgore to not use the debate footage in campaign ads.
But on a more sustantive note my assessment of the debate isn't quite as "homer" as Raising Kaine. They always see the glass as half full when sometimes I'd rather see the cold hard truth. Despite blog contributer Mary Dotsons headline, "Kaine hits a Grand Slam", moderator Larry Sabato is right -- this debate won't greatly affect the outcome of the election. However Sabato is is completely and utterly wrong when he claims that Debate Was a Draw. Again clearly Kaine was the more articulate of the two and the more forthright and honest of the two.
So the debate won't cause Kaine to zoom up in the polls overnight, nor will it hurt Kaine. But the trend is your friend -- right now Kaine appears to be slowly but surely inching his way upward in the polls, now at a dead heat. This election then is going to turn on which party is more effective in getting their partisans out to the polls.