Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero and Speaker of the House Andy Dillon met for their second and final debate last night in the Democratic primary race for Michigan's Governor. I'd like to offer a point by point critique of the entire event, showing where each of the candidates shined and showed why they would be the best candidate to take on the Republicans in this fall's general election.
I'd like to do that because that would mean that each of the candidates had strong ideas that they presented for leading Michigan's economic recovery, and that no matter which of them winds up winning, they would be a strong force against whomever the Republican candidate ultimately is.
I'd like to do that, but I can't.
The reality of the debate was that while Andy Dillon showed up prepared to discuss his ideas and his experience, Bernero simply showed up once again to sling mud and childish insults.
Mayor Bernero was loudly criticized for his performance in the first debate for refusing to answer questions and resorting to name calling throughout the event. Bernero referred to Dillon as "corporate raider," "speaker of the mess," and the ever original "fat cat." So what does he do this time around after that widely panned performance? The exact same thing.
Once again, Bernero spent most of last night's debate ignoring the questions asked of him and bringing out that same list of insults he flung at Dillon the first time around. If he was blasted by pundits for that performance the first time around, and polls have shown that voters responded negatively to it as well, why bring it out again? Either Bernero can't learn from his mistakes, or simply has no real platform to fall back on.
The most humorous part of the whole debacle was that mere minutes after it was over, Bernero's campaign had a press release out the door proclaiming him the clear winner. It stated, "During the second Democratic gubernatorial debate tonight I emerged as the democratic candidate with the proven record of fighting for and bringing jobs to Michigan."
It reminds me of a boxing match that is clearly lopsided, yet when the bell rings to end the final round, the beaten down fighter raises their arms in triumph and jumps around victoriously as if to fool the judges into thinking "Boy, he looked like he was losing the entire time, but maybe he DID win??"
Unfortunately for Bernero, I don't think his act is fooling many voters at this point. When this race started, Bernero tried to paint himself as the progressive candidate against Dillon's moderate record. As the race has moved on, however, Michigan's progressive voters have seen past the talking points and campaign speeches and realized there isn't a real plan behind any of that, just a lot of anger and name calling.
After the debate was over, Dillon was quoted as saying of Bernero, "(The state) is not going to be turned around with that kind of tone."
Michiganders have a right to be angry about a lot of things, but at some point the anger has to subside and real ideas for recovery have to take its place. Dillon showed he has those ideas. Bernero did not.