With the exception of AJC columnist/reporter Jim Galloway, who posed relevant and well composed questions, the Atlanta Press Club gubernatorial debate was a patchwork of mediocre questions and answers with a format that had all the excitement of a “Golden Girls” rerun.
Governor Deal continued his streak as “best debater” but had little to debate in Sunday’s contest. Jason Carter turned in a greatly improved performance, but continued to speak in a staccato-type manner that seemed a bit sheepish in the first half of the debate. Libertarian Andrew Hunt may have scored the most points by staying on target in his attacks on Governor Nathan Deal and with his ability to have his opponents refer to him deferentially as “Dr. Hunt” in several of their responses.
The well-intended Press Club needs to rethink its format for these dreadfully boring debates. Debates are usually scored based on what we term “clash.” But the format kept clash from occurring. Had Galloway been missing from the panel, it’s questionable if the most controversial/interesting issues in the campaign would have ever been addressed.
Carter’s passion is clearly education because only questions related to education in the second half of the debate brought real fire from the Democratic nominee. And that rescued Carter from his rather halting delivery in the first half of the debate.
Scoring the contest Deal would get a B+ (no manhandling this time, more an adept ‘rope-a-dope’), Carter a solid B, and “Dr. Hunt” a solid B if not higher. Perhaps the debate is symbolic of a contest stuck in the muck and headed to a runoff. If the Libertarian can come across as strong as the Democrat and competitive with the Republican incumbent, perhaps he can take five percent of the vote and force this thing into a runoff.
Compare the stodgy and at times confusing (which candidate should question or rebut was an endless guess) Atlanta Press Club debate to the wild and wooly Perry contest of a few weeks ago or to the dramatic Florida gubernatorial debate which produced “Fangate” last week. The format had all the fizz of a two day old open bottle of soda. And if the members of the Atlanta Press Club think otherwise then they are kidding themselves.
They would do better to let Mr. Galloway be joined by other hard-nosed political experts to provoke some real clash…not a boring crash. Perhaps the addition of veteran political reporter Lori Geary combined with Mr. Galloway will produce a real live contest made for ‘Prime Time” debate when the same contestants appear on WSB-TV later this month.
And yes, with this sort of a yawner we probably are headed to a runoff. This debate was simply a non-event.
