newjerseynewsroom.com

BY RICHARD A. LEE

COMMENTARY

Perhaps, it is apropos that the October 16 gubernatorial debate was not available on live television. With the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies engaged in post-season play, baseball is a more popular attraction in the two media markets that dominate the Garden State.

But there's more to this story. It's not just the baseball post-season that is responsible for a lack of interest in the debate.

Political debates — not just in New Jersey but all over — have become too scripted and predictable. Candidates have their message points. We've heard them before and we'll hear them again — even if they bear little relation to the questions they are answering.

And the truth is the campaign debates to which we have become accustomed tell us little about a candidate's ability to govern.

"I can't see the connection, I can't see it," President George H. W. Bush lamented in an interview for a PBS project on debates. "I mean, you can have a good president that might not be the best in the top of his game in a staged debate. But maybe he can do it quietly, maybe he can do it without having a hair part and a make-up just right and a smile at the right time. Maybe he can do it with getting good people around you and giving them credit and trying to do a quiet and decent job for your country. And so I don't see the connection, frankly."

Bush's one-time debate rival President Bill Clinton made a somewhat similar observation in his PBS interview, although he did acknowledge that the debates provide some guidance for voters: "They don't test all the skills. They don't really show, you know, whether you're a good decision maker, although they show whether you can understand a situation in a hurry and respond to it, particularly if there's a surprise question or, you know, a surprise development in the kind of the chemistry of the players. They don't show whether you're good at putting together a team and, you know, carrying out a plan, but they do give people a feel for what kind of leader the debater would be, how much the person knows, and how they — generally how they approach the whole idea of being president."

Regardless of how well they serve the electorate, debates have had their share of dramatic moments, some of which were critical to the fates of the candidates involved — John Kennedy's photogenic television appearance in contrast to Richard Nixon and his five o-clock shadow, Ronald Reagan's ability to use a witty response to dismiss questions about his age, Michael Dukakis' reply to a question about whether he would favor the death penalty if his wife was raped and murdered.

Will here be a game-changing moment this campaign season? It's quite possible, but the odds of finding one will be much greater at the baseball contests in New York and Philadelphia.

A Familiar Ring

Some of the comments made by GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie and Kim Guadagno, his lieutenant governor running mate, during New Jersey's recent debates had a familiar ring. In response to questions about how they would tackle the fiscal issues confronting New Jersey, both promised to scrutinize the state budget in search of savings.

"We will get down to Trenton and we will get into that budget and we will work cooperatively with the Legislature and we will make sure we bring the budget down and we will cut it significantly," Christie said at the first gubernatorial debate on October 1.