Debate De-Briefing

So we usually try to steer clear of the politics here, but I just attended the Democratic Primary Debate for Massachusetts Senate (for the decision of who will go up against Scott Brown). I'm now trapped (exaggeration) in my office while I wait for the traffic to subside so I can go home, and figured there was no better time than now to put down my immediate reactions to the debate.

The debate was moderated by UML Chancellor Marty Meehan, who simply has to stop walking around all over the stage while he's listening (or more likely, not listening at all) to what the candidates are saying. Seriously. It's totally this tic that he has where he walks around the room where he's talking. I've seen it in other venues, and it's totally distracting. Maybe that's intended, but it looks ridiculous. Like maybe he has to go to the bathroom or something. I realize that typing this here may qualify as biting the hand that feeds me given my current position. But it's intended as constructive criticism. Really. You're distracting the audience from the main point of the debate: the candidates.

And while I'm making perhaps unkind comments about people I generally like, I have to pause here to say this:
Dear four students who were in the rare, pretty awesome position of getting to sit on stage and ask the candidates questions: did you really have to ask about legalizing pot? Really? Also, English major, did it have to be *you* who asked that question? Sigh. Also, the question about "which super hero would you be?" was only made even more lame when the candidates seemed to indicate no real knowledge of said superheroes. Elizabeth Warren, I'm looking at you: the most awesome thing about Wonder Woman is NOT her cool outfit. They were bad answers, but it was not a good question.

So here are my quick candidate reviews:

Marisa DeFranco: You rule. Seriously, you kicked some butt up there. I was very impressed with how she took on the questions, and was forceful and passionate in her answers. She's an immigration lawyer and she fights for foster kids. (My only concern here is that I want her to keep doing THAT job, because my god, someone has to, and please can it be her?) I had never heard of her before the debate, but she really rocked this one. She was the one who unequivocally supports the Wall Street protests, too. OK, so she reminds me *just slightly* of Amy Poehler's character on Parks & Rec, in particular in some of her enunciation and delivery of her lines. She made a great point about how we should pay those who serve in the military at the same rate we pay military contractors.

Elizabeth Warren: OK, she is the reason I went to the debate; she's the recent, high-profile addition to the race. I think she's great and has good ideas. She's wicked smart and speaks truth to power. She did well in the debate, and clearly had a lot of crowd support. She said some surprising things about changing and trimming (her word) regulation for small businesses, which I think is something people wouldn't expect from her. She also had the best line in response to the (again bad) question about "what would you do if you were caught in a mistake": she said "If I had a whole lot of microphones in my face and was being asked to explain something, I wouldn't ask anyone in my family to stand there with me." I thought this was good. But again, not a good question.

Alan Khazei: Has done a ton of great work for City Year and other public/community-service organizations. I believe his heart and head are in the right place. He had a great moment where, in response to a question (I think the one about Wall Street) he suggested that he would appoint Elizabeth Warren to a position to deal with it. Nice. He strikes me as serious and teacher-ly. Like he can explain things in a very clear and explicit way.

Bob Massie: For about the first three quarters of the debate, I had little to no impression of him. He wasn't all that exciting in his answers, until (and I'm forgetting which question he was supposed to be answering) he said "I'm going to take this in a different direction" and then busted out with "we need to reverse the Citizens United decision," then went on to challenge the other candidates (esp. Warren) to refuse PAC money. The crowd went pretty wild, and that seemed to change his tone for the rest; he was stronger in his answers. He also had an impressive answer on the question about women's health and healthcare issues (he has a long backstory of illness & recovery), which made him that much more interesting. I thought his final statement was a bit weak, though, with this kind of weird "we're America and we're great" motif that was a bit off.

Tom Conroy: This guy reminds me of a guy I went to high school with named "Chip." He looks like he could be named "Chip." I should pause here in my cattiness to say that I know I shouldn't judge him based on this, but he just looks too pretty. I would totally smack someone for saying this if he were a female candidate, but that's where it is. He's the rep for Lincoln/Sudbury/Wayland. He's done this big campaign thing he's called the "Town to Town Walk" where he went 650 miles around to talk to people all over the state. I suppose this is a good thing, but the way he markets it (or the way his campaign markets it) it seems oddly resonant of Sarah Palin driving her bus covered with the constitution and her signature all over the country. It's like this weird "of the people" move that ultimately (to me) serves to point out that someone's NOT of the people. He referred a couple times to "on my walk," and this whole manufactured narrative/photo op just doesn't quite sit right.

Herbert William Robinson: Herbert is this race's Jimmy McMillan of the "Rent is Too Damn High Party." Upon looking at the pictures in the program (before the candidates arrived on stage), my friend sitting next to me said, "wow, that guy looks like a real Maine mountain man." He was pretty right-on. Here is an excerpt from what his bio in the debate program says:
"While earning his bachelor's in electrical engineering from Cornell University, Robinson worked as a musician and belonged to Local 132 of the American Federation of Musicians. In partnership with Margo Granfors under the name Towering Pretzels, he recorded a CD."
Herbert leaned heavily on the response "I was an engineer for 30 years and..." He did have the charming habit of having the shortest answers of any of the candidates, but that was because they were often "yes, what the last candidate said, too." He seemed to get a lot of crowd support. One of the (particularly awful) questions was "Have you ever driven under the influence of alcohol?" and every candidate said "no"; Herbert said: "not according to the legal definition." Awesome.

That's all for tonight -- looks like the parking lot has cleared out. Further updates as events warrant. FYI, you can check out coverage (including a video interview w/ one of my colleagues!) at the Boston Herald.