I have a crush on Susan

VPR Governors "Debate"

Wednesday, August 18 2010 @ 08:19 AM GMT+4 iBrattleboro.com Contributed by: paulgardner http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php/20100818081930428 Fascinating debate show on VPR last night with the 5 Democratic challengers - did you catch it? I came out with a new favorite. I had not expected that. My mind was made up. It was a pro forma listen, I thought. But before I reveal who my new favorite is, here some other observations from the show. First of all, I call it a show because a debate did not take place. There were questions and answers and some posturing and campaigning, but no debating. The atmosphere was mostly collegial. There were a few testy moments, notably between Matt Dunne and Deb Markowitz. The candidates were given the chance to directly question each other. Dunne questioned Markowitz on the subject of transparency - and whether her office (Sec. of State) had been transparent enough. She thought she'd done well (natch) and he thought she could have done better (ditto). Easily the most bizarre moment of the night was the Peter Shumlin softball question for Susan Bartlett. First he praised her for her work on the Senate Appropriations committee (and praised himself for picking her to head the committee) then asked her to explain the "rainy day fund" which Doug Racine and Matt Dunne had been discussing moments before. Bartlett's explanation was at once so wonky and so clear that it made the Racine/Dunne discussion look superficial and simple minded by comparison. Racine was easily the most relaxed and personable candidate of the show, but Bartlett's performance exposed him a bit, imo. Score one to Shumlin. The two VPR moderators did a good job overall in their hosting and questioning duties, but to me their questioning of Shumlin seemed sharper than that of the other 4. In one instance he admitted a mistake on an education funding bill where he had compromised with Governor Douglas. Perhaps that line of questioning was agreed to in advance to give him a chance to speak to that issue. Deb Markowitz wins the dubious distinction of most disappointing. I have been touting her as the only candidate who can beat Dubie based on polls of the state that pit the various candidates against Dubie head to head. At the end of the night, those hand full of polls were all she had. In light of what I heard from the other candidates, that wasn't enough. Matt Dunne must have mentioned his experience as director of Head Start/Vista and its 6,000 employees 4 times at least during the show. So often that it made clear that he felt a need to stress his experience. For me it's the political version of "me thinks the lady doth protest too much". The more he talks, the more there seems to be an experience/maturity issue there. I love Peter Shumlin. He's a sharp politician who I mostly trust (a rare combination). Unfortunately, I think his negatives are high for many people and perhaps that's because he has a tendency to lapse into an almost Nixonian, whispery politician speak. I.e. he doesn't talk like "normal" people. You have to make an adjustment to your listening to take in what he's saying (see Racine below). This breaks my heart because he's ready to push for single payer health care and he'd be the staunchest foe to the relicensing of VY which are both huge issues for me. I just don't see him beating Dubie. Doug Racine likes to tout his defeat of Dubie in a Lieutenant Governor's race back about a decade ago when he was the incumbent and nobody knew who Dubie was. I don't think he can repeat the performance, but I could be wrong. He's a sharper and more impressive candidate overall than I thought. As mentioned above, he was the most personable of the candidates. He's the Democratic candidate who sounds least like a politician. He has the easy bonhomie of a salesman - which he is. He's been in state government long enough that he doesn't have to make too many grating references to his experience like Dunne does. He knows the issues well and discuss them without sounding wonky. All that said, my new crush, my new favorite for next governor of Vermont: SUSAN BARTLETT. It wasn't even close. It's not even the thought of how a non-politician like Dubie who is leaning on a lot of outside help is going to deal with an unaffected, brainiac, insider woman. Bartlett herself is a force. She reminded me at once of Bill Clinton and Temple Grandin (the high functioning autistic who has been on Terry Gross's Fresh Air numerous times and written several popular books about her condition). Bartlett plowed into every question given her and got to the nub of the issue in a way that was at once intellectually rigorous and easily understandable to the layman. She was political without seeming it. I don't see how Dubie can beat her and oh by the way, she'd be the best governor of the bunch.