Did anyone see the Delaware Tonight debates between Coons and Gordon on Friday? (You can see the fireworks by clicking on the 8/8/08 show link and going to minute 12 or 13 to start. There is a web-only continuation in the middle of the page.)
The thing that just jumps out at you is the body language. Gordon could barely bring himself to look at Coons — looking alternately at the moderator and then at his papers (occasionally looking off camera someplace) — and at the end (you have to see the web piece) he is packing up his stuff noisily while the camera is still rolling. I could hear a fair bit of disdain in his voice, while trying to push the idea that Coons simply has not been caught in his corruption yet. Gordon sounds upset that he is still answering questions about his leadership during his administration, that he still has to answer for Sherry Freeberry’s behavior and that no one will separate his track record from the shenanigans that Gordon and Freeberry were asked to account for. Contrast that with Chris Coons, who was calm, comfortable — he took no bait that Gordon threw out at him and certainly was not angry or surly. As I listened to folks talk about Gordon, it sounded as though this was a guy who was good and effective at selling his case to you, and perhaps I did not hear his partisans correctly. There was little effective (IMNSHO) about this appearance by Gordon. This looked (again, to me) like someone running solely because of sour grapes and not only was every bit of it on display, it certainly didn’t inspire any confidence in his leadership.
Even though I was living here when this stuff happened, I was mostly resident at out-of-state project sites and did not see the day to day detail on the Gordon and Freeberry mess. (And as an aside, is there a good rundown of this story someplace?) So while I can’t score either man on rhetorical accuracy, it sure looked to me that Coons won this debate hands down just by being in control of himself and by NOT being surly or angry.
So did you see this? Is this a one-off for Gordon (everyone has a really bad day) or can we look forward to a debate season that looks just like this between these candidates? What did you think?