Debates in gubernatorial race unnecessary


Political debates are dull, tedious and boring, and thanks to this year’s gubernatorial candidates, Michigan voters may be spared from them.

The sides representing Democratic candidate Virg Bernero and GOP candidate Rick Snyder have not been able to compromise on how many debates should take place, when or where the debates should take place, the time they should be and who the moderators should be.

Fine, just scrap the whole idea.

Bernero wanted eight debates because of the free advertising it would get him. In his primary win over House Speaker Andy Dillon, he failed to purchase one single television advertisement and outside groups supporting him have bought all ads that have attacked Dillon or Snyder.

Snyder, who is a political novice and has a near-20-point lead, obviously wants to limit the opportunities for Bernero to score political points at his expense or to come across poor on statewide television.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm outperformed her two Republican opponents in gubernatorial debates, former Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus in 2002 and Grand Rapids businessman Dick DeVos in 2006 and used the momentum to go on to wins in both races.

Political debates are fake, dull events anyway.

The questions that are asked often touch on nothing real voters want to know and are rarely answered by the candidates anyway and most of the candidates’ responses have been rehearsed and revised for weeks at a time.

The most real moment of the campaign came this week when Bernero crashed a Snyder town hall forum in Westland on Monday to put Snyder on the spot about the stalled debate negotiations.

For an hour, both candidates took questions that had not been pre-screened from the audience; real Michigan voters with real questions for their choices to be their next governor.

Would anybody be actually opposed to ditching the traditional debate system for a true town hall forum system with both candidates each week in different parts of the state? No television, open to the general public, with no pre-screened questions to get a sense what the candidates are like on their feet?

It is time to ditch the debates and get the candidates actually talking to voters.

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