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“Stay on message.”
That’s the first and last lesson you are taught in debate training school. It means regardless of what those sneaky reporters ask you, you should try to weasel into your answer the most important thing you want the audience to get. And repeat the same message, maybe with some different words, as many times as you can so the voter for sure hears it.
Back in the Watergate years, President Nixon’s major message was, “I’m not a crook.” And his handlers felt if the public heard it enough times, some might actually believe it. Or not.
Which brings us to the last debate for governor in which Republican John James showed he was paying attention in the debate seminar.
And if you scored the exchange with Democrat Jocelyn Benson on this one element, he would have won but of course nobody scored it on that alone.
Here’s the long form of what he wanted to get across.”My opponent wants you to believe that she hasn’t been in Lansing for the past 8 years in power and has done nothing to change the way you’ve been living for the past eight years.”
And his debate coaches must have erupted in applause in the spin room with the shorter variation on the same theme.
“Michigan has been on fire and she’s been in Lansing for eight years holding the gas can.” Pow!
And he sneaked in the “eight year” shtick at least a half a dozen times or more.
Ms. Benson finally took it head on and reminded the voters that she was Secretary of State, which is an administrative office, “and I did not have a vote.” Someone noted what she should have said was, “Maybe my opponent doesn’t know this but I’m not the governor (and now turn to the camera and face the TV audience) and add, “but with you help next month I will be.”
So let’s peal back this “eight year” onion to discover what Mr. James was after.
Michigan has a rich history of allowing one party to run the governor’s office for eight years and then after that, voters pick the other party to have a shot at it. Think Blanchard (D) to Engler ( R) to Granholm (D) to Snyder (GOP).
So Mr. James is trying to tap into that rich history with fingers crossed that the old-party switch-a-roo will work for him but he needs to insure that everyone remembers that’s how we roll as the eight year reign of Gov. Whitmer comes to a close.
Some of the political purists in this town, however, could argue, that’s not the way to run a railroad. They counter that citizens should be looking at the record of whomever his running to replace the incumbent and make a judgement on that and not on some other simplistic historic quirk.
In Mr. Jame’s case he has tried to pin the “sins” of incumbent Democrat Gretchen Whitmer on his opponent starting with COVID and working forward from there.
Ms. Benson would have none of that noting that the governor is a policy animal while her current gig is to implement changes to reduce the public distain at those long lines at the SOS counter and she takes credit for doing just that along with being good at keeping our elections secure, she adds trying her hand at staying on a different message.
Both did a respectable job of explaining how they differ from their opponent.
But a completely out of character thing happed after the debate was over. The two “fighters for you” shook hands center stage but then, to the shock of the political media, they stood there and actually talked with one another like two real folks.
About what?
It was suggested the two of them should have lunch. Yikes.
And then a decidedly OMG moment. They pretty much agreed on which downtown Detroit Coney Island joint to visit.
Talk about staying on a message that would have bi-partisan support. Ya think?