Watched the debate between Democrat senatorial candidates, Ben Cardin and Kweisi Mfume tonight.
It wasn't close.
Kweisi cleaned Ben's clock. He came across as moderate, easy-going, relaxed in front of the camera, reasonable and rational. He talked to the viewers in terms that they understood and could agree with. His recurrent theme was reaching out across cooperatively across racial and party divisions to solve problems. Ben was strident, angry, ill-at-ease, and kept lapsing into technicalities -- I hardly recognized him as the affable guy I talked to a couple of weeks ago.
Both men were on good behavior. Kweisi's major goal was to appear moderate enough so that whites would feel comfortable voting for him. Tonight's performance helped in that regard. He also got in some sly digs on Cardin, portraying him as a machine politician who had no real passion for the issues. Ben couldn't really respond. He had to make sure he didn't offend blacks by attacking Kweisi. That's why he time and again stressed how much he liked his opponent and, instead of criticizing him, turned his guns on Bush. Sorry, Ben. Bush bashing won't be enough.
It will be interesting to see if the performances have any effect. I'm not sure anyone was watching.
A measure of how the candidates did: the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun which are both supporting Cardin, declared the debate a draw. That means they thought, as I did, that Kweisi won. Read their analyses here and here.
UPDATE:
The latest Survey USA poll has Kweisi up by four points -- 42-38 percent. The split along racial lines is profound -- Kweisi wins the black vote by 10:1, Cardin takes the white vote 4:1.
Ah, Maryland!
Read it here.
No comments:
Post a Comment