Final Iowa Governor's Debate, Shawn Johnson

And Then There Were None: 2 candidates, 3 debates. And now they are finished. So what did you think of the third and final Iowa governor's debate? I must say, I thought this was my favorite of the three by far. And there is no question, the voters won this debate. Sure, it's fun for us tv folks to do a story on how the candidates kept shooting one-line zingers back and forth. But that's about all we had from the first two debates. This third debate featured much more. And kudos to Kathie Obradovich from the Des Moines Register, O. Kay Henderson from Radio Iowa and Dean Borg from Iowa Public Radio (and, of course, Dan Miller and his gang at Iowa Public TV for hosting the event). The format was great. Moderators asked something like 25 questions. Graphics were good. Followups were good. They talked about the future and not just how each candidate's past sucks. We viewers/voters actually learned something! Who knew?

You can watch the entire debate at www.iptv.org. I thought Chet Culver's biggest hit may have been on two statewide questions for voters, the trust fund for the environment and the retention vote for the three Iowa Supreme Court justices. Culver said he would support the ballot question for the environment and he would retain all the justices. Terry Branstad wouldn't answer either question. He said he has taken the position not to try to influence Iowans on those issues. Culver pounced on that answer (or lack thereof, depending on your viewpoint) both during the debate and in the "post-game". He said, "governors lead".

I thought Branstad's biggest hit may have actually come AFTER the debate. Culver has hit Branstad almost daily for the past week or so on where he will cut 15% from the budget as he has pledged. Branstad hasn't released a detailed list of spending cuts to get to that target. Culver has tried to make points how devastating 15% cuts would be to public service, for one, citing how that will raise crime. I don't recall him saying this when he cut all departments 10% last year. After the debate, Branstad seemed to admit he doesn't have all the cuts figured out. He said, unlike Culver, he would hold budget hearings and meet with department heads and lawmakers to cut up with 3% cuts for each of the next 5 years. He said Culver is assuming he would be doing an across-the-board cut like Culver did. And Branstad said, no, he would not be doing that. Here are both men in the post-game.

So who won? I saw no staggering. No bleeding. Does that mean no earth-shattering, jaw-dropping, holy cow, did you see that moments? Did you? Did Culver's performance earn him standing with voters as he tries to close the gap in the campaign's final days? Is it too little too late? Did Branstad have the ideas and vision to convince Iowans he is best-suited to move back into the governor's mansion? What did you think?

ShawnJohn: West Des Moines native and gold medal gymnast Shawn Johnson is blowing up the internet apparently. She did an interview with the BBC. Yahoo had her listed as one of the most talked about topics. And her own website couldn't handle all the traffic for a while. Shawn tells the BBC about her loneliness now that she has moved back home with her parents, while her friends have gone off to college. She has canceled her celebrity appearance schedule to focus on training four hours a day, six days a week. And she also admits she doesn't know if she can make it back to the world stage. It's a fascinating interview. Good luck, Shawn!

2nd Debate

Gub vs. Gub: So, what did you think? Chet Culver and Terry Branstad faced off in their second televised statewide debate at Coe College in Cedar Rapids last night. Did Branstad successfully fend off another major collapse? Did Culver get his game changer?

I don't see how Iowans learned much from the debate. There seemed to be very little new ground covered. And at this point in the race, don't we need to cover new ground? One-liner after one-liner can make for a few laughs, but what do the viewers really learn? Perhaps, they can watch a candidate's behavior and judge which one is more "gubernatorial"? Does that mean Culver lost since he quibbled with the moderator about the rules several times and even got jeered from the crowd when he wouldn't let his point go? Or does he score points with the undecideds for not letting it go?

Here's what bugs me the most with these first two debates: I want followup questions. Culver in the first debate clearly had the strategy to avoid the moderators' questions and use his time to attack Branstad. I didn't see him do that as much the second time. But I think Iowans would have been better served if the panel could have asked followups to questions to try to force the candidates to answer questions or at least try to get more specific questions. At this point in the race, don't we deserve to hear more than "the other guy sucks"? Seriously. What did we learn about the future? Sure, we need to hear the points they make about each other's failures in office and their own successes. But shouldn't we also find out their vision for the future? It isn't like we are living in the best of times right now. Don't we need to find out how Iowans can go back to work? How our schools can recapture their past successes? How we are going to care for our aging population? What the emerging industries will be in our state? What about our health? We keep getting fatter. Isn't that a long-term problem for our state? I could go on and on. Perhaps, being a new dad makes me want to hear more about the future. I didn't hear that last night.

So who won? The Des Moines Register's Kathie Obradovich gave the debate to Branstad, although, she writes it was hardly a convincing win. Iowa State Political Professor Steffen Schmidt did, too, although, a bit more convincingly. He emailed me:

Interesting and fairly lively debate.

If nothing else Culvers closing comment about Branstad “in the 1920’s” sealed his fate! He seemed rattled.

Also, Culver was sweating (Nixon debate) and kept touching his nose which is a terrible no no - Poker players see that as a clue that you are lying about the hand you are playing.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette's Todd Dorman saw no game changer. He said Culver hit some singles but failed to get the home run he needed since he is down big late in the game. Culver did get props from retired University of Iowa Professor Bruce Gronbeck in a Quad City Times story.

So what did you think?

Culver-Branstad 2nd Debate

Debate Deux: It's 6:30pm. I'm sure you're pacing around the room waiting for the much-anticipated rematch tonight between Chet Culver and Terry Branstad. It's not like the Twins-Yankees, Nebraska-Kansas State and what's left of "Must See TV" is on tonight, right?

For the dedicated, it is the second gubernatorial debate, this time at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. Here's what we know:

Culver's campaign tells me he will come after Branstad for failing to offer a plan on helping Cedar Rapids recover from the record floods of 2008. The campaign said CC will also hit TB on what it calls "broken promises".

Branstad's campaign offered a few more specific targets tonight. TB plans on talking about his plans for job creation (although, the campaign said we shouldn't expect new jobs ideas from TB). TB plans to come after CC if he fails to answer questions from the moderators like CC did in the first debate (CC used his time instead to attack TB). The campaign is also talking up CC's skills as a debater.

Here are my questions:

Will CC use the same strategy and avoid answering questions and use all his time ripping on TB? Will voters tolerate that for a second straight debate?

Will TB offer any more specifics about his plan to create 200,000 jobs and to trim 15% from the state budget?

Will CC lay out a vision for his second term or concentrate his time on calling TB a "liar, dishonest, etc."?

Will TB visibly show that he is annoyed again with CC's performance/attacks, etc.?

Who will look like he is the best person to lead the state's recovery efforts?

Let me know what you thought? Who scored points? Who won? Will this debate make any difference?

Questions

Debate Debate: I wanted to let a little time pass before posting these questions about the first Iowa gubernatorial debate. But I have some for you after what we saw with Chet Culver and Terry Branstad Tuesday night. Here we go:

Do you care that Culver rarely answered the questions from both the panelists and Branstad? Instead, he would use his time to criticize his opponent. (I'll let you answer that one for yourself. I will just say as a reporter I would have wanted to see panelists ask followup questions. Actually, I would like to see the candidates ask followups, too. Those almost always make news.)

Branstad seemed to lose his cool a few times or at least showed that he was annoyed. He scolded Culver once and said, "quit interrupting". He also seemed to nearly shake his head off the hinges one time when he obviously didn't like what Culver was saying. Did that bother you?

Democrat Roxanne Conlin challenged U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley to a debate this Sunday at the Des Moines Public Library. She plans to debate an empty chair if the senator is a no-show. Pretty good bet that chair will get some attention. What do you think of the tactic? Will she score some points with it or is it too "un-senator-like" and she gets hurt more than she gets helped?

Former V.P. candidate Sarah Palin comes to Des Moines to headline the Republican Party of Iowa's Ronald Reagan Dinner Friday night. Will the former television sport anchor show any love/respect to the media during her stop and take questions or will she avoid us again like she did during her recent stop in Sioux City? Anyone else doubting that she will run for president?