Did the Challenge Change Things?
As readers know, I consider the TV debate to have been the deciding moment in the recall election. However, Bill Whalen points out another moment that could be just as decisive:
ELECTIONS, like warfare, come down to turning points. And should Governor Gray Davis go down in flames a week from tomorrow, remember last Friday as the pivotal moment in California’s recall election. The event was a West Hollywood rally for women voters. His guest of honor was former Texas governor Ann Richards (talk about the B-list), plus a phone call from Hillary Rodham Clinton, who tried to pump up the estrogen by predicting “California is not going to be stampeded by the same right-wingers who gave us the election in Florida and are trying to do things that are really against our interests.”Unfortunately for Davis, he chose that moment to have his own hormonal surge, daring Arnold Schwarzenegger to go one-on-one. “I’m not going to take it anymore,” Davis said, alleging the Arnold is distorting his record. “Right here, right now, I challenge him to a debate.”
Davis’s challenge was deliciously hypocritical. Last fall, he refused to debate Republican challenger Bill Simon a second time; in the 1998 governor’s race, he backed out of a fifth and final debate with Dan Lungren. And hypocrisy aside, Schwarzenegger would probably win a one-on-one encounter as Davis would find it hard to resist being condescending or creepy. Remember, this is the same governor who’s ridiculed Ah-nold’s accent and has suggested that Republicans would sooner shoot their mothers than pass a tax hike. Alone, in a debate forum with Schwarzenegger, Davis is bound to have at least one political Tourette’s moment.
But what distinguishes last Friday’s event is how quickly it changed media perception–to the governor’s detriment. Before challenging Arnold to a debate, Davis had spun most beat reporters into believing that he was closing the gap on recall’s first question, and that Republicans were too badly divided to win the second half of the ballot. But once he called out Arnold, conventional wisdom was tossed out the window. In the closing days of a campaign, issuing a debate challenge is an act of weakness–a very public sign that a candidate doesn’t have momentum.
– PoliPundit