Not only has Republican
Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land failed to agree to any debates with her
Democratic opponent, Congressman Gary Peters, now she won’t even give a
straight answer when asked if she wants to debate.
Reporter Rick Albin of
WOOD-TV, the Grand Rapids station that had to cancel its plans for a Senate
debate when the Land camp balked, tried to set the record
straight on Wednesday. When he interviewed the candidate, this is how the
exchange went:
ALBIN: So you're not going to debate?
LAND: We look forward to talking to voters. We'll let the folks that work with those issues do that. As I mentioned, we've already shared the stage with Congressman Peters and look forward to many conversations with the voters.
ALBIN: If you wanted to debate, you're the candidate. You could say "let's debate."
LAND: We will continue talking to Michigan voters and talk about putting Michigan first.
LAND: We look forward to talking to voters. We'll let the folks that work with those issues do that. As I mentioned, we've already shared the stage with Congressman Peters and look forward to many conversations with the voters.
ALBIN: If you wanted to debate, you're the candidate. You could say "let's debate."
LAND: We will continue talking to Michigan voters and talk about putting Michigan first.
If that’s not robotic drivel on Land’s part, it’s at least sticking
to talking points rather than answering a simple question about debates. It
certainly appears at this point that no Land-Peters debates will take place.
Meanwhile, the possibility
has arisen that Michigan voters may also be deprived of candidate debates in the
gubernatorial race.
On Wednesday, Gov. Rick
Snyder said he and his Democratic challenger still haven’t agreed on any
debates.
“With respect to the
Detroit Economic Club, which is a traditional forum, we haven’t been able to
get to an agreement there,” he said. “We were just starting with the first one,
which is traditionally the Economic Club.”
When asked if he wanted to debate Schauer, Snyder replied, “I did it the last election.”
When asked if he wanted to debate Schauer, Snyder replied, “I did it the last election.”
Two questions:
1 -- What could be so
difficult about arranging a debate at the Economic Club, which would involve
the same setting and the same membership audience as the dozens of debates that
have been held there in the past?
2 – What is so difficult
about simply, openly saying: “Yes, I want to debate and I want to make sure
that a debate takes place?”
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