Ballenger: A debate may be the Hail Mary for struggling Land campaign

This morning on the Frank Beckmann show (WJR-AM), the host and Bill Ballenger, founder of the Inside Michigan Politics newsletter, sounded as if they were having a discussion while hovering near the Terri Lynn Land campaign's death bed.
Beckmann, a solid conservative, said he believe the decision by the National Republican Senatorial Committee to pull out of Michigan was the death knell for Land after running "one of the most ill-fated campaigns I have ever seen in Michigan."
Ballenger, the dean of Michigan political pundits, was just barely more optimistic in his view. Was the NRSC retreat the final straw?

Ballenger

"Probably. Ironically, at this point Frank, it appears maybe Terri Lynn Land’s best hope is to have that debate that has eluded everybody up to this time," Ballenger said. "They’re negotiating supposedly today on possibly scheduling at least one debate between (Democratic candidate Gary) Peters and Land. And at this point it looks like it might be a Hail Mary for Terri Lynn Land if she’s capable of it, if she gets in a debate with Gary Peters, which everybody would expect her to lose handily and (with) the bar being so low, she outperforms expectations then maybe that will give her a little boost here in the final weeks.

Beckmann

According to a transcript distributed by the Michigan Democratic Party, Beckmann was incredulous, asking Ballenger how Land could do well in a debate when she just flip-flopped on opposition to the auto bailout?
Ballenger said: "Well, that’s what a debate would be about. Probably that very question would come up about her supposed flip-flops on these particular issues. I don’t know what else to say. She has been an elusive candidate for 16 months, I’d say since the summer of 2013; hard for the news media to track down, hard to pin down, and as we near  ... (the) general election date, it’s harder for candidates to completely evade accountability and responsibility on some of these key issues. 

"And finally, some stuff is coming out from Terri Lynn Land that may look like she’s either not up to speed on the issues or she’s a hopeless flip-flopper and she’ll say anything to get elected. We don’t know, but there are several weeks left and (there) could be a debate. So, let’s not totally shut down the possibility that it could be a lot closer than people think."