Part of the post debate discussion that went on this week was about the debate moderator, CBS4's Jon Keller, and the debate format. The Boston Herald suggests that Keller's performance "came out on top" over the previous debate's moderators.
I don't think so.
Of all of the debates to date, this one was the most stale. It had its moments, but overall, it was a snoozefest compared to previous debates, and Jon Keller did not do an admirable job at moderating (sorry Jon, I don't believe in blogger brotherhood). The debate only got somewhat interesting after the first half, because the first 3 questions were largely a load of fluff. The Castle Doctrine? What charities have you given to? Decriminalization of marijuana? Why was our time wasted on those questions?
It seemed very clear that Keller did not have great control over the candidates, and lost time to finish the agenda of the evening. How any times were the supposed ten second responses more like 30 seconds? While watching the debate, it certainly seemed like some candidates were getting more time than others. Keller posted results from the "stopwatch test" from the debate, which show that Christy Mihos spoke almost half as long as the rest of the candidates, and surprisingly showed that Grace Ross came in second place (though this is because both she and Keller don't know how long 10 seconds is).
Kerry Healey: 11 minutes six seconds
Grace Ross: 10 minutes 53 seconds
Deval Patrick: 10 minutes one second
Christy Mihos: 5 minutes 38 seconds
Christy, of course, is better off being as succinct as possible.
I would rule that Wednesday's debate was the worst of them all. Maybe it's because we had endured three already, but I think it had a lot to due with the complete lack of control of the moderator, and the poor choice of questions in the first half. Two thumbs way down. No deal. The price is wrong.
