Five of the seemingly thousands of candidates running for governor in California will meet today for the first formal debate of the recall fiasco.
Those hoping to see Arnold Schwarzenegger respond to substantive policy questions and interact with his political competitors will be disappointed. The actor is the only major candidate who has refused to participate.
I realize that these debates are not always meaningful, and that well-prepared candidates usually give scripted answers to predictable questions. I think it’s safe to say that today’s event — featuring Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (D), State Sen. Tom McClintock (R), Peter Ueberroth (R), Arianna Huffington (Ind.) and Peter Camejo Jr. (Green) — will not rival the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
Nevertheless, the public has come to expect and depend on these events as a useful part of the political process. Instead of simply hearing the same 30-second commercials over and over again, voters get to see candidates respond to (hopefully) serious questions and articulate their strengths over their respective rivals.
Schwarzenegger, not surprisingly, wants nothing to do with this kind of environment. He’s a bad actor and political novice hoping that no one will notice his vapid platform and intellectually bankrupt campaign. He can go on Jay Leno’s show and generate applause with recycled movie lines, but an unscripted debate may expose him as the fraud he is.
So he’s taking Abraham Lincoln’s adage to heart: better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
As the LA Times explained today, “Schwarzenegger’s decision to stay away reflects a course he has pursued throughout his recall run. The actor and first-time candidate has limited his exposure to questions on most substantive issues and has favored controlled settings that allow him to be seen in public while minimizing the opportunities for give-and-take — or potentially embarrassing gaffes.”
Organizers of today’s debate had planned to have six chairs on the stage — one for each of the candidates appearing and an empty one for Schwarzenegger. Unfortunately, they changed their minds after the Schwarzenegger campaign objected.
So, what the campaign’s defense for Schwarzenegger’s gutless avoidance of today’s debate?
“Arnold will be campaigning publicly this week,” said press secretary Rob Stutzman. “He’s taking his message directly to the voters. A debate is one way that’s done. That’s why he’s committed to a debate later in the campaign.”
Ah yes, the other debate. Schwarzenegger announced last week that he was refusing to participate in today’s debate, but he’d be more than happy to attend another scheduled debate on Sept. 17.
What’s the catch? The Sept. 17 event gives candidates the questions in advance.
That’s right, a “debate” in which the candidates will know the questions before the event begins. As far as I can tell, if the participants know the questions (and presumably, their answers) in advance, it’s not actually a debate, it’s theater.
No wonder Schwarzenegger is willing to go. All he has to do is remember the lines someone else writes for him.