No winner in gubernatorial debate, but Daggett was the big loser
By Wally Edge
After the first gubernatorial debate, campaign officials from both parties said that independent Christopher Daggett was the winner, albeit not for attribution. Daggett's debate victory provided his campaign with substantial momentum - he got a huge amount of free media attention, maybe a slight bump in the polls, and tremendous boost of self-confidence (although that didn't seem to come with increased campaign contributions). The debate win likely helped him score a second victory: the Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest newspaper, endorsed his candidacy.
But now, one debate later, these same Democrats and Republicans who had tipped their hats to him, think he was the biggest loser in a race that provided no real winner. Expectations were high; after all, Daggett was the great debater, the guy who could put Jon Corzine and Chris Christie in their places, the man who would show the state why the two party system was a failure.
Instead, the D and R strategists who were so willing to award the first debate for Daggett thought he came off a little whiney and a lot pompous. He lacked some of the specifics of Debate #1. And he cracked too many jokes - it was sort of watching some comedy club failure trying to pretend to be Dick Codey.
And Daggett didn't say a word about his own record in government. He served in Tom Kean's cabinet, and held a top environmental post under Ronald Reagan. No mention of specifics of his own record.
Two other things came out of discussions with major party strategists: they think the man who hired fat and bald actors has no standing to criticize negative campaigns, and they are convinced that Daggett was unable to name a single Justice of the United States Supreme Court, even though panelists gave him several chances.
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Condescending....in spite of his hightened rhetoric he's light on answers but does do a nice job of skating around the fact that he has profited mightily off the Corzine administration. I have said all along that Daggett will get 6%.....Christie will win by 3
Daggett: The Big Winner
Daggett clearly peppered the others in the debate.
Partisan strategists can't comprehend English
"they are convinced that Daggett was unable to name a single Justice of the United States Supreme Court"
This is beyond mischaracterization. They did not ask Daggett to "name a Supreme Court Justice" they asked him to name one whose juridical outlook typifies someone he would appoint to the NJ bench. For an independent or anyone with a decent respect for the law that means nobody on the Court as currently constituted.
The other two candidates were both disingenuous and wrong at the same time. Corzine mentioned Breyer as he allegedly has a great respect for precedent. But NOTHING could be further from the truth. Breyer is a liberal and a Constitutional perfectionist, the theorists with the LEAST amount of respect for precedent. If precedent was important to Corzine he should have mentioned Roberts but since he is a Republican and Corzine was giving a superficial response anyway that would have been impossible.
Christie said he liked Alito because empathy and remembering one's roots was important to him. Again this was wrong on its face. Alito is probably the justice who displayed the least amount of empathy with respect to poor or underprivileged defendants including children. In fact he too greatly favors power. But beyond that, responsible jurists are not supposed to rule differently depending on the identity of the defendant only on the merits of the case or in Constitutional law, the strength and soundness of the arguments. If Christie were honest that's what he would he would have said. It was wrong when Sotomayor said her heritage would be a factor and it was wrong when Alito said same. If a judge feels the poor are undeserved by the law they should "run for the legislature" as Christie said.
For Daggett whose candidacy is based upon a distaste of the stranglehold the two-parties have on government, asking him to name a Justice appointed by a Republican or Democrat was less fair than asking him to choose between New Jersey's farms or its shores. Wally Edge should think for a moment before he regurgitates the statements made by worried partisan strategists.