Those lucky few who tuned into the Arizona Gubernatorial Debate last night got a real treat. As you’ve no doubt seen on Hardball, Rachel Maddow, and The Situation Room, Governor Jan Brewer laid an egg in her opening remarks. The egg I speak of is a governor so pleased with herself in a well executed snipe at her colleagues (“I’m so happy to be here with Larry, Barry, and Terry”) that she effectively forgot the rest of her remarks, amounting to a mouthed exclamation of “S***” and 13 (some say 16) seconds of silence in the 60 seconds she was given. Video Here.
Brewer would go on to make further mockery of the highest post in Arizona, including repeated statements that she has brought thousands of jobs to Arizona in her term as governor when in fact Arizona has seen a 128,000 jobs leave the state. Couple that with a repeated sidestep of questions regarding her allegations of beheadings in the Arizona desert, including a post debate cold shoulder to reporters seen here, and any reasonable person would think Brewer’s days as governor are numbered. Oh, but you reasonable people would be underestimating Arizona voters, ahem, campaign strategy.
You see, Brewer knows now like she knew then that Terry Goddard, or any random 4th grader, would embarrass her in a debate on the issues. That’s why she agreed to this debate so close to the primary she handily won on August 24 and so far from the general election, now just over 8 weeks away. The governor has this period of time to nurse her 20 percentage point lead in the polls, which no doubt took a hit last night, and let her media machine operate on Goddard’s record (actually rather impeccable) and Arizona citizen’s unfounded fear of illegal immigrants.
Sadly for us, this appears to be the only debate we’ll see between these two candidates. Brewer wisely rescinded her agreement to debate Goddard in two weeks, stating that the candidates’ decades of public service outline their positions on the issues.