I'd respond, with a smart aleck reply, but I have carpal tunnel now.

Is typing an essential part of the job of a blogger ?

Is typing an essential part of the job of a blogger ?

Sort of depends if the blogger actually writes posts or simply pastes them from Limbaugh or WND or GOP email blizzards..

Todd,

I very much appreciate your willingness to take a breathe, rather than hyperventilate like the rest of the blogosphere.

Like you, I'm a political animal and I love debates. But they've never changed my mind as to who I'm going to vote for, and virtually everyone I know that watches debates are political animals like me. Your average voter would much rather watch something - ANYTHING - else than a debate. So on a practical level, this isn't going to change a lot.

My concern over the many comments on Pat Power's site, and by those who have been aggressively pushing for debates, is that they are not motivated by a sincere desire to have candidates debate, but rather by a motivation to embarrass Senator Johnson. They want him to debate so they can point and laugh and say that he isn't up for the job. It wouldn't matter how well he actually did, they'd use the fact that he slurred a word or two to make some pretty awful comments about Tim. Look at the reaction to his advertisements by some right wingers. Those reactions are not about politics, they're about exercising their personal animosity towards Democrats in general and Tim in particular.

There is an undercurrent of mean spiritedness (debate or RETIRE! If he can't debate, he should leave!) in the calls for debate. But even giving them the benefit of the doubt about their personal motivations (which I'm not sure they deserve), the efforts to make much ado about the debate announcement is a political campaign tactic. They have a candidate without much money, and they're hoping to generate press saying that Tim isn't capable of serving. They can wrap it in all of the "democracy" language they want, but it's a tactic, pure and simple.

And there's nothing wrong with a tactic - you've got to work with what you've got.

But the decision by Johnson to forgo debates is also tactical. Dykstra is not doing what it takes to raise the money to make this a credible race. He won't be able to get his message out. So why should the Johnson campaign, which has a huge lead, give Dykstra a platform for free? All the indignity by the Republicans overshadows a simple fact - if the shoe was on the other foot, they'd do the exact same thing.

The claim that there is a huge correlation between being an effective Senator and having a clear speaking voice is overblown (they found one quote from one Senator's website?). But even if it were as big of a deal as they say, there is no question that Tim has come along ways in the last year, and there is no reason why his prognosis won't continue. He hasn't missed a vote in the Senate since he came back, and he is delivering for South Dakota.

Anyway - that's my two cents. Thanks for being the voice of reason...

Very, very well said, JB.

I've been biting my tongue on this one, but I always thought PP would come to his senses, being as politically astute as he claims to be, and actually WANT there to be a debate, and *gasp* encourage one, instead of the constant sniping and, apparently, being grateful there isn't one.

Fairly freshman tactics.

I think having Sibby make fun of Pat for falling off of his number one perch in the SD Blogosphere might have caused PP to hype this a little more than usual. Twenty five posts on a single topic in a single day - with virtually no new developments? That seems a bit excessive. But as he noted, it drove traffic to his site.

I do think that some of his comments, and a lot of the comments by his followers, are much more about trying to embarrass Tim than they are an actual desire for there to be a meeting between the candidates. PP is smart enough to see the tactical reasons for declining the debates.

But the comments that Tim should just step aside are most ridiculous. The voters - not blog commentators - will have the final say, and if they don't think Tim is up for the job, we've shown that we're not afraid to throw incumbents out of office. But I very much doubt that will happen in this case.

In the end, PP will get more traffic to his site in the short term. But his position as being a respected expert in campaign tactics will take a hit when Johnson wins big over Dykstra.