I’ve seen most of the California recall debate. Frankly, it hasn’t been very productive owing to the combination of an amazingly timid moderator and the inclusion of too many fringe candidates. My impression of the major players:
Bustamante: I’d say he won the debate, even though I disagree with him on most of the issues. He was calm, actually answered the questions, and thoughtful.
McClintock: The candidate I most agreed with. He was the only one with the guts to take the unpopular stand that illegal immigrants are, well, illegal. He was also the only one that seemed to grasp that having the government classify people by race was more likely to result in racial bias than not classifying by race.
Schwarzenegger: He was fairly entertaining and had some good answers. But he didn’t get away from the canned responses, issued contradictory proposals, and didn’t answer the questions.
Huffington: Rude and a moron. Why was she invited, let alone allowed to hijack most of the debate with her vitriol, given her non-existent standing in the polls two weeks from election?
