The Foley-Malloy debate -- what were the important differences?

At the debate between gubernatorial candidates Tom Foley (R) and Dan Malloy (D) held at the Hyatt hotel in Greenwich today, there were some clear and some subtle differences between the candidates. In general, Malloy came off as the career politician that he is, while Foley came through as a businessman who knows what he wants to accomplish as governor. Perhaps the best example of this was the discussion on state spending. Malloy said he wants to downsize state government and reduce the number of state agencies by one-third. Malloy, however, gave no details. Indeed, his position reminded me of Barack Obama telling the country at the presidential debate in 2008 that he would go line by line through the budget to get rid of wasteful programs. (So far, Obama has yet to end any wasteful programs and has increased discretionery spending by 84% in just a year and a half) For his part, Foley pointed out that he has already published a list of $2 billion in state expenditures to be cut once he is elected. So Malloy offered meaningless generalities while Foley gave us his true position.

Another similar area was the position of each on the death penalty. Malloy spoke for a few minutes on his position and was so wishy - washy that the moderator actually then asked him whether that was a yes or a no. Imagine, a politician who gets asked a quesiton and then talks for two or three minutes without giving and answer. It was probably something Malloy learned to do when he took Career Politician 101 in school. Foley explained that he supported keeping the death penalty on the basis of studies that show that it deters violence in prison against prison guards. Folwy gave another straightforward response together with his reasoning.

On the whole, the decision in this debate clearly goes to Foley. Malloy has the advantage of a huge registration bulge favoring the Democrats in Connecticut, but in 2010, he is going to have to start being forthright and transparent with the voters or he will be going down to defeat. 2010 is not a year to peg yourself with the voters as a career politician. Maybe Malloy cannot help being himself, but he better start trying if he is to have any hope of victory.