The Debate between Foley and Malloy

Last night brought the first debate between governor Dan Malloy and his Republican challenger Tom Foley in Connecticut.  I thought Foley clearly won, and this morning I got confirmation of that from my local newspaper.  The article that ran in the Hearst papers in Fairfield county (Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time) did not name a winner for the debate; nor did it point out any big zingers that came from Malloy.  Given that Hearst in Connecticut never misses an opportunity to slam the Republicans in general and Foley in particular, the apparent even-handed coverage is a clear sign that even to the die hard Democrats, the Foley victory was apparent.  Indeed, the big point made repeatedly by Malloy was that Foley did not pay income taxes for the last two years even though he is rich.  It had nothing to do with who would make a better governor or what should be done to improve conditions in the state.  And Foley answered the charge by saying that of course he paid no taxes because he had no net income.  Foley also pointed out that three years ago, he paid millions of dollars in income taxes because of the nature of his earnings from investments.  It was weird; Malloy actually seemed angry rather than pleasant.  Anger is rarely a successful emotion to display as a candidate; it does not attract people to your side.

I doubt that too many people actually watched the debate.  Still, it will be interesting to see if it had any impact on the polls.