I thought I’d write a little review of the first debate between Bob McDonnell (R) and Creigh Deeds (D), which hopefully will not sound exactly like the hundred other partisan debate wrap-ups out there.

My biggest observation of the debate (which will theoretically be available for replay at VirginiaTalks.com) was the epic failure of the streaming video for the first 20 minutes or so.  First the stream went in and out, then we had video but the audio was horrible, then we had video but no sound.  This was the second online debate this year that suffered from this.  Seriously, tech people.  If you’re going to stream something online, can you, like, check your system out before the event starts?  And maybe not assume that it’s working when only 1 or 2 people are connected?

Anyway, the candidates were near the end of a discussion about marriage and life and family when the stream started working.  I didn’t hear all of it so I probably shouldn’t comment, but it sounded like McDonnell gave a typical Republican answer and Deeds gave a typical Democratic answer.

But as the debate went on, I was surprised at how often the two candidates’ answers sounded basically the same.  I’m sure if you parse every word there were differences, but on casual listening it was hard to tell the difference.  On the judiciary, Deeds and McDonnell both thought judges should be independent and selected based on some kind of measurable metrics.  Nothing controversial there.

On the issue of States’ Rights, both candidates said the federal government was intruding more and more into the territory of the states and they would stand up against it.

Both candidates also sounded similar on the issue of rights for LBGTs:  Which is to say they both sounded very dodgy about it.  Neither candidate indicated that social issues would be a focus of their administration.

The candidates got to ask each other two questions:  McDonnell asked Deeds about signing a pledge against the Cap and Trade bill and whether or not he would raise taxes to fund transportation.  Deeds asked McDonnell about economic development in Southwest Virginia and using the Bush years as a model for the Virginia economy.  All “gotcha” questions designed to make the other guy look bad, so there’s no real point in examining the answers.  (They both ducked and weaved.)

The moderator asked what I thought was an interesting question I haven’t heard put quite this way before:  “What is your view of the role of guns in society?”  Usually people ask “do you support gun rights” or “do you support gun control” or something black-and-white like that.  The new phrasing turned it into more of a philosophically open question which I would have enjoyed hearing some discussion about.

Of course, neither candidate answered philosophically.  Both candidates took the shocking position of “strong support” for the Second Amendment.  I think the only difference between the two is that Deeds supported closing the “gun show loophole” and McDonnell didn’t.  Both droned on melodramatically about how April 16th “changed things” and where they were when it happened and who they talked to after it happened and so on and so forth.  Apparently 4/16 is the 9/11 for Virginians.

In summary, it was a civil and pretty bland debate.  McDonnell provided the only attempt at humor by asking why Creigh didn’t use his given name of “Robert,” which he thought was a fine name.  Hyuk hyuk.  (I always roll my eyes and cringe when politicians try to be funny.)

Overall I can’t imagine how an average voter could parse anything meaningful out of what the candidates said.  It sounds like they are going to focus a lot on transportation and taxes and economic development in their campaigns, details of which are just about the most uninteresting subjects imaginable to this observer.

And no, there are no third party or independent candidates, so we’re stuck with one of these two.