Monday, September 11, 2006

Did anyone see the Rogers debate?

According to the papers Graham was much improved. I didn't see it.

True or false?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was ok. Not that exciting. A bit of a sleeper. All three seemed too scripted. However, Mr. Lord repeats same stuff. He wants to do great things but the question is where the hell he was in the last 7 years. Can you believe this guy now?

Fool me once.....

Anonymous said...

I saw a bit,I watched the one in French. It was funny cuz one of the questions was "What would you one your first day elected if your government was in power" and Shawn went on and on about all the changes and then the moderator cut in and he was still going on...then he laughed and said there were a lot of things he'd do on the first day. Which is great because it shows his determination of how he would like to see New Brunswick with a new face. I think Shawn deserves a chance, Lord had his chance, time for change!

Anonymous said...

It was more of a series of small speeches then a debate as the candidates weren't allowed to engage one another. Graham was the winner. Lord had alot of misses - he stumbled more than once in both languages and went after Graham more than once. Both are things a seasoned debater like Lord just doesn't do.

Definate points for Graham also for not just using his notes from the last debate - new announcements were included and the Liberals vision was clearly tied to all plans. You could see how passionate he is, where Lord seemed smug at times and rolled his eyes at Graham's statistics twice that I saw.

Lord still has not released a platform and I think that's is costing them dearly.

Brewer again was not a factor. It was painful at times to watch her. I think she is getting no support from the mbulk of NDPers, she seems unsure and is woefully underinformed oon key files. The only thing she seemed at all confident on was her closing statement which was the same in both debates, and she just didn't sell it.

Two things that really struck me:
1. Lord says repeatedly "I understand..." health care is important/ seniors care is important.... If he understands why doesan't he get it? He says his government has spent so many more millions on things, but doesn't seem to understand that it really doesn't matter how much you spend if you spend it without planning or flat-out wastefully.

2. Graham ran out of time answering the what will you do on your first day, and his quip at the end was great. What people might not know is that at the start of the debate, they had a delay and the leaders were "chatting." Someone sugested a singing contest and Graham replied, "I like Cheryl Crow's A Change Will Do You Good." About time we had a Premier with a little bit of chutzpah.

Anonymous said...

I've been noticing a lot of people calling Shawn Graham just "Shawn" and others calling Bernard Lord just "Lord." I like the fact that we can just call Shawn...Shawn because that's who he is, he's just a regualar guy who wants to make a change and clean up the mess that Lord left behind. I can't wait for election day!!!

Monctonite said...

Graham exceeded my expectations and Lord could not meet them. I was hoping Brewer would be better than in the previous CBC debate, but she couldn’t get it together. The format was certainly more beneficial for Brewer than the CBC debates, but she read from notes, never looked up and constantly shifted her weight from one foot to the other. I got seasick watching her.

This style was in Graham’s favour and he took advantage of it. Lord played the negative card a bit, and Graham didn’t. The only criticism I have of Graham is that he went off topic a couple of times.

Is it enough to save the Liberals from defeat? Not likely, since it was on Rogers afterall, and one good showing doesn’t make a premier.

Anonymous said...

Monctonite, What about hundreds of bad showings by Bernard Lord over the last seven years. He is a bad news.

By the way was I the only one who could not hear Carl Davies questions on tv. Mike will go berserk every time he spoke.

Anonymous said...

From the view of this voter, the debates were about as helpful as those red/blue/orange campaign signs. I personally don't see what all the hype about Graham's performance was. Whenever someone asked him a question, he retreated to uttering tired campaign slogans. Lord wasn't much better. Brewer perhaps made the best points, but still seems to get the jitters in a debate (if you could call last night's event a "debate").

To me, all it did was reiterate my opinion of political debates: they don't change people's minds, just reinforce the opinions they already had. Graham fans will see him as "vastly improved", Lord fans will see him as "successfully defending himself", and Brewer fans will see her as having "substance over style". It's not the debates that form opinions, it's the people reporting on them (who, to be honest, sometimes seem a tad easily impressed).

That said, I decided to vote in the advance poll in Fredericton-Silverwood today. I'll come clean, I voted for Brad Green. Not out of some undying love for him, mind you. I just didn't think it was worth it to dump the solicitor general for Rick Miles, whose primary argument seems to be "don't vote NDP or you'll elect a Tory", or Dennis Atchison, who seems like a nice guy, but nothing overly noteworthy.

nbpolitico said...

Daniel,

Thank you very very much for your comment.

It is refreshing and helpful to hear a real voter untainted by partisanship sharing his views.

Monctonite said...

Daniel,

Indeed very refreshing. I try to stay as non-partisan as I can, but it is difficult. I was pleased with Graham's performance, however I am not a supporter of his. In fact, I don't think one good appearance on a channel no one watches will save him, despite what the newest poll says.

nbpolitico said...

monctonite - did I miss a new poll???

Alvy Singer said...

NBPolitico, your going to love it. It's a CRA poll in today's L'Acadie Nouvelle. I've started a thread at fptt to talk about it.

Anonymous said...

YAY We're leading in the POLLS!!!

44% for LIBS
42% for Tories

There's been a change in the wind!

Anonymous said...

Hmm, eerie...

At the outset of this election, I said to someone that I was getting a very "Camille Theriault" vibe out of the whole thing. Theriault was relatively popular, experienced, and really had no major factors working against him (other than the length of Liberal rule), but he managed to lose to a political greenie who, by the way, didn't lead in the polls until the final week of the campaign.

Now we have a similar situation on our hands. At the outset, I didn't really get the sense that there were any nagging issues that would destroy Lord (a la insurance), but I couldn't help but think he was much less safe than people gave him credit for. Now that seems to be coming to fruition. Although I wouldn't start writing Mr. Lord's obituary over a poll where the gap is within the margin of error, history doesn't really seem to be on the Tories' side.

Funnily enough, I read on one of the bloggers' page (perhaps in the comments section) that if the Liberals win provincially, he thinks the Tories will hold the riding of Fredericton-Silverwood, and if the Tories win provincially, the Liberals will win in F-S. Not sure how likely this is, but I guess having a former cabinet minister as an opposition member is marginally better than having a newcomer in that position.

nbpolitico said...

daniel - you may be refering to a comment here on this blog that I made, however I was saying if the Tories win, the NDP will take Silverwood and if the Liberals win the Tories will take it.