Debate number three

So the gloves came off a little bit in the third and final debate in the governor's race.

And at first I thought Congressman Green was going to flat out win the debate. He looked and sounded better than he has in the past. But Green lost the debate on the health care issue big time.

Green did a better job of getting his point across by using more a story telling format, which is much easier to follow for that average voter that doesn't know all the minor details of programs and issues.

At one point Doyle was even using the dreaded alphabet soup of abbreviations for programs like Health Savings Accounts. He used HSAs instead of saying the words. Using those abbreviations makes it much harder for viewers to follow along.

Doyle totally blew the question about ethics by not calling the Green money transfer illegal and failing to even mention that a court agreed that the transfer was illegal. Doyle's answer focused on how he can't take that DC money and it made it sound like the only reason he didn't like the policy was because he couldn't have the money too. This is an issue where Doyle is completely right and could have scored some points.

Doyle did bounce back a little later by pointing out that Green's criticisms of Medicaid funding are ridiculous since the federal government is the one that funds Medicaid. You know, the federal government that has been run solely by Green's team for the last six years.

And then two punches were landed that kept Green from winning this debate. When Doyle said Green was the ONLY person in the WI delegation, Democrat or Republican, to vote against letting folks import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, even I sat up and took notice. Prescription drug prices impacts millions of wallets in this state each and every day of the week and Green tried to stop people from getting them at a lower price. That fact really does make Green look very, very extreme. Direct hit.

The second punch that scored big time for Doyle was actually a Green self-inflicted wound. Green started his response about a health care question by saying health care is the most important issue we face and then actually said he wanted to keep talking about energy (from the previous question) first. You could almost hear the record needle scratching to a halt. He says it is the most important issue, shifts to another issue and then gives a lackluster response on the health care question because he has no time to address it.

Health care is the most important issue and Green fell flat on his face numerous times on that issue during the debate.

Honestly, Green looked a little better than Doyle last night on style and started out strong. But Doyle got enough of his points across, especially on health care, to keep Green from scoring a knock out at a time when Green desperately need a big win.