Debate on Meet the Press

It looks like Democrat Mark Udall will be debating Republican Bob Schaffer this Sunday on Meet the Press. The debate will, of course, be moderated by Tom Brokaw.

On the one hand, I think this could be a very good opportunity for Mark to reach the Colorado public give that more people are likely to see this debate than they were to see the other debate aired on local news stations. Alas, I'm always a bit scared going into these debates. Schaffer has been trained in a particular school of Roveian politicking that I think is more foreign to Udall. Basically, Schaffer is hands down the better debater. I don't think that that means he's in the right (though certainly in the far "Right"), it just means that, for the interlocutor, cerebrally he usually comes out a bit on top. To Mark's credit, he certainly has been getting better.

That said, I think that seeing Bob covered in mud and oil, compared to the more dignified Udall might help reenforce a sense that Bob is just an artifact of the Bush years, thus cementing his second-place status in the polls.

Pathos vs. Ethos. We'll see how it turns out.