A few funny things, actually.  I thought I’d share some of the more interesting moments from the “all-candidates” debate this afternoon at St. Mike’s:

Even before the debate began, while the candidates were assembling on stage, Cris Ericson appeared to be reading Shumlin’s palm. (I wonder what she saw?  Victory in his future?)

During the debate, both major candidates stuck pretty well to their skits (although, notably, Shumlin started off his opening remark by addressing the tenor of the campaign, noting that it was a radical departure from the civil discourse of Vermont politics) and did not really say anything new.  

As for the minor party candidates:  I feel like Dan Feliciano and Dennis Steele were the most on-target of the four who attended.  Feliciano kept it purely to business (his trade) and was almost, as my friend commented, like a salesman.  He seemed very much focused on getting us to buy his ideas.  And admittedly, he said a lot of things that made good solid sense and was a good presenter.  If he had an elected office under his belt, or a history of public service, I’d be interested.  

Steele was brilliantly clear in his message and was a very clear presenter as well.

Em Peyton and Cris Ericson both skipped around a lot, esp. Peyton.  I think a one-on-one with Peyton would be a lot more illuminating than hearing her in a timed debate.  She seemed very flustered.  

Ericson made some good points, but had some odd moments as well.  And very wonky.  In order to come across powerfully in a quick answer, you really need to focus on big-picture it seems.  Towards the end, she hammered Shumlin on his apparently anti-marijuana stance (despite his earlier response that he would decriminalize small amounts) and then turned to Dubie (who is explicitly anti-pot) and said she hoped he would run for President in 2012 (to which he replied: “No.”)

But in general it was good to hear the other ideas get out there.  No matter what, it seems the debates really aren’t going to be that meaningful (either you have just Dubie and Shumlin duke it out, the same lines, every other night… Or you have one-minute responses and lots of off-topic remarks), so you might as well hear from everyone, every once in a while.  

Best line of the night though: When Feliciano said he had no problem with decriminalizing a small amount of pot, “whatever you call it these days…” Shumlin chimed in: “I believe it’s called a Doobie!”