As we all seem to be having a crack at some final GOTV words, these are mine: support the good people who are down-ticket from Peter Shumlin, too.

I  just watched a rebroadcast of the candidate forum for Lt. Governor that took place in St. Albans a few weeks ago; and I’m so glad that I did! I had met Steve Howard and heard him speak briefly, taking away a favorable but indistinct impression.  It wasn’t until I saw his performance in that debate that I could really size him up in relation to Phil Scott, who also appears to be a nice enough guy.

It really is a shame that most voters will probably go to the polls having never heard a debate between these two.  Unlike the high profile Shumlin/Dubie show-downs which featured two strikingly different personalities sparring through a thicket of highly charged talking points, this forum was more of a relaxed conversation between two guys with very different perspectives who still seemed capable of sharing a cup of coffee later on.  

In the St. Albans forum, moderator Emerson Lynn adopted the annoying and odd habit of personally grilling Steve Howard on his responses to each question, occasionally to the complete exclusion of Candidate Scott.  Despite this disproportionate amount of adversarial attention, Mr. Howard rose to the questions with grace and authority, turning the two-against-one scenario to his distinct advantage.  Mr. Scott’s assertions on all issues seemed to be grounded less in fact than opinion and lacked a certain depth when compared to those offered so substantially by Mr. Howard. I was really quite amazed at how great was the gulf in capability between the two men as revealed in this exchange. It’s difficult for me to believe that the undecided voters who were present in the audience of that forum could reach any conclusion other than that Steve Howard would make an excellent Lieutenant Governor (or even Governor, should it come to that); and that Phil Scott would probably be a nice guy to have as a boss on a construction job.  

On another note, I have to say how happy I was to see that the Burlington Free Press finally did, in today’s edition, what every single newspaper in the state should have done weeks ago:  they published a factual “cheat sheet” for battle weary voters to scan for simply stated positions from both candidates (Shumlin and Dubie) on each of 14 distinct issues.  This was a godsend to Democratic phone-bankers today who could finally refer undecideds to a single neutral source for the rudimentary facts one should have in order to make an informed decision.  I rather doubt that the Dubie camp welcomed this straight-forward distillation of the candidates’ positions as we did, since they tried so hard throughout the campaign to distract voters from that very thing.

It’s been a rough and tumble road this time around, but now that election day is within sight there is a growing sense of excitement in the air that kind of reminds me of 2008 (bite your tongue, girl!) As has been remarked in other diaries on this page, volunteers are suddenly pouring out of the woodwork to participate in the GOTV effort.  Somehow, despite all of the poison emanating from the Dubie camp (or perhaps because of it) the league of liberal voters have come to life again. Happy Halloween!