8th District Debate: Kagen vs. Gard

October 14, 2006

Friday evening Lawrence University hosted a debate between the two candidates for Congress in Wisconsin's 8th district. There was the Republican John Gard and the Democrat Steve Kagen. The debate was broadcast on television, as is obvious from the photo. I was surprised at the way the podiums were inset far onto the stage and then obscured by three large cameras. There may have been some 400 people in the audience, but clearly the primary audience was that unknown crowd of people sitting at home. We were the live viewers, but oddly we were never particularly engaged by the speakers, nor by the moderator who was some local announcer from a Green Bay station.

In the above photo, Kagen is on the right and Gard on the left. I came in rooting heavily for Kagen, and in truth he had my vote locked up since I could not bear to send a positive message to the SOBs who lead the comedy/tragedy in Washington.. but I also cannot say I came away enthused about Kagen. I would not call him particularly dynamic, and he seemed to be chasing hard after conservative voters who might have bought into the attacks insinuating that he will raise their taxes or give amnesty to illegal immigrants. At one point Kagen even made reference to growing up in Appleton and the fact that 9 out of 10 of his friends were Republican. Those were the people he was appealing to.. not the liberal professors who might be sitting in the crowd.

I thought I would take notes on the debate, but after a few minutes I realized that there was little worth remembering. Most interesting was the general angle taken by the two candidates. Gard was the most detail and issue oriented. He has evidently served as a representative in state government, and now wants to move on to Washington. He made every effort to point out his experience on the state level and to talk about specific initiatives that he supports. Kagen, on the other hand, spoke much more broadly.. even on the issue of health care, where, as a practicing doctor, I expected him to be highly specific. For example, on the question of Medicaid he ended up spending much of his time talking about a living wage. He was also at pains to talk about the Bush and the current Republican leadership.. these were labeled "my opponent's supporters." Kagen expects to capitalize on the low approval ratings of Bush, while Gard hopes to keep people thinking about the specifics of his own career.

Now, there was one humorous exchange which I had to write down. This one involves the slippery ground that Kagen wandered into as he was trying to portray himself as tough on terrorists but careful about our rights. Kagen declared that he was not afraid of terrorists.. and then said: "If a terrorist is on an airplane, I will put my foot down and take him out." This from a smallish man.. a doctor. People laughed. I took this as an identification with the passengers aboard flight 93, who crashed into an empty field Pennsylvania because of a passenger revolt.. and the recent film United 93 recounts this story. Kagen, it seems, would have been one of those storming the cockpit.. A few moments later when it came Gard's turn to respond, he came up with an equally inane reply: "I don't want a terrorist to get on a plane—that's the difference." What?? As if Kagen's rather grandiose statement had anything to do with letting terrorists get on planes! That hardly makes for a "difference" between the two candidates. I guess this all kind of summarizes a general disappointment on my part with the level of discussion that takes place in politics.

I was surprised at the number of young people out there working for Gard. How many failures does this administration need to have before these people start to question its leadership.. and the leadership of someone who would vote with them on most issues? But the Republicans do have a strong organization.. and that is certainly still at work.