…So… that was an interesting experience. I have to apologise to all the candidates because I probably did a pretty terrible job of transcribing your principle thoughts. Please feel free to leap into the breach and fill in the blanks. I am grateful that Nanuq was on-hand to serve as a second (and far superior) memory. I’ll have to remember that I drop ten IQ points when I live-blog!
Now, there is time to reflect on overarching themes and mannerisms in each candidate’s presentation. The limited time frame for comments and responses to questions, coupled with the inclination by some to simply turn it into a series of stump speeches, make it hard to distill a lot of new substance from the event.
It should be mentioned here that Matt Dunne was unable to attend because his brother had just suffered a stroke (to whom we send our best wishes for a quick recovery.) Michel Consejo read Matt’s opening remarks and said he promised to reply to any questions sent to him in writing.
I have to say that, although I am not supporting Susan Bartlett in this race, I was very impressed with her clarity and thoughtfulness. She has definitely risen in my estimation through the course of the campaign. I suspect the early educators received her remarks well. She has a practical nuts-and-bolts sound to her comments; like someone who knows how to stretch a pound of ground-round to feed a family of eight. She was the one who nailed the answer to why early educators, in fact care providers as a whole, are so underpaid. She observed that women in the home provided these invaluable services for so many generations that they were grotesquely undervalued when those services finally had to be sought outside the home.
Some will dismiss it as bias when I say that Doug Racine was the candidate who best balanced the economic realities of the situation his audience was facing, while still offering concrete hope for achievable goals. He emphasized that children must be a priority, that all of the efficiencies and strategies proposed by himself and the other candidates would take time to deliver real resources for education, and that in the meantime we owe it to the most vulnerable in Vermont to use the Rainy Day Fund for what it was intended.
Deb made bringing all educators to the planning table a key focus of her comments. She decried the current “Top-down” policy making of the Douglas administration and promised that her administration would bring the same “customer service” orientation that she created in the Sec. of State’s office. If she has one real weakness with this crowd it is probably her inclination to repeatedly mention jargon like her “Jumpstart Vermont plan.” I think these poor underpaid childcare providers have probably heard a lot of slogans signifying nothing, and the word “plan” usually means there isn’t any. But she was game, and sometimes it wasn’t easy to even understand what kind of answer was being sought. She made a good case for her experience in government, but I think she erred when she made the observation that she was the only candidate with administrative experience in government. Isn’t the Lt. Governor position an administrator? Someone correct me if I’ve got this wrong.
Peter Shumlin talks faster than any of them, so I probably did the worst job of transcribing his remarks. He also seems to have a tendency to overuse the word “plan.” He uses it as if saying the word should be enough to convince everyone that he has everything under control; but again, I suspect this is not the audience for that kind of political shorthand. His staccato appeals to “Vote for me!” are also a little over the top. But maybe that’s just me. After all, that is the goal…to get them to vote for him. He wound up the whole shootin’ match with an all out appeal for their vote, because he (according to him) could defeat Dubie; but it came off as kind of like none of the rest really mattered as much as defeating Dubie. I know that’s not what he meant, but it could strike someone that way. He does have a dynamic delivery style that effectively conveys a sense of urgency to his appeals and the impression that he can get the job done. Also, he was the only candidate I saw moving through the audience and shaking hands (but I may have missed this from some of the others.)
Finally, Mr. Steele…what can I say? I am sure he is sincere, but he was so wildly off-topic all of the time that one had to conclude that he didn’t really have any respect for that poor tired audience of childcare workers who had probably been up since 5:00AM and only wanted a decent wage and a little professional reinforcement.
__________________________________________________________________
I’ve got a weak signal, and this is the first time I am live-blogging, so please bear with me. We are (at least for now) live at St. Paul’s Methodist Church in St. Albans Vermont. Here goes:
