DSD on the Rhode Island Governors race debate…..

Rhode Island Gubernatorial Debate
(7 – 8:30 p.m. EDT, Thursday 10 June 2010)

on WPRI-TV, Channel 12, Providence, and
http://www.wpri.com

[ The candidates for governor await the start of their first TV debate, at the University of Rhode Island in South Kingstown on Thursday. From left, John Robitaille, Victor Moffitt, Lincoln Chafee, Ken Block, Frank Caprio and Patrick Lynch. ]

The video stream was awful if you didn’t have high capacity memory and connections; it was overloaded by “Connect It” giving the questions as they were asked; I’ve seen this done far more efficiently by less sophisticated and less power-hungry apps. The TV broadcast also had some engineering glitches, especially sound from URI in southern RI.

I apologize to the former state legislator Victor Moffit (R) for my throwaway comparison in an earlier thread about experience: both Moffit’s Republican opponent, John Robitaille, and the Moderate Party candidate Ken Block made big points about their LACK of experience in elective public office.

Atty-Gen. Patrick Lynch (D) made a few good points but reinforced my dislike of him.

Gen. Treas. Frank Caprio (D) still makes a good impression to me, and is certainly a Democrat, but there are fiscal points where he seems too conservative.

Lincoln Chafee (Ind.), a former Republican Mayor of Warwick and U.S. Senator, still looks like the best of the bunch at this point, although I disagree with him on several policy proposals, such as imposing a 1% sales tax on currently-exempt items such as drugs and newspapers.

As I’ve said before, I wish there were a true left-wing candidate, such as State Rep. David Segal (D, Providence & E. Prov.; formerly Green Party member of Prov. City Council), who’s instead running for the Democratic nomination for Patrick Kennedy’s 1st District Congressional seat. An unambiguous left-winger would make this race less lopsided.