The Journal & Courier has an editorial opining that one debate isn’t enough for Indiana’s Fourth District. Given Buyer’s prior reluctance to debate his challenger, Nels Ackerson, Buyer’s claim that he won’t engage in further debates because of a claimed rules violation by Ackerson simply isn’t credible. The rule violation? Ackerson let people know that the debate was going to occur.
Buyer claims to let principles guide his actions. How about this principle: Votes should be cast by an informed electorate. I’m not saying that the voters of the 4th District are going to abandon their normal viewing habits to watch Buyer debate, but he could at least try to reach out to us. It seems as if he is going to attempt to ride Republican brand-loyalty to another two years in office. Frankly, I’m not sure what he’s afraid of — maybe he’s just skittish of there being too much potential downside from a campaign strategy standpoint — but Buyer’s debate performance wasn’t actually that bad when he stuck to the issues and didn’t veer off on the occasional self-pitying tangent. I disagree with a fair number of his policy positions, but I thought he presented them reasonably well. The brand isn’t doing so well this year. Buyer might be better off letting folks know who he is instead of relying on the security of being Republican Candidate X.
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