Since it was raining in Great Falls on Saturday, I decided to watch the U.S. Senate and U.S. House debates. About halfway through the senate debate, I checked to see if it was still raining – and it was. So like a prisoner sentenced to more hard time, I subjected myself to more punishment.

So to those reading this, you really owe me big time. Below are my observations and commentary. There are several media reports about the debate, but this one will be different – and probably with more detail and with humor.

Later in this column, I write about missed opportunities, which is kind of a pointed look at some questions that could have been asked – with a touch of sarcasm.

Let me start out by saying that Lincoln-Douglas were probably rolling over in their graves Saturday afternoon because these debates were pretty bad. The debating skills from all six candidates were lacking. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being best, Ryan Zinke, John Walsh, Roger Roots, and Steve Daines were barely a five. John Lewis might have pegged a six. Mike Fellows was a three.

Libertarian Roger Roots probably gained a few thousand votes with his performance – he will get possibly get 4 or 5 percent of the U.S. Senate vote – maybe more if he gets to participate in more debates. He should be invited to all the debates because he is a little more animated than the other two candidates. This is about entertainment, right?

One thing for sure is the Zinke and Daines campaigns need some serious help in the social media area. They were getting pounded on Twitter and did not mount a serious effort to get their messages out. The Republicans in Montana are far behind in this area.

The people asking the questions failed Montana. Yes, I said that. They did not ask any new or tough questions – so it should have been pretty easy for the six men getting the questions to answer them. It wasn’t. One question had about 25 parts (OK, maybe three or four parts).

I posted two polls on The Western Word after the debates asking readers to pick the winner of the debate. Thanks for participating!

In the U.S. House poll, Democrat John Lewis won with 72%, Republican Ryan Zinke came in with 21%, and Libertarian Mike Fellows had 6%.

In the U.S. Senate poll, Democrat John Walsh won with 76%, Republican Steve Daines came in with 16%, and Libertarian Roger Roots had 8%.

The Great Falls Tribune also had a poll asking who won the senate debate. In their poll, Walsh defeated Daines 50% to 24%. 27% did not see or read about the debate.

If you are a candidate or worker for a candidate or support a candidate so much that you can’t stand to hear criticism about your candidate, you should stop reading here.

Ryan Zinke:
As everyone who reads my columns knows, I deeply respect veterans. I am a veteran. Ryan Zinke needs to throw a few changes in his delivery. He said he was a former Navy Seal commander several times and while that is admirable, it got kind of old on Saturday. I was saying to myself, “Yeah, but…” He also sounds like John Wayne in his delivery and he needs to look at people during his delivery and not his notes.

Missed Opportunity: The panel missed a chance to ask Zinke more questions about the PAC he was involved with.

John Lewis:
Lewis’ delivery was probably better than most on Saturday. It had a rhythm and it worked well for him.

Missed Opportunity: While he was asked about Obamacare, it would not have been out of bounds to ask Lewis how much he knew about Max Baucus nominating his state director as U.S. Attorney. For example, how much did he know about Baucus and the former state director dating and if Baucus routinely asked other staffers to go out with him. Did Lewis tell Baucus it was wrong? Lewis was Baucus’ state director for several years, in case you did not know.

Steve Daines:
Daines reminds me more and more of Max Baucus, except Daines can string two coherent sentences together. Daines seemed to be too mellow in his delivery, and he looked like he was sweating profusely. His answers were robotic. I would like to see some excitement from Daines. He should stay away from the Prozac eight hours prior to the next debate, or slam down a couple Red Bulls prior to next debate – whatever works best.

Missed Opportunity: This would have been a good time to corner Daines on USA jobs going to China. It would have been fine to ask him what office he plans to run for next, because he has a track record of running for different offices – like a little rich kid trying to buy everything because he can. Here are Daines campaigns: 2008 – Lt. Governor, 2012 – U.S. Senate and then he switched to U.S. House, 2014 – U.S. Senate.

John Walsh:
Walsh came across as the military go-to guy, but his delivery was choppy which prevented him from getting his points across well. Daines thanked Walsh for his service and Walsh should have asked him to pull his attack ad that was very negative about his military service. Leading the group in the Pledge of Allegiance was a nice idea.

Missed Opportunity: This would have been a good time to ask him about the process for him being selected for U.S. Senator by the Governor – ask him if there should be a different system when there’s a vacancy, etc. Walsh should have been asked if he’s ever been on a plane heading to Washington, D.C. when Senator John Tester was carrying his suitcase full of beef – and if Tester ever actually shared any of this beef.

Roger Roots:
Roots was asked about being a racist and he handled it well – but that was the only question that made any candidate feel uneasy throughout the debates – but even then the question did not go deep enough.

Missed Opportunity: Someone should have asked him if he ever watched or read Alex Haley’s Roots and his thoughts about it – or maybe if he watched The Cosby Show.

Mike Fellows:
Fellows participated and he will take some votes from Zinke.

Missed Opportunity: Fellows should have been asked if he was trying to corner the fans of Duck Dynasty by having a beard. He could have been asked if he would loan some of his hair to John Lewis and Ryan Zinke…

There you have it faithful readers – have a great week!

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