Terry McAuliffe showed some spirit in the debate this morning.
To be fair, given that the DGA, DPVA and even Terry McAuliffe’s team had set the expectations so mind-numbingly low, the fact that he came out with a pulse and could speak in complete sentences was going to be considered a win.
But after the debate, all the fears and concerns Democrats had about Terry McAuliffe candidate for governor resurfaced quickly.
First, rather than taking interviews with the media, McAuliffe rushed off the stage and disappeared behind the curtain [1] to be debriefed and rebriefed by his consultants and staff. After an awkward period of ten or so minutes, McAuliffe reappeared after some media had given up.
Note: if your candidate can’t even do the traditional after-debate press gaggle, it’s not a good day.
Then this afternoon, the campaign had to disavow and walk back one of Terry’s most outlandish accusations in the debate, that the special prosecutor who investigated Ken Cuccinelli (at Cuccinelli’s request) said in his report that Cuccinelli “should be prosecuted.”
Per Ryan Nobles:
Just was informed by @TerryMcAuliffe [2]'s team that the candidate walked back his claim that Herring thought KC "should've been prosecuted".
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) July 20, 2013 [3]
Nobles earlier while live-tweeting the debate had called out Terry for his flat out lie:
Not to harp on this, but if Herring who is a "prosecutor" thought Cuccinelli should be "prosecuted", he could've done just that. #Vbadebate [4]
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) July 20, 2013 [5]
So on a day where Cuccinelli encouraged McAuliffe to run for governor in Mississippi (bumper stickers available now! [6]), McAuliffe couldn’t even face the media without being prepped, then had to have his campaign walk back inaccuracies and lies in the debate.
On a day where the DGA was warning that Terry McAuliffe may not be able to speak English, the story could have been how McAuliffe far exceeded his expectations, in that he showed up, didn’t fall flat on his face.
Until he did.
And now the story is Terry McAuliffe: he’ll say one thing, then his campaign will say another.
[UPDATED 3:43]
Things apparently were so bad for Terry in the debate that they didn’t even bother sending off a ‘we won’ missive after.
Debate 101 is: always claim a victory.
Unfortunately, McAuliffe’s performance was so bad, they didn’t even bother floating that line of defense.
Keep up the great work.