Brown and Whitman, the Last Dance: What Did You Think?

Well, it wasn’t dull.

Brokaw was great. Whoever made the decision to ask him to moderate this puppy, did us a great favor.

Meg was much better prepped than in the past.

She also seemed to get a lot more face time, mainly because she grabbed it, and Jerry allowed her to do so. Should he have jumped in more?

Among Whitman’s better moments was her answer to the teachers’ union question that was asked of Brown. He bobbled it. She hit that one out of the park and sounded forceful on education reform.

Jerry came back to some degree on the topic. But she was much stronger.

Meg’s most effective zinger (which had the unfortunate disadvantage of not being accurate), was when she said, “You have been part of the war on jobs … for 40 years.” The line drew a startled round of spontaneous applause.

Jerry scored points when he said that he would start the budget process, not in January when the governor usually proposes his budget for the following fiscal year, but in November, right after he’s elected. That he’d get all 120 legislators in a room and basically get down to it.

Brown: You’ve got to get the legislature on board or nothing happens. (An applause line.)

This was a hit at Whitman since it was precisely the thing that Arnold failed to do, despite good intentions. It is thus far not at all clear that Whitman has the government craft in her repertoire to succeed any better.

Jerry’s statement about leading by example, also got him applause. (The topic came up in relation to Whitman ridiculing him for saying he would cut the staff in the governor’s office. Jerry parried the blow and struck back.)

After Meg had her good education moment, Jerry was good on immigration. He was clear, emotional and believable.

He was also good when Meg slammed him for not defending Prop. 8. There was no shilly-shallying. It’s been ruled as being in violation of the 14th Amendment to the constitution, he said, and he won’t have his office fight for it. Period. “When something is so fundamentally wrong….I’m not going to back it.”

On whoregate—which Brokaw handled well—Brown was appropriate in bringing up Whitman campaign manager Pete Wilson’s own “whore” remark, but Jerry could have sounded a bit more sincere with his apology.

On the other hand, it was exceptionally grating to watch Whitman making Homer Simpson noises when Brown said that, No, in fact he didn’t think that having his campaign staffer calling Whitman a political whore was the same as using the “N” word.

(Dispute it if you want, Meg, but be a grown up. Not a smirking high school girl.) Even the audience went into a bout of high murmuring at her response to the issue.

Whitman continues to hit jobs harder than Brown does.

On the other hand, Jerry was good at urging the defeat of prop 23. In addition to his pitch for a green future, he said that Whitman’s proposal creates “regulatory uncertainty” for business.

Jerry handled the crime and criminal justice questions capably, batting away Whitman’s soft-on-crime accusations.

Plus, speaking personally, it was good to see Jerry momentarily showing his reformer side on the subject:

“We need criminal justice reform,” he said.We need reentry, and we also need to be tough on crime.”

There was much about pensions.…and one more round of barbs about who would be the best cutter of government waste.

So, how do you think each did?

And, in the end, who won?