Televised Debate Tonight

Starting at 7:00 tonight and running until 8:30 will be a debate on KCOS hosted by David Crowder. If If memory serves this debate is sponsored by the League of Women Voters, which is funny because, well Crowder's a dude.

What to watch for tonight is who makes the most of this opportunity. Its not a lot of ratings obviously because its on a PBS station, but all the people that are watching are people with good voting history. The other thing to watch for is who screws up.

If you recall during the last election cycle, former County Commissioner Sergio Lewis lost his cool and appeared angered during the debate. Those are the type of singular moments to look out for.

The rest of the debate will be about who sucks the least. Crowder is asking the questions, so they will be questions of substance and the people who don't know issues will likely be exposed pretty early.

What I'm most interested in is who doesn't show up. Most of the candidates are really excited to get their message out to voters and jump at any opportunity to do so. But there are at least two, maybe as many as four, that will duck and dodge that opportunity. The last thing they want is to have to answer questions.

I'll be real with you, I hate candidates like that because I am immediately suspicious of them. They are hiding something.

Even candidates who's political ideology is completely different than mine, like District 1 Candidate Manny Hinojosa, will still answer questions. And you have to respect that.

Plus how bad can a question asked in a debate or interview really be?

Unless you have something to hide.

For the candidates that do show up, look for the candidates that answer the questions right away and in the clearest manner. Good candidates will give substantive answers that are responsive to the questions. You can spot the candidates that either don't know the answer to the question, or are afraid to give an answer to the question by the double-speak and lack of clarity and specificity in their replies.

You'll notice them. They are the ones that keep falling on campaign rhetoric when they get in a jam. They are the candidates that talk but never say anything.

The debates that are the most fun are when the incumbents meet the challengers. Those are the ones I'm actually excited to see.

I'll be live tweeting for those of you that will be watching something else, like basketball. Head over to my twitter account to follow: www.twitter.com/TheLionStarBlog

Can't wait to see not only who shows up...but who doesn't show up.