Eveluating the candidates

Now that I've seen debates of all the major IP candidates I figured I would evaluate them.

Peter Hutchinson: My expectations were very low I thought Pawlenty would nail it Hatch would come up a bit short and Hutchinson would come off as a typical third party candidate. The reality is Peter stole the show which was made very clear when I listened to Pat Kessler on with Dan Barriaro's radio program.

Robert Fitzgerald: He established himself at the State Fair MPR debate. He will still need to distinguished himself more and work on taking the focus of the debate away from his opponents, but given the poll #'s and his performance He is very close to being taken seriously by the voting public.

John James: In style John comes off as the attorney general which is huge given with a Governor and US Senate race very few people will look at the substance in deciding on this race. If it does come down to substance John will be just fine. We won't see to many debates here and viewership will be limited so John 's success will come mostly outside of debating, but he did himself well today with his performances.

John Binkowski: He's only had the chance to debate Bachmann so far, as I said at that time he faired very well with great command on the issues. He may be better in the one on one media setting but like I say he only had the chance to debate one of his opponents so it's an incomplete picture at this point.

Tammy Lee: With Alan Fines actions, Tammy Lee didn't go out of her way to jump in as allowing Alan Fine to demonstrate himself as a non factor is a very Important element for Lee to have the greatest opportunity for victory. On the issues she did very well, but we will have to see more debates before we can get a complete picture.

Lucy Gerold also has had an auditor debate on Almanac but as of yet I have not viewed it.

I understand I probably come off as partisan by not calling any of our candidates mediocre, but this year the quality of candidates for the major races is incredible.