The Surprising Winner and Loser of DeSantis-Newsom Debate
Fox News’s “Red State vs. Blue State” debate featuring Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and California Governor Gavin Newsom Thursday night proved to be fascinating political theater.
As so often is the case in our current political climate, declaring a clear winner and loser is tricky. In this case, viewer reactions have been something of a Rorschach test — conclusions on social media fell neatly along partisan lines. Conservative pundits declared DeSantis the winner; liberals lauded Newsom.
The real winner of the event is the guy who conceived of it and convinced the governors to participate: Sean Hannity.
If you’ve read this space before, you’ll know I’m all in on anyone having a civil debate with an ideological foe in a respectful and meaningful way. CNN’s Crossfire model — famously derided by Jon Stewart for “hurting the country” — has given way to even worse hyper-partisan opinion programming designed only to reinforce entrenched opinions and biases.
I heaped praise on Hannity for his initial interview with Newsom, I labeled him a hero for even coming up with the idea behind Thursday night’s debate, and I went long on why the debate would be an oasis for super-thirsty political media obsessive dying for quality and meaningful discussion. And Hannity delivered.
Sure, sticklers can point to some small flaws he showed as a moderator, but I felt he did a remarkable job balancing the jousting, talking over one another, and structure. It was an impossible game to referee, and the best evidence that he did well is that no one is really complaining about how the umpire called balls and strikes.
Many on the left expected Hannity to team up with DeSantis to gang up on Newsom, but that proved wrong. The Fox News host showed remarkable restraint in letting the Democratic participant get as good as he got, to the viewers’ benefit.
Another quality of this debate was how refreshing it was to watch candidates go back and forth without the catcalls, boos, and performative whoops from an audience in the room. It seems likely that the Fox News production team benefited from the hard lessons learned by CNN’s Trump Town Hall fiasco, which felt more like a rally than a meaningful political discussion.
I’ll go so far as to say that Thursday night’s debate was incredibly strong evidence that no political debate should include audience members who do nothing but get in the way — and also bring out the worst in politicians mugging for the audience in the room over making salient points. So, the biggest loser for me is future debate audiences. Let’s just get rid of them moving forward, full stop.
As for the debate? I can see why both DeSantis’s and Newsom’s camps are pleased. In my humble opinion, Newsom came off as sharper and better prepared, quicker on his feet, and landing tighter jabs. DeSantis did well but seemed to be weighed down by the pressure of performing well, given his current standing in GOP polls. Newsom doesn’t have that weight on his shoulders and appears more relaxed.
Overall, it was a fascinating evening and one I hope we can see more of in the future. Our political discourse has come a long way downhill since the days of Gore Vidal vs. William F. Buckley, but there’s no reason to leave those kinds of debates in the past.
I’d tune in to future similar events, say Gretchen Whitmer vs Brian Kemp or Chris Sununu vs Kathy Hochul. Respectful political debates like this might help cure the ailing body politic. The biggest surprise is that the revival of this high-minded idea came from conservative firebrand Sean Hannity — but here we are.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
