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Ferrer Testy, Mayor Monotone-y in Second Debate
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 2, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 2, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Last night, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Fernando Ferrer had their second and final debate, which was a more contentious exchange, with the Mayor stepping up his attacks of Ferrer after Ferrer went after him in the first debate. But Ferrer stood his ground, trying to associate the mayor with the Republican party and President Bush. For his part, the Mayor called Ferrer whiny, saying, "You don't solve problems by complaining, you solve problems by coming up with solutions." And when WNBC political reporter Melissa Russo brought up Ferrer's new TV ad with a cartoony Bloomberg and Bush, Bloomberg dismissed the ad, saying "comicbooks" don't matter and claimed to not have seen the ad. Ha!
When asked to say something nice about each other, the Mayor said Ferrer was a good family man and a better Spanish speaker than he was (though he's learning, all you Hispanic voters!) while Ferrer said that the Mayor wasn't racially divisive. Man, didn't these two learn anything in kindergarten? We know five year-olds who could answer that question better. All in all, Ferrer was a better speaker, in that he was more noticeably passionate and was going for broke; plus Mayor Bloomberg just has that snoozeworthy monotone. Even the NY Post admitted that Ferrer did pretty well in the debate, though it won't be enough to stop Bloomberg who is leading in the major polls by over 25 points.
The Observer looks at the two candidates and explains why it seems like they should have "swapped" scripts. The NY Times looks at Bloomberg and Ferrer's debate disagreement over the high school dropout rate - one of Ferrer's big points. And the Daily News points out Ferrer's complaint about the Times and Post for endorsing Bloomberg.
And since we were at Rockefeller Center last night (we recorded the debate), we saw Bloomberg and Ferrer campaign vehicles, whose occupants were yelling at each other. We were able to take a picture of the Mike-mobile (the Freddy-mobile made took that green light and ran!).
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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