Lindsey Graham and Jaime Harrison didn’t debate in Spartanburg. Here’s who to blame
The people of South Carolina wanted a full-throated debate between Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison on Friday night in Spartanburg.
Here’s what we got instead: a mealy-mouthed doctor’s note.
Yes, really.
A doctor’s note turned a promising encounter between two adept politicians thinking on their feet into a largely unsatisfying hour of two cautious guys reciting familiar political talking points during separate “conversations.”
Well, someone needs to take the blame for what happened.
And let’s not mince words about who that “someone” is.
It is Sen. Graham
It defies logic
It defies logic to understand why at a time when the president of the United States and at least two U.S. senators have contracted COVID-19 — and when many on Capitol Hill are working to assure the public by undergoing exams or self-quarantining — Graham would refuse Harrison’s request to take a coronavirus test before the Democrat would agree to participate in their second debate.
It defies logic to understand why instead of simply taking the test, Graham produced a note from his doctor assuring everyone he’s coronavirus-free — forcing the planned debate to be hastily transformed into separate 30-minute candidate interviews.
It defies logic to understand why a two-term influential senator who has been brave enough to trash-talk a global superpower like China and rip into a menacing authoritarian leader like Russia’s Vladimir Putin — not to mention shrug off noisy, obnoxious protesters outside his doorstep — would appear unduly intimidated by the idea of having a cotton swab briefly inserted up his nose.
And it really, really — really — defies logic to understand Graham’s explanation for not taking the COVID-19 test, which pretty much boils down to him suggesting that since average South Carolinians can’t ask everyone they’re around to take a coronavirus test, it wouldn’t be right for a powerful South Carolina senator to seek special treatment by actually taking a coronavirus test.
Uh ... huh?
How’s that again?
Hey, don’t ask us.
We can’t figure that out either, and we’ve twisted ourselves into a Gordian knot trying to do it.
But come on.
That’s it?
That’s the reason?
That’s the reason why South Carolinians were deprived of seeing and hearing Graham and Harrison engage each other face-to-face in the waning days of a critical race?
A wasted opportunity
It would be harsh and wrong to say that Friday’s debate-turned-conversation in Spartanburg was a waste of time.
Graham is a much respected incumbent fighting hard to keep his job.
Harrison is a formidable candidate battling just as doggedly to take Graham’s job.
So there’s some value to any occasion that enables each man to make his case.
But Friday night was surely a wasted opportunity for South Carolinians to fully learn more about the two candidates seeking the privilege of representing them during the next six years.
And there should be no debate about who’s to blame for that.