One goofy moment at Friday's gubernatorial candidates debate sponsored by the Everybody's Business Education Coalition in Cary came when moderator John Dornan gave each candidate one question to put to the other candidate. Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue, the Democrat, went first, asking Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory why he was critical of such education programs as Learn and Earn, a high school program that allows students to enroll in community college courses, or Smart Start, the program that aims to help get children ready to go to school. McCrory answered that he was not against those programs but didn't think the state should start new programs that rhyme without first assessing whether existing programs work.
But in what must be one of the strangest moments in the 2008 campaign, McCrory flubbed the opportunity to ask Perdue a hard question. Instead he sort of shrugged and asked, "Do you love education as much as I do?" Perdue laughed almost with relief and batted that softball out into the bleachers.
Why McCrory didn't take that opportunity to put Perdue on the spot is beyond me. Perhaps the question he wanted to ask had already been put by the moderator earlier, or perhaps he thought it wasn't much of an opportunity. But in a campaign built around his theme of challenging a culture of corruption in Raleigh, which he usually mentions at every opportunity, he missed a chance to throw a hardball.
