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Gov. Tom Vilsack did it all on Monday. Meanwhile, it's not quite so glamorous for the candidates who wish they could be governor. Mike Blouin was pushed into the corner of having to defend his most deeply held personal beliefs at the same time as he vowed never to impose them on anyone else. Those would be his views on abortion, to which he is opposed, but would make no further law to restrict.
Chet Culver pandered to the polls and appeared to buck his own party by coming out in favor of the death penalty. But he wants to make sure we know it's a Democratic death penalty he's in favor of, about, not the Republican one. As if it matters. Dead people don't vote. Or do they?
And the biggest turkey of the week award goes to Jim Nussle for huffing and puffing about the prison escape and demanding that the investigation go all the way to the top, by which he means Vilsack, of course. Never mind that Vilsack isn't running for office. He must have helped those guys over the wall, himself, right? And how does Nussle square the Republican canard that Democrats just want to spend money when it looks like budget cuts - which Republicans always want to take credit for - may have played at least some role in the lack of security at the Fort Madison prison?
Worst of all, Nussle's blatant campaign jab came cloaked in an increasingly familiar deception - a not-so-veiled accusation that the whole episode smacks of partisanship. It's become common in campaigns to accuse your opponent of the very thing you are guilty of. Do unto others before they do unto you. It kills their argument.
Vilsack, in the end, was not without his own sting. His advice to Nussle, chairman of the House Budget Committee: Go back to trying to balance the federal budget. There's a couple billion over the wall there.
And how are voters responding to all this? Continuing slides in voter turnout tell the story. Apathy and disillusionment are the fruits of posturing and political orchestration. In a weird twist, the television show "West Wing" attempted not to imitate life but to reinvent it a few episodes ago when it held an actual live debate between candidates played by actors Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda. The characters decided to forgo the scripting and talk about the issues themselves, for real
Some viewers might have thought that such an experiment in pabulum would have driven everyone instantly to another network, where an end-of-the-world pulp thriller was broadcast. But no, the ratings for "West Wing" ratings for the debate were as high as they've ever been.
Real reality ought to take a tip from reality TV. Ideas are vital to people. Debate is not dull. People care about issues. They just want to hear them straight up.
