Yes, I watched the governor's debate. (Although I will confess to switching from time to time to see how the Nationals/Dodgers game was going.) This debate was not much different from the first. Neither candidate impressed me although Cole at least answered more of the questions put to him. Hoppy Kercheval was the moderator and I thought, for the most part, that he did a good job with specific questions and some decent follow-ups. (Exception -- I thought his question to Justice on whether he would continue coaching if he won was a waste of time.)

After the first debate I called Justice a "third-rate Trump" for his self-praise and wild assertions and he did little to change my mind in this debate. "Santa Claus," as he referred to himself at one point, gave some incredible answers; my personal favorite was that his company not paying taxes would have a positive impact on the local schools. Cole sounded a bit more organized although he continued to either dodge the question or blame the governor for the legislature's budget impasse. Cole did criticize Trump for his most recent controversy but still embraced him otherwise. (An interesting contradiction that I wished Kercheval would have pursued.)

Kercheval asked Justice what he would say to the liberals and progressives in the Democratic Party and he replied that "I'm representing down home West Virginia." Let's see, the two major parties have given me a Koch-supported Republican on the one side and a Donald Trump wannabe on the other. I'll repeat the question I asked following the first debate: why were the Constitution, Libertarian, and Mountain parties excluded from the debate? I'm sure I'm not the only West Virginian who has concluded that neither major party speaks for them.