Green-Walker debate will heat up later

What if they held a debate and nobody disagreed?

It sounds like that's what happened when Repub gov wannabes Scott Walker and Mark Green met for the first time in their long campaign to win the GOP nomination next year.

It was pretty much all sweetness and like, according to Amy Rinard's Journal Sentinel story:

An event billed as a debate between Republican gubernatorial candidates Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.) and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker nearly turned into a love fest on Friday with the two friends and former colleagues agreeing that they agree on most issues.

The only point of contention seemed to be whose experience is more relevant to being governor.
But it is early, and the climate will change. Right now both campaigns are busily doing opposition research, to explore every possible weakness or negative on the other guy.

In the final analysis, campaigns are all about drawing distinctions between candidates, and giving people a reason to vote for you instead of your opponent. And whether it is better experience to be a Congressman than a county exec is hardly going to be a voting issue for most people.

If the Walker-Green race is at all close a year from now, and hasn't turned into a foregone conclusion, you can expect the debates next August -- face to face and on television commercials -- to have some real bite. Right now, in front of Republican crowds, it makes no sense to be the one to take the first shot.

But by next summer this one should be fun to watch.