The Hiller Instinct: Hiller Instinct: Debate nuts and bolts

"I want to know which taxes you’re going to raise and how much," Healey asked.

"Stop trying to scare people into voting for you," Patrick countered.

Healey challenged Patrick’s credentials as a prosecutor.

"I’d like you to please name for us a case in which you were a criminal prosecutor in a court where you put away a criminal," Healey said.

"Let me tell you what a prosecutor does, and a prosecutor's office does," Patrick said.

"Deval, this isn’t about whether or not you were a prosecutor," Healey said. "It’s about telling the truth."

And when she was challenged, she was ready.

"Your unfavorable numbers are at 59 percent, you can't win at this point," Christy Mihos said to her. "Why don't you drop out and support me, and let me take on Deval as the only alternative."

The crowd roared and even Healey laughed, but her answer turned the question back against Mihos and Patrick.

"You've got one idea, and Deval has none," Healey said.

Exchanges like those made Healey the winner of this debate. She was poised and prepared, but not all her arguments stuck.

"I don’t think people are excited about one party rule as you say, Patrick said. "What they’re excited about is leadership, and we haven’t had that for some time here in Massachusetts, and it shows."

Ultimately, Mihos couldn’t hide his bitterness toward Healey.

"I wish the Commonwealth had a recall petition like other states, because we would not have waited four years to take you and Mitt Romney out and undo the damage," Mihos stated.

And Ross couldn’t hide her frustration, saying, "I think I’m going to ask a question of the Lieutenant Governor, even though she doesn't seem to think I exist."

This was the Kerry Healey her supporters have waited to see. And if this were the Kerry Healey we'd all been seeing for weeks, we might be talking now about a close race. But we're not.

Healey did save her best for last, but I think next Tuesday we'll see it came too late to save her.

I'm Andy Hiller, and that’s my Instinct.

(Copyright (c) 2006 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)