So, there they were, Thursday night on OETA, public television.
It was Democrat Cyndi Munson and Republican Mike Mazzei vying to become Oklahoma’s next governor, the past-is-prologue, long-shot underdog Munson getting her only chance to go toe-to-toe with Mazzei, making it the thus-far most important day of her campaign by a wide margin.
Because Mazzei couldn’t begin to miss Donald Trump’s rally in Durant, happening opposite the debate’s airing, he and Munson tangled earlier in the day only for it to be aired hours later.
So there they were when Mazzei was asked first about “73 rural hospitals,” 45 of them “financially vulnerable according to a recent report,” 18 of which “are at immediate risk of closure,” while at the same time state health care agencies “are facing significant budget shortfalls.”
What’s a new governor to do?
Mazzei tried to use the long-ago car wreck he’d previously offered as an excuse to miss vote after vote in the state legislature to lend credibility toward his claim of taking health care seriously.
Nonetheless, he mentioned no hospitals, rural or not rural, in Oklahoma or otherwise, to answer the question.
“The first thing we have to address with health care is the waste, fraud and abuse that’s in the current system,” Mazzei said. “There was an audit done several years ago that discovered $1.6 billion of questionable expenses in SoonerCare every year and, unfortunately, nothing was ever done about that.”
After which, Munson took a crack at the same question.
“It’s devastating to see what’s happening across our state,” she said. “As I’ve traveled to every corner of the state of Oklahoma, talking to rural hospital administrators, visiting our hospitals, listening to the chaos and the destabilization that continues … when it comes to healthcare funding.
“That’s why I have stood up and fought for protecting Medicaid expansion in Oklahoma, to ensure that Oklahomans not only have health insurance, but that our hospitals stay whole, that those services are there for you when you need them the most.”
Pretty much the whole debate went like that.
Whether going first or last, Mazzei gave asinine answers that were only sometimes in the same area code as the query, rarely adding up to what he might do, or not do, as governor.
Meanwhile, Munson offered far better answers, tending to be more responsive to the actual question, rooted in facts, the real world and what she very much hopes to do as governor.
In so doing, she won the debate.
Also, in so doing, she blew it.
As she gave the answer already recounted, all I could think was, yes, she’s talked to everybody and she’s been to the hospitals and I really, really, really hope she banked tens and tens and tens of thousands of votes on those visits because she could not have banked many with her polite answers.
For instance, do you know the $1.6 billion about which Mazzei rants?
Let me tell you about it.
In 2020 there was indeed a state audit of SoonerCare, revealing $1.6 billion had been paid to individuals whose eligibility had not been verified. Yet, all that means is the state couldn’t verify each recipient, proving no fraud at all.
Check state auditor Cindy Byrd’s report right here if you don’t believe me.
And, if Mike Mazzei spent even the three or four minutes it took me to know that, he’d know that, too. He’s certainly had the time, the talking point part of his campaign platform since March 11.
It’s fool’s gold and he knows it.
He just doesn’t care.
All it means is he’s made the calculation lying about it, taking it utterly out of context, helps him become our next governor.
You know who must know, or ought to know, all that, too?
Cyndy Munson, that’s who.
It’s why I don’t understand why her answer could not have been this instead.
“You know Mike, every time you bring up that figure, that $1.6 billion figure, not only are you lying to every single Oklahoman, but you know you’re lying to every single Oklahoman. Both of us know all that figure means is the system wasn’t capable of verifying every Oklahoman in it, thereby proving no fraud at all. Yet, here you are threatening the health care of hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans because the last people you’re working for are Oklahomans who can’t afford your policies, who are all of us.
“Now that I think about it, given you’ve not said one word about securing health care for rural Oklahomans, who are right now watching their hospitals shrivel and die after 16 years of Republican rule, I guess you’re fine with Oklahomans dying on your watch, because that’s what’s going to happen while you prattle on about waste, fraud and abuse.
“I guess you’re fine, Mike, with your fellow Oklahomans’ blood on your hands.”
True, it must be easier to bury your opponent with an in-real-time, quick-on-your-feet retort about a complex issue, setting the record straight, creating buzz, demanding future media coverage, maybe drawing national attention, maybe resetting your entire campaign on a keyboard rather than the stage.
But Munson’s had every day since Mazzei became the Republican nominee to have answers ready when he lies to the very voters he’s counting on to win.
It’s a tall order, but that’s what Munson had to do.
Not win the moment so much as get herself on television telling the most compelling truth about her literally dangerous opponent.
Not answer the questions as given so much as attack Mazzei for being everything he is, in advance of doing everything he’s bound to do.
It’s true, Munson called Mazzei “corrupt” in her opening statement, only to spend virtually no time driving home the point the rest of the debate.
And if she had to whiff on health care, did she have to whiff on every other chance to go after Mazzei with the precision and outrage he’s earned.
Instead, Munson appeared fine with answers she knew to be true and right, defining herself with each. Except the assignment was to not only define herself, but Mazzei, too, who gives not a shit about doing the job, only getting it.
Of course, she’d make the best governor.
Also, victory appears more distant.
So …
Hey Gentner Drummond.
Hey Robert Franklin.
I’ve asked before.
Oklahoma could really use a profile in courage right now.
Maybe show up for your state?
It, and Cyndy Munson, needs you.