Fenty, Gray Match Drowned Out by Earl

Credit The Washington Post for hosting a serious, televised Mayoral debate Wednesday between incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty and challenger D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray at downtown's Newseum. 

The Post was trying to do the right thing.  Its Metro reporters Mike DeBonis, Nikita Stewart, Bill Turque, Ann Marimow and Tim Craig are excellent -- and host Eugene Robinson, former Metro reporter himself, brought national profile to the event. But they all got shot down, literally, by the Discovery Channel hostage-taking and Hurricane Earl, which dominated the evening news.

Mayor Fenty did a very good job articulating his accomplishments at the afternoon debate. He pointed to several major steps forward as a result of his personal determination to advance the city and its people -- as well as the painful reality of getting things done in a huge bureaucracy.

Dramatically, his lovely wife Michelle faced the cameras and broke down in tears, saying the voters have misunderstood her husband, and she will now play a higher profile role in the campaign to let them know about the man her husband truly is.

Gray, meanwhile, turned in a solid performance. He should not have laughed at the Mayor's answers, even if some of them seemed simplistic or suspect. Gray's laughter could be construed as arrogance, a trait voters have clearly rejected in this campaign. Yet Gray's crisp, factual answers demonstrated a command of the facts and the requisite confidence to lead a sophisticated, diverse constituency with competence, fairness, and humanity.

Perhaps Michelle Fenty, the Mayor's charming wife, can turn things around before the election in two weeks, muting the anger so many black women feel towards her husband. Maybe the Mayor's hefty campaign warchest can fund a communications effort that reverses the tide and helps voters see things his way. 

New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was famously able to turn calamity into credit from voters. Between now and election day, D.C.'s contenders, at least, have a hurricane named "Earl."