Jon Ralston dissects the highs and lows of the first Titus, Gibbons debate

Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006 | 7:27 a.m.

Maybe Jim Gibbons slipped mercury into her pre-debate iced tea. Maybe Jim Gibson paid someone to play a cruel joke on her by altering her script. Or maybe, just maybe, Dina Titus can't be nice in the North.

In the first gubernatorial debate of the general election at UNR on Monday evening, state Sen. Titus had more fun (she said so), more specifics (she gave a lot) and more spark (by default, but she had plenty). Yet, she also had one of the most memorable and unexpected gaffes in Nevada debate annals - referring to UNR students as their Southern counterparts and then further infuriating the crowd by saying, "All you students seem the same to me."

No, this wasn't as egregious as a geopolitically impaired Gerald Ford freeing Eastern Europe or an ennui-afflicted Bush 41 looking at his watch. But this embarrassing moment, especially coming as it did among the first few words that left her mouth, could do to Titus what those other precious debate moments did to Ford and Bush.

Just as they cemented the perception of Ford as a clueless caretaker of the presidency and of Bush as a bored aristocrat for whom debating was a nuisance, Monday night's spectacular few seconds will reinforce Titus' image as a Southern partisan to the core.

How ironic that Rep. Gibbons, who has been pilloried as gaffe-prone (he was 10-to-1 more likely to commit a verbal misstep on the underground line, I understand), would have had a generally clean performance and his glib, witty opponent would begin with a clunker and spend the night digging out of the hole.

Gibbons actually had the most scintillating line of the night - albeit scripted - when he talked about Titus chanting about being the "e" governor (she has five words that begin with the letter she always invokes), but that she forgot a very important one: "You're expensive."

In fact, Gibbons efficiently managed to stay on that "she'll cost you money" line the entire hour, frequently referring to her record of supporting tax increases. To those who watched it - I am sure there were 20 or 30 people not affiliated with the campaigns who tuned in - he acquitted himself just fine, although in a platitudinous, sterile kind of way. And there was this one beaut when he wanted to come back to pounding Titus on the GOP wedge issue du jour, illegal immigration:

"There is also the issue of, the issue of, uh, excuse me, there is also the issue to, of whether or not, and I want to go back to this issue right now, I want to go back to the issue of the question about listening to the Hispanics when they ask for illeg - driver's licenses for illegal aliens."

But that remarkable circumlocution could not obscure Gibbons' pointed message of the night, and that was Titus' spending and taxing record as a legislator. Toward the end, Titus, attempting to point out Gibbons' record as a congressman, all but conceded the point.

"You can call me a tax and spender if you want to, but your approach is borrow and bankrupt," she said. Frankly, I don't think Gibbons was looking for permission, and I bet he says it again.

Soon.

The Titus venue gaffe and Gibbons' automatonlike message points obscured other interesting tidbits and themes from the encounter: Gibbons and his annoying hyping of the hollow Education First Initiative and even more annoying attempt - as he is doing in a misleading ad - to portray Titus as weak on illegal immigration. Or Titus saying that the only two times the Legislature really raised taxes were 1991 and 2003, which is kind of like saying the only two really bad wars between 1910 and 1950 were the two World Wars.

There was much more, but most of it will be lost in the hype over Titus frying herself with the Southern reference (coming to a television ad in Reno soon, no doubt) and Gibbons' taxing message (already on the airwaves).

It's not the content of the debates that matter. It's what can be exploited later on television.