An Opening for Roger Roth

Wisconsin Public Radio had interview segments with Reid Ribble and Terri McCormick, both of whom are GOP candidates running for Wisconsin's 8th congressional district which is currently held by Democrat Steve Kagen.

Certainly there were some listeners for whom this was their first exposure to these candidates, including some folks right here in NE Wisconsin. Unfortunately, I'm not sure either of them had an outstanding performance. Part of this had to do with the format, Joy Cardin's questions were more akin to discussion prompts, often ending in "talk a bit about that," than actual questions requiring a response. Also, some of the questions from the callers were slightly off topic or rambling, but I guess that's just part of electoral politics.

My advice to both Ribble and McCormick would be to develop and polish a short but memorable pitch for yourself. A big part of what you should be doing is making an impression on voters, and a good pitch is what you need to do that. Save the longer more in-depth discussions for debates and forums where the audience has their attention fixed.

So why is this an opening for Roger Roth? He'll be on tomorrow morning and has a chance to distinguish himself.

You can listen to the interviews at this link.