I watched the so-called Kentucky governor's race debate this morning sponsored by the Paducah Chamber of Commerce on WPSD-TV's 6-2 station. This is a great use for that station, and kudos to WPSD for doing that.

I call it a "partial" debate, because one of the candidates didn't appear. Um, not just one of the candidates - THE candidate - the incumbent governor himself, Steve Beshear, democrat, who is running for re-election. The other two candidates are republican state senate president, David Williams and independent Gatewood Galbraith. These two were here in Paducah today and participated in the debate.

Beshear just appeared in a televised debate earlier this week on public television with the other two candidates, and he has made a couple appearances, such as at Fancy Farm, where the other candidates were present. But he's avoided making too many public appearances with them. And why should he, his campaign staff might be asking - he's 26% ahead in recent polls.

Personally, I think that it is a mistake for him not to have come to Paducah for this event. He's good in person, and more than holds his own against Williams and Galbraith. I know that he has lots of things to do, but his failure to appear comes off as a snub - an unnecessary one. No doubt the election is Beshear's to lose, and he probably won't. But, he missed an opportunity to really pile on the mandate.

To the debate, I have to say that I really admired Galbraith's preformance. You have to understand that the Paducah Chamber audience would be a right of center audience, pro-nuclear in support of the gaseous diffusion plant. Yet Galbraith did not try to coddle or play mushy politics with issues such as allowing nuclear power plants in Kentucky, legalization of cannabis, and strong union support. He also spoke out strongly against the influence of money in politics, and pledged to root out corruption and reduce money's influence. Whether or not he could do it, I'm not sure, but I really think he would try.

The debate was moderated by retired Paducah Sun political writer, Bill Bartleman. I've written of him before. Also, there was a panel of local journalists, including Donna Groves, who I wrote about recently after her appearance on "Comment on Kentucky," Todd Faulkner, local anchor of certain news broadcasts on WPSD, and a young woman named Mallory Panuska. I'm not sure where she was from - probably Kentucky Star, which was also co-sponsoring the event.

They asked the questions you would expect, and some of them were good. But they didn't ask anything really tough. For example, I would have asked Williams about the $10s of thousands of dollars in gambling losses that he suffered in out-of- state casinos (which came out in court filings in his divorce), at the same time that he was dragging his feet in supporting Beshear's attempt to get gambling legalized in Kentucky. (Not that I'm for that, just stating the facts).

I think that shows such a flaw in character that it deserved a question. However, the news folks were too squeamish to ask him about it. I have to take at least 10 points from their grade right off the bat for letting that slide.

I don't even live in Kentucky, and can't vote for Governor. But I think, even though I know that Beshear is going to win short some terrible thing that we can't imagine coming out about him, that I would endorse Galbraith (for what it's worth) for governor. He comes closer to my thinking on more things than the other candidates, although I don't agree with him on everything. I'm glad he is in the race, and it would be great if he could get more votes than Williams.