…that when Ralph Abraham had an opportunity to ask a question to John Bel Edwards, it was patently obvious what that question should be. It wasn’t a question directly pertaining to the gubernatorial race but rather one which would force Edwards to tell the people of Louisiana who he really is.

You already know the question. It’s the obvious one. It’s “Gov. Edwards, your party has gone completely off the deep end this week and is now officially, actively attempting to impeach the President of the United States. We can have a debate about the particulars of the case, but the question I have for you is, are you on board with the idea of impeachment?”

No matter what Edwards’ response to that question is, he will throw off votes. If he says he’s for impeaching Donald Trump, then Trump is down in Louisiana next week campaigning for either Abraham or Eddie Rispone, or both – and Trump makes sure there’s lots of money available to beat John Bel Edwards. Which is going to happen, because Edwards then becomes, in the eyes of conservative and moderate Louisiana voters, the left-wing dolt we’ve been screaming he is for the last five years. Trump has nearly 60 percent approval in the state; trying to impeach him is the fastest way to losing an election there is.

If he says he’s not for impeaching Trump, it makes national news because here’s a Democrat governor who won’t back his party in its signature political play. The legacy national media then jumps on the fact that Edwards already signed a fetal heartbeat bill, and they now also have the Washington Times’ expose of Edwards’ family history and its connections with slavery and segregation – and at that point they dump him. They’ll have no choice. By doing that he probably throws off some black votes and will then struggle to get white leftists to turn out for him.

Which brings us to Edwards’ likely answer, which is that he hasn’t “studied” the issue and doesn’t have a position on it yet. That milquetoast answer will please absolutely no one, and opens up the attack that the Republican candidates should have been all over him with time and time again – namely, that he’s a lying liar who lies about everything. Nobody will believe Edwards doesn’t know enough about the single largest news story in American politics to form an opinion; he’ll just look slimy.

So that question is a major win.

What question did Abraham ask Edwards?

He read it, looking down at a sheet of paper to do so, and it started with something about Johnny Anderson and finished with something about some teacher from Georgia who might have sexually abused kids and lost his teaching certificate but got one in Louisiana because of Edwards’ appointees on the BESE board.

That nobody ever heard of.

Edwards said he never heard of it and didn’t know what Abraham was talking about. He was probably lying, but since nobody in the state had a clue what Abraham was talking about, it was plausible.

Abraham then said “Well, will you look into it, please?”

And Edwards told him of course he would, because he does his job unlike Ralph Abraham.

And just like that, the opportunity to nail this guy to the wall vanished, and instead Abraham got his rear end handed to him.

The debate was on the LPB stations around the state, which was a good thing because we can be assured nobody watched it. With respect to this debacle, the fewer the better.

And no, Rispone wasn’t any better.

An hour and a half before the debate the Washington Times expose’ came out and neither one of the candidates brought it up. As of this writing, 17 hours later, neither campaign has done so much as put out a press release or even share it on social media. Which is insane.

But last night both of them said they wouldn’t roll back Edwards’ Medicaid expansion.

You start to get the impression that neither one is actually all that bothered by Edwards as Louisiana’s governor. You’re conceding his signature “achievement” as governor, an orgy of waste and fraud which is certain to bankrupt the state, and then you’re not going to even comment on the fact that he’s literally a throwback to Louisiana’s awful history?

It’s good that the weekend is upon us, because here at the Hayride we need a break. Thank goodness there are no more debates coming up in the next few days.