The statewide Texas Press call is going out for Gubernatorial candidate debates, with the perfunctory claims laid to high-minded democratic ideals, and the Media impetus being placed on Governor Rick Perry to acquiesce to the field's demand for heads-up oratory action.

Perry Campaign Spokesman Robert Black summed it up concisely and accurately when he said, "It's way too premature to talk about debates. (Comptroller and leading [though still distant] challenger Carole Keeton Strayhorn) is not even on the ballot."

(Editor's Note: Nor is fellow challenger, and third in the polls, Kinky Friedman.)

Enough said. Or at least it should be.

And this is the point of this little journalistic exercise. Were the Austin Press Corps at all professional, and thereby impartial, they would not take Madame Comptoller's request for debates to the Governor, or seriously, unless and until she is actually a member of the race. This Press preemptive strike for these tete-a-tetes is geared to assist any and everyone seeking to unseat their Public Offical Enemy #1, the incumbent Governor.

As stated in one of the aforementioned siren song stories, it is always the electoral underdog(s) that seek to debate in the hopes of scoring points and gaining ground on the favorite. The leader procures nothing in offering his trailing opposition a chance to nip at his heels in the presence of a moderator.

This is not to say that debates should not or will not transpire, nor that the Governor is at all apprehensive to so engage (for whom, amongst this field, is there to fear?), it is merely an inherent reality of every political campaign.

Would You Want to Stop to Debate People Not Yet Even On the Track?

All this being said, we are quite sure Governor Perry will participate in a, or several, debates before the November election. But it is certainly not too much for him to ask that his debate adversaries be actual electoral adversaries in the effort to next man the Mansion.

The Media, in toto, calling for disputations before the two "leading" opponents, neither of whom are in his Party primary, even fit the bill, is more than a bit premature. But anything to help the cause of ousting their celebre is in play, logic, calanderial and ballotary considerations to the contrary notwithstanding.