"The people in Maidan joined with a revolution of the soul. I agree with them. I am with them."
- Victor Yanukovych of the massive protests against the fraudulent vote that elected him President
Monday evening at seven, Yushchenko and Yanukovych faced off in their second debate of the election. According to the laugh-o-meter at the bar we watched it from: Yanukovych made a fool of himself.
[update: appears we had an accurate laugh-o-meter, 73% of watchers in this poll said Yushchenko came out looking better.]
Rushing to the bar at the last minute, Lesya and I were both shocked at how empty the center of the city was. We hitched a ride from one of the few passing cars, and found the driver was watching the election on a dash-mounted TV. The bar itself was full of people that all left after the debates ended. Turns out we were joining half the population of Ukraine in watching this debate.
How many countries can say that about a debate, especially one in which the outcome of the election seems pretty clear, and neither of the candidates is known for his debating abilities? Hats off to the Ukrainian people.
As for the subject of the debate, it almost seemed as if the participants were skipping.
"In the city of Mykolayev, (in central Ukraine, but with a pro-Yanukovych mayor), 70% of the population voted from home. What is going on here? A half-million votes in Donetsk [a city of three million] were cast during the 8pm closing. You had every opportunity to prevent this from happening, why didn't you?" asked Yushchenko three times.
"Are you, Viktor Andreyevich, ready to join with me in conducting government reform to ensure that the vote is fair?" asked Yanukovych at least four times.
Neither of the two candidates really answered the other's question, though Yushchenko did offer to campaign across east and west in tandem with Yanukovych. His frequent statements such as this one may explain his lack of eagerness for union:
"You believe in God, right? God says: don't steal. When you stole 3 million votes it was theft like that prohibited in the Ten Commandments. You could have stopped it. Instead the Supreme Court had to overturn the election fraud. Now not even the President can overturn the Supreme Court's decision.
Yanukovych the Opposition Candidate
"We saw the Kuchma government join with the Orange against Ukraine and the nation in depriving people of their right to vote," said Yanukovych in his opening comments. During the debate, he repeatedly attempted to link Yushchenko to Kuchma. "You were with the government against me. All the things that have happened against me have not just happened by chance. You and Kuchma knew," he said. At another point Yanukovych asked Yushchenko to just stop consulting with Kuchma over his decisions.
Of course you have to have a pretty ridiculous case and argue it poorly to lose a debate to a banker, but Yanukovych responded gamefully. His opposition-like posturing was such an enormous target even Yushchenko had no problem shooting it out of the water.
"I was surprised at you last comments," responded Yushchenko to the first instance of this argument. "I mean, after all you're Kuchma 3; haven't you heard the old saying: 'don't spit in the well you drink from'?" Again later he said, "I didn't want to bring up this question, but now it appears we have a new opposition candidate. My question is: who do you oppose? Kuchma who still refuses to fire you? Kuchma Mevedchuk, and Surkis who all supported you as a candidate? They were your supporters, but now, ten days later, you're in the opposition?
Hard Numbers and Softballs
As usual, Yushchenko seemed most comfortable when breaking down the numbers concerning Yanukovych's time as prime minister. He criticized Yanukovych for the below-market-rate KryvirizhStal privatization to Pinchuk. He asked if Yanukovych could explain how, during his premiership, the government mandated balanced budget of Yushchenko's own premiership had become a twelve million dollar deficit. He contrasted the high growth GDP figures with the minute (2%) fraction going to the budget and from there to "bread and butter" issues Yanukovych said he supported.
When Yushchenko strayed away from economics, all he was throwing was softballs, so it's amazing Yanukovych whiffed most of them. Yushchenko briefly commented on Mrs. Yanukovych's odd diatribe against American-bought valyenki and poisoned oranges, but Lesya and I couldn't figure out what he was driving at. Yanukovych responded that the jokes about his wife were going to make him cry, and his friends consoled him by saying "at least our President won't' be ruled by his wife." I assume this is because she is too loopy to have any influence, whereas Yushchenko's wife is rational enough someone might listen to her, and is therefore in control.
"Are you ready to apologize to the ten million active opposition supporters for calling them 'goats'?" asked Yuschenko. "I mean, maybe you could say they're only ten million, but they're still Ukrainians." [calling someone a ?goat' in Ukrainian is an insult I've heard compared to calling someone a swine or pig in English]
"I called them goats in the biblical sense, in the sense of betrayers," answered Yanukovych, which made Yushchenko laugh, our whole bar laugh, and even Yanukovych chuckled a bit. Riiiiight.
Some of Yanukovych's tactics were downright farcical. "Before an icon I am willing to promise not to touch personal questions, like your time at the head of the NBU." I take it as a welcome sign that in a part of the world in which business dealings are so shrouded, Yanukovych's tactics are at least highly transparent.
In addition, Yanukovych chewed through extra time on two occasions. This went sufficiently over time that the announcer told Yushchenko he could ask Yanukovych questions, but Yanukovych would not have any time to answer unless Yushchenko gave him some of his own time. Yushchenko was so perplexed by this he appealed to the audience before pushing on again.
A Couple More Advantage-Yushchenkos
Though Yushchenko is a mediocre debater at best, he was at best. He looked quite a bit healthier than in the last debate. He only infrequently had to pause to cough or take a drink of water, and never had to raise a handkerchief to his mouth to daub away spit, like last time. His color was much improved.
My favorite Yushchenko dig was part of his line of argumentation describing Yanukovych as inconsistent. "You change so quickly I can't follow you," he said, "When you talk about how much you are for freedom of speech, do you know that in Donetsk and Luhansk there is no Channel 5, and that now even 1+1 is getting turned off. Do you want 48 million people to only be able to watch channels you control? People should know that in Donetsk, Ukrainians couldn't even watch Klitchko's fight, because he wore an orange ribbon for it."
Yanukovych helped Yushchenko immensely by acting like a man who'd already lost, and a very sore loser at that: "You planned everything beforehand. You betrayed all the people who voted for me. So if you think you can win and become President, know you will only be President of a part; that's why I wanted to join with you. I have no personal ambitions in this; I have done all this for peace and stability, and against bloodshed."
In contrast, at the end Yushchenko repeated his question about whether secession was worthwhile. He talked about visiting the graves of those who had fought for unity. He talked about having unity be his New Year's present. He assured easterners that there will be no persecution of Russian-speaking schools, nor will the east or Crimea be isolated, nor the Russians in Sevastopol, nor will Russian-speaking churches be closed; "to all the fair people in Ukraine, peace on all your houses."
Yanukovych Gets the Last Word
Yushchenko finished off the debate this time, but I'm going to give Yanukovych the last word. It will help explain why the audience in my bar reacted to him with the kind of groans and barks of laughter usually employed by the audiences at racy daytime talk shows.
This is from his closing speech, (as best Lesya and I could reconstruct it):
"Let's
look at this thing from a new angle. We'll look at the Ukrainian people
from another angle. I don't blame those who when to Maidan to express
their anger of many years with questions. I also had questions, I
didn't agree, so I came to the government to influence the direction of
the nation. When I was there the government saw stability, we worked as
hard as we could... But you had a chance to change it and you didn't."
"That's why I offered to join our efforts, and I think you'll think about it."