Thursday evening I went to a forum for attorney general candidates that was hosted by former governor Bob Holden at Webster University. I had heard Harris and Donnelly speak at a previous forum (where Koster canceled because of a scheduling conflict). Since I’ve never heard Koster speak but have been told what an excellent speaker he is, I was curious to see how he would impress me.

But oops. He had another scheduling conflict. All I got of Koster was that one audience member asked Donnelly and Harris what they knew about him. I never heard either of them criticize the other all evening or the last time they spoke. They were less kind to Koster. Margaret, at least, was strictly Jack Webb in the information she offered. While Jeff added more facts to her answer, he couldn’t resist a humorous jab or two during the evening.

Both Harris and Donnelly are articulate speakers, not burdened with “umms” or “I thinks” or other distracting verbal quirks. What strikes you when they have a chance to talk in some detail about their goals is how focused they are on improving Missouri. Which is something there’s a lot of room for after the godawful governance we’ve had of recent years under Republicans.