First -- Does DeVos have a specific answer to Granholm 21st Century Job Plan ?...

Faced with undeniable unemployment figures, the Governor has deployed a tactic where she admits that there is a problem, but argues that her new plan will be effective and (in fact) is already diversifying Michigan's economy. Through the first two debates, DeVos has been noticeably silent on the effectiveness of this specific plan.

Second -- Who will benefit from the changes to the format ?...

Tonight's debate will use a town-hall style format. The Governor benefited greatly from the "no rules" format of debate # 1 (as it played to her strength as an extemporaneous speaker). The second debate was more structured -- and most pundits felt DeVos improved his performance. My hunch is that this format will play to the Governor's strengths.

Third -- How will DeVos react to the claim that his tax cuts stand to tradeoff with funding social services ?..

Granholm has been accused of being "soft on crime" and "weak on education". Her strategic "tack" on these issues has been to argue that DeVos' tax cuts will create deficit shortfalls that will functionally amount to less public funding for law enforcement, education, etc. DeVos needs to counter this claim more aggressively.

As the candidates broke format in the last debate (and began to cross-examine each other) the math behind DeVos' tax cut pledge emerged as one of the more animated themes of the evening. Expect this issue to creep into this evening's debate.

Additional feedback will be posted at the conclusion of this evening's debate.

Will Repko is the head debate coach at Michigan State University. He is widely recognized as one of the best debate judges in the country by the intercollegiate debate community and his teams have won the intercollegiate national debate championship (the National Debate Tournament) twice in the past three years (2004 & 2006).