Why is Winsome Earle-Sears so intent on doing a CNN gubernatorial debate?

Why is Winsome Earle-Sears itching to debate Abigail Spanberger on CNN, and not in front of a statewide TV audience?

Only one reason would make sense to me: Earle-Sears, the Republican nominee for governor down double-digits to the Democrat in the polls, is trying to set herself up for a career as a political commentator.

Why CNN? might be your first question. The obvious answer: one wouldn’t expect Spanberger to accept an invite from Fox News, would one?

MAGAs still think of CNN as the “Clinton News Network,” but it has long since lost that reputation among those in the center and on the left.

CNN, the cable-news giant of the 1980s and early 1990s, has been forever trying to play catchup to Fox since the Murdoch folks launched FNC in 1996, and in recent years, a succession of failed execs have efforted to pivot the network to the right, with predictable results.

It’s for that reason that they have Scott Jennings, a former vocal Trump critic who has recast himself as a throaty water-carrying MAGA, all over their prime time, which is why the center and left have stopped tuning in, because nobody outside of MAGA wants to hear the guy.

Problem for CNN there being, Fox News devotees will never trust CNN, and so, they’re not tuning in, either.

There’s a reason why CNN gets less than a fifth of the prime-time viewers that Fox gets, and even just about a half of what MSNBC gets.

I digress.

CNN isn’t the “Clinton News Network,” it isn’t left or center-left, but it’s not Fox, is the point to take home here.

If you’re Earle-Sears, and you see the writing on the wall, that you’re going to lose, and lose big, you’ve got to be thinking, what comes next?

Glenn Youngkin, the outgoing MAGA governor, somehow thinks he can be a player in the 2028 presidential race, which is already cray-cray on his part, and will become more so when his legacy is a massive Democratic statewide sweep on his way out the door.

Prediction: Youngkin doesn’t even make it to Iowa in 2028.

But at least he has somethjng to keep him occupied for the next three years – and a net worth in the $500 million range to soothe him once he hangs it up for good.

Earle-Sears is but a humble former small-business owner, meaning, she needs to be able to find something gainful in terms of post-public office employment, and you wouldn’t expect her to want to get back into the plumbing and appliance-repair business after having a taste of the big time.

A debate on a national cable-news network would effectively be an audition for Earle-Sears, maybe for a role on CNN, maybe for Fox News or one of its streaming channels, maybe for Newsmax or one of the numerous others on the far-right that have popped up in recent years.

But couldn’t a local-TV debate also be something of an audition? Yes, but with less in the way of production values, and far fewer people tuning in.

Even if CNN has 20 percent of the audience of Fox, it’s still getting 500,000 on average in prime time; a debate on local TV in Virginia is getting a tiny fraction of that.

A local-TV debate is almost not worth the effort, if you know you’re going to lose.

And so, the Earle-Sears team tried to lure Spanberger into a debate on CNN, while ducking everything else.

I like the Spanberger team resisting here; Abigail, as the heavy favorite, doesn’t need a debate.

Her side can’t just bide their time.