Why won't Deval Patrick debate Healey one-on-one? I've been asking myself this question for a few days now, and it seems to me that if Deval Patrick was totally confident in himself, his candidacy and his positions, he'd be jumping at the chance to debate Kerry Healey one-on-one.

One might guess that Deval Patrick needs Christy Mihos and Grace Ross to help him attack Kerry Healey. With those two going on offense for him, he can sit back and smile and then give us his standard "message of hope" spiel that we've all gotten bored of. But, I think there's a lot more behind his cowardice than that. In fact, Deval Patrick's cowardice is very revealing.

We've speculated here that Deval Patrick's own internal polling tells him this race has become very close. He's become a totally different candidate. He's gotten angry and defensive. He's been attacking Healey's television ads, but has been mum on his own positions on the issues. . Such a debate would give him ample opportunity to tell us his positions on the issues in contrast to Healey's, but clearly he doesn't want to risk doing that, which means he probably knows just how close this race really is an doesn't want to lose even more ground.

He says this should be a campaign about issues, but he's running away from the best opportunity he has to debate those issues without distraction, which leaves me believing that he doesn't really want to talk about the issues, but rather make this campaign about Kerry Healey's television ads.

Kerry Healey may have been the first to call for debates with all four candidates, but that doesn't mean that Deval Patrick has any reason whatsoever to refuse a one-on-one debate with her anyways.Patrick's supporters ought to be very disappointed that he's refused to debate Healey one-on-one. After all, if he's so right on the issues, he should be advocating several one-on-one debates. But, this race has changed over the past couple weeks. His once commanding lead has been reduced to less than 10 points (according to Healey camp's internal polls) and voters have become aware that his "message of hope" rings hollow.

A debate between Patrick and Healey would be a great opportunity for him if he believes he's right on the issues.

So, what is Deval Patrick so afraid of?