It was a pleasant enough night at Tel Hei, up in Honey Brook. The audience was reasonably receptive in what was to be the final forum for county-wide candidates.

It was, though, at times a bit like falling through Alice’s looking glass. First, only Val DiGiorgio and Mimi Sack showed up for the GOP, while all five Democrats attended. Sack, of whom virtually no one has anything unpleasant to say was her usual polite, civil self.

DiGiorgio — clearly rattled by mailers sent out by his opponent, Jim Reilly, went on the attack, trying to defend the both his lack of fiscal training and experience as well as the county’s giant debt load. That was to be expected. But then DiGiorgio dropped this bombshell:

All of our current economic problems have been caused by President Obama and the Democrats. When he said that, I really began wondering whether it was Val who took a shot to the head Monday night instead of Brian Westbrook.

You can agree or disagree with the decisions Barack Obama has made since coming to the White House, certainly, but you have be either, A: a lying weasel, or B: an incompetent buffoon to suggest that the current economic situation is the fault of the current president. You can’t even blame him for most of the current deficit: when G.W. Bush took office on Jan. 20, 2001, we had a budget surplus. SURPLUS. The first one in a generation. When he left office? That surplus turned into more than a trillion dollar deficit. By the end of this year, the final fiscal year planned and budgeted by the Bush Administration, the deficit is projected to jump to $1.4 trillion.

Just for those of you keeping score at home: the deficit jumped about $200 million a year the last three years of the Bush Administration. And yet, according to DiGiorgio’s math, this crazy spending is all Obama’s fault.

DiGiorgio’s comments are a lot like someone complaining about someone else forgetting to use a drink coaster, just after driving a tank through your living room.

And this is the guy that you want watching the finances of Chester County? Either his math skills are so poor that he wouldn’t pass the fifth grade competency tests or he’s such a partisan that he blithely ignores the facts.

Either way, it’s kind of embarrassing. Can’t we do better?

* * *

Frank McElwaine’s decision not to show up at Tel Hei continues his “Let ‘em eat cake” campaign of ignoring the voters’ desire to know more about him. No Website. No real claim to be able manage the office, other than sitting behind a desk for 34 years working with Big Oil. And he just doesn’t show up at the final forum of the campaign season.

“I can’t believe he didn’t bother to show up,” one Tel Hei resident said to me afterward. “Doesn’t he care what we think? Or does he think we just have to vote for him just because he’s a Republican? Well, I can tell you, I’m not. And a lot of people here aren’t either. Maybe that will get their attention.”

Words are nice, but they really don’t mean much of anything. Actions are what count and McElwaine’s actions have indicated he’ll be little more than a disconnected, no-show if elected. And don’t get me started on his tight relationship with Chester County ACTION — you know, the folks who claim Waterboarding is just “good clean fun” and want to teach creationism in the schools.

Can’t we do better?