I got a chance to watch the televised debate between Christine O\u2019Donnell and Chris Coons.\u00a0 Based on the media records one would think that Ms. O\u2019Donnell tanked.\u00a0 But after watching the actual debate, I am no so sure that is the case.\u00a0 The truth is that she did not need to win the debate; she just needed to show that she is capable of handling herself.\u00a0 That, she did very well.\u00a0 In fact the pressure was on Coons, who was widely expected to wipe the floor with this dimwitted lightweight.\u00a0 That is far from what happened.\u00a0 She more than held her own and actually scored some serious blows.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Obviously the Lying was Chris Coons.\u00a0 He tried to pass himself off as a mainstream conservative, which is ridiculous.\u00a0 The Witch, of course was the infamous Ms. O\u2019Donnell.\u00a0 The Warthog was the ubiquitous Wolf Blitzer.\u00a0 For example, Mr. Blitzer asked her if she believed in evolution, with is effete sneer as if anyone who didn\u2019t believe in evolution was intellectually incapable of running for public office.\u00a0 I wish she had responded with a very sharp retort:\u00a0 Why are you asking me that question.\u00a0 Do you feel that believing in evolution is a requirement for political office?\u00a0 But she still gave a good answer.\u00a0 She said that her personal views on that subject were irrelevant, what was relevant is that she thought local schools should have the right to decide what is taught in their schools.\u00a0 If they want to teach intelligent design as well as evolution they should have the right to decide that for themselves.\u00a0 Then she turned around and said that her catholic views were more in line with the majority of the American people than Coons Marxists views.\u00a0 She then asked why the media asked her about the \u201cwitch\u201d comments when they ignored his essay on why he was a bearded Marxist.\u00a0 He tried to deflect that by saying it was written as a joke he wrote about while in college.\u00a0 She then pointed out that regardless of whether or not that was really written as a joke, his political philosophy was consistent with Marxism and gave several good examples.<\/p>\n
\u00a0She also hammered him on Afghanistan.\u00a0 She pointed out that he can\u2019t say he supports the troops and then want a specific withdraw date that hurts the mission.\u00a0 She also scored good points on the teacher payment issue.\u00a0 She said:\u00a0 of course he supports the teacher\u2019s union\u2019s position, since\u00a0they are paying for his campaign.\u00a0 She was surprised when they asked her which Supreme Court justice she would not have supported and she didn\u2019t have a quick answer.\u00a0 But she did respond that the real issue with Roe vs Wade was that she felt it took away the right of States to decide on that issue for themselves.<\/p>\n
She was poised and appeared competent.\u00a0 That alone may have a major impact on this race, because the media wanted to expose her as incompetent.\u00a0 She at least held her own, if not better.\u00a0 The bias in the questions by the moderators was disgusting.\u00a0 One question was whether she supported the constitution as it was originally written or as it is being interpreted now.\u00a0 Clearly this was asked to allow Coons to give his standard pro-choice speech.\u00a0 All in all it was entertaining and she did much better than I expected.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The polls show her down by 19 points and a lot of people have written her off as a lost cause.\u00a0 But, President Obama scheduled a trip to Delaware to campaign for Coons.\u00a0 First, any candidate who campaigns with Obama tends to lose.\u00a0 Second, it is hard to imagine Obama making this trip if they thought this race was over.\u00a0 I suspect it is much closer than the main stream media is admitting.\u00a0 Third, she has a ton of money and she obviously has some brilliant people running her campaign.\u00a0 Her latest ad referring to Coons as the tax man is very effective.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0No predictions on this one, but I wouldn\u2019t be shocked if she came back to make this competitive and possible pull off a dark horse win.\u00a0 She was way behind Mike Castle until the tea party express stepped in at the last minute with some hard hitting ads.\u00a0 They have now done this on several occasions with spectacular results.\u00a0 Joe Miller was down by double digits the week before the Alaska primary.\u00a0 The tea party express moved in with some heavy media buys and some great ads and Miller won easily.\u00a0 Delaware is a lot like Alaska in that it is a small state and it is easier to buy a lot of effective local media.\u00a0 This is a weird election cycle and all the momentum nationwide is at the Republicans backs.\u00a0 I think O\u2019Donnell proved she is far from the dingbat portrayed in the media and when you combine that with a lot of money and some really good ads, anything could happen.<\/p>\n
\u00a0One thing is certain, if she does pull it off, Democrats hope for control the Senate are probably close to zero.<\/p>\n
\u00a0TDM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I got a chance to watch the televised debate between Christine O\u2019Donnell and Chris Coons.\u00a0 Based on the media records one would think that Ms. O\u2019Donnell tanked.\u00a0 But after watching the actual debate, I am no so sure that is … Continue reading