I've posted a couple of links at Facebook about the debate, or you can watch it yourself at http://www.ums.udel.edu/podcast/watch?c=338
My quick take, since my son is home from college for a short visit and I want to spend my energy visiting with him:
Wolf Blitzer was so obviously biased in Coons' favor as the moderator that he should be embarrassed. Chris Coons came across as petulant, irritable and defensive - never a good thing for the presumed leader in the race. O'Donnell was upbeat, solid on her facts and positions. IMNSHO, she won the debate hands down.
A lot of noise is being made about her flubbing on a question about recent Supreme Court decisions, but only a part of that is being explained. The question came out of left field from Blitzer, during the part of the debate set aside for UD student questions. And, he considered the 1972 Roe v Wade decision to be 'recent'. She thought he meant within the past few years, especially since it was a setup for Coons to once again recite the Democratic line about the Citizens United case.
Coons quoted President Obama on that case, which I have always found disingenuous. Obama complains that money can be funneled to candidates anonymously, and says that is terrible Apparently he has forgotten the MILLIONS of dollars of campaign donations he received from donors named 'Mickey Mouse' and other Disney character names.
O'Donnell said that donors to her campaign are being harassed due to the requirement for disclosure. Her supporters are getting threatening phone calls, and Blitzer just shut her down when she was saying it was due to the current law.
O'Donnell is far enough down in the polls right now that she had nothing to lose. Coons lost ground, and looked like the political hack he is. He kept saying he had much to say, but he never said it. One of his last lines was in reference to an old article he wrote calling himself a "bearded Marxist". He said, "I am a clean-shaven Capitalist". Anytime the presumed leader has to end with that kind of defensive comment, he is losing ground.
Less than 3 weeks until election day - but I think the campaign direction is clearly in O'Donnell's favor. The question is, will 19 days be enough time to turn this around? If you can help in any way, please do! Prayers, literature drops, donations, phone calls; it all adds up, and there is something each of us can do.
I went to the offices of WHYY in Wilmington yesterday to see and hear the debate between Christine O'Donnell and Chris Coons. For those of you who wish to get more information and decide for yourself I invite you to see it on WHYY. I believe it will be broadcast 3 or 4 times over the weekend and streams live at the WHYY web site. This debate was well run, an hour long and the candidates positions are well articulated on both sides. I hope you get as much from it as I did.
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