The McMahon-Blumenthal Debate

Tonight in Hartford, Linda McMahon and Richard Blumenthal met in the first televised debate of the Senate campaign. I watched the debate on TV and came away with several strong impressions. First, I thought both candidates were a bit defensive. Blumenthal seemed nervous and a bit flustered in the first two exchanges. When McMahon called Blumenthal's claim that she would consider lowering the minimum wage a lie, Blumenthal responded by repeating over and over again that she had indeed said it. It was as if he thought that if he repeated the claim often enough, it would turn out to be true. My impression was that he felt great concern at having his claim called a lie. for her part, McMahon seemed defensive about the goings on at the WWE, of which she was CEO. It would have sufficed had given her answer once and then she said that she was at the debate to talk about the people's business not the WWE and that she wanted Connecticut voters to understand where she would be going in the future not where her business had been in the past.

There were also moments where Blumenthal seemed flustered. Perhaps the worst moment came when the candidates got to ask each other questions. When McMahon asked Blumenthal how do you create a job, Blumenthal seemed at a loss for an answer. In that moment, his years as a state official gave him no insight on which he could call to discuss the simple matter of generating a job.

In general, anyone watching the debate now knows for sure that McMahon has no experience in government and Blumenthal has only experience in government. They know that Blumenthal wants to pass a middle class tax cut without holding it up by seeking tax cuts for the wealthy as well, while McMahon does not want to raise taxes on anyone during this economic downturn. They know that Blumenthal wants the government involved in directing resources towards certain small businesses in the hopes of creating jobs, while McMahon is in favor of lowering corporate tax rates to more competative levels so that all companies could hire more workers. They know that both candidates support the death penalty. They know that Blumenthal strongly supports the war on terror but wants to be sure that the USA starts pulling out of Afghanistan as scheduled while McMahon said that the current military and political strategies with regard to Afghanistan seem confused and at cross purposes. Lastly, they know that McMahon wants to repeal Obamacare while Blumenthal wants to expand it to make it better.

There are always questions after a debate as to who won and who lost. the clearest winner in this debate were the viewers who actually got to see these folks talk about their positions rather than just hearing TV commercials for thirty seconds or a minute. Beyond that, I think that the winner on the whole was McMahon. Blumenthal came across as a sometimes nervous long-time public official who thinks that government action is the answer to every question. Blumenthal also tried mightily to make the debate about the WWE and McMahon's dealings there, but most of those attacks fell flat in my opinion; they were more like diversions from the real issues than items that anyone but the most partisan Democrats would care about.

It will be interesting to see how the debate affects the polls (if indeed it does).