Christine O'Donnell debate: Did anybody win?
She was poised and articulate. Her opponent showed mastery of policy. Here are three questions voters might ask after the Christine O'Donnell debate against Chris Coons in Delaware.
Democratic candidate Chris Coons and Republican candidate Christine O' Donnell shake hands after a televised Delaware Senate debate at the University of Delaware in Newark, Del., Wednesday, Oct. 13.
Rob Carr/AP Photo/Pool
Delaware GOP Senate hopeful Christine O鈥橠onnell faced off against her opponent, Democrat Chris Coons, in a nationally televised debate Wednesday night. It was a big moment on a big stage for someone whose first general election television ad opened with her saying, 鈥淚 am not a witch.鈥�
So, how did she do?
Well, Ms. O鈥橠onnell definitely did not turn into a pumpkin, if you鈥檒l allow a little mixing of metaphors. She was poised, articulate, and rattled off her talking points like a pro. In that sense, she surpassed expectations.
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But Mr. Coons was no slouch either. Coons, New Castle County executive, at times delved so deeply into policy detail that he sounded as if he was on stage at a Brookings Institution seminar. If nothing else, the Delaware Senate debate will probably be the only time CNN has ever broadcast live a discussion of Delaware county bond ratings.
That said, the debate featured lots of fire and brimstone. Coons went after O鈥橠onnell in his opening statement, saying some of her policy positions are 鈥渆xtreme鈥� for Delaware. O鈥橠onnell returned the sentiment, saying of her opponent, 鈥渋f you鈥檝e ever questioned whether America is a beacon of freedom and justice, then he鈥檚 your guy.鈥�
Delaware voters will be the ones to determine the debate鈥檚 outcome. Polls have shown Coons about 20 percentage points ahead, so O鈥橠onnell must shake things up if she's to make the race more competitive. That said, here are three questions the debate as a whole raised:
Was it too harsh? Conventional wisdom holds that the candidate who comes across as more likeable wins point in a first debate. Both tried to smile 鈥� and O鈥橠onnell in particular, a former talk-show regular, appeared comfortable in the setting. But smiles soon faded, and both candidates had moments when they seemed querulous. Nobody won the congeniality contest.
O鈥橠onnell at one point said, 鈥渕ore people support my Catholic faith than his Marxist beliefs.鈥� Coons at another point said of O鈥橠onnell that she had launched into 鈥渁 diatribe.鈥�
Whose theme won? Conventional political wisdom also holds that the candidate who establishes a theme and then refers back to it in answers (no matter what the questions are) succeeds better than one who is all over the place. Coons seemed to be running with the 鈥渆xtreme鈥� thing, and did his best to draw distinctions between himself O鈥橠onnell on such issues as abortion and the teaching of evolution. (On the latter point, O鈥橠onnell favors allowing local schools to teach creationism as a valid alternative to evolution, in case you were wondering.)
O鈥橠onnell鈥檚 theme may have been 鈥渢ax man.鈥� That鈥檚 what she calls Coons in an attack ad she鈥檚 put up on the Web. Early on, she charged that the election of Coons to the Senate would cost individual Delaware voters $10,000 right off. She kept repeating the word 鈥渢ax鈥� at virtually every opportunity. We鈥檒l bet that was on the short list of her talking points.
Will any slip grow into a gaffe? Game-changing debate gaffes aren鈥檛 always apparent right off. Sometimes, it takes the echo chamber of subsequent media coverage to enlarge a misstatement in voters鈥� minds.
Did O鈥橠onnell err by appearing to flub an answer about which recent Supreme Court decisions she would disagree with? Some of her critics have seized on that as evidence confirming that she is a lightweight.
Did Coons make a mistake by saying 鈥淲olf, there鈥檚 so much to talk about there鈥� after almost every O鈥橠onnell answer? After the first two times, some might have found that an annoying tic, akin to Al Gore鈥檚 eye-rolling during a 2000 debate with George W. Bush.
Here's one final bonus question: Will Wolf Blitzer ever get an interview with Christine O鈥橠onnell? During the debate O鈥橠onnell noted that the CNN anchor and debate co-host had been pestering her for a sit-down chat. So far, the stage at the University of Delaware is the closest Mr. Blitzer has come to this goal.