The first Senate debate on Meet the Press featured Congressman Mark Udall and ex-Congressman Bob Schaffer this morning. I have earlier written about the ad-wars here, where Udall is repeatedly called "Boulder liberal Mark Udall" while Schaffer is labeled "Big Oil Bob Schaffer."
Schaffer was more aggressive, and had a list of talking points/Udall's votes, which he referred to once or twice (the list, I mean). He even read off the actual language of a law once - I think it was about amendments to a bill that would have put more regulations on Freddie Mae/Fannie Mac (Udall voted for the overall bill, apparently, but not specific amendments).
Udall was initially soporific, even as Schaffer kept blaming Udall and Congressional Democrats for the state of affairs today. Tom Brokaw had to step in once to point out to Schaffer that Republicans were in-charge for much of the past eight years.
Schaffer also said "we have to debate these issues but Udall has been avoiding them" or something like that, to which Udall said they have had 9 debates. [I haven't seen any of them, unfortunately - wonder if they were on My20 or another local channel.]
Thankfully, Udall finally perked up when Schaffer said he (Schaffer) would not "carry water" for all the bad decisions of Republicans and Democrats, as Schaffer left Congress in 2002 and was in private sector since. Udall went after "Big Oil" Bob Schaffer, saying all Schaffer knows is oil, and that if we want energy independence and more focus on renewables, nuclear and wind, he (Udall) would be much better as Udall had been fighting for these options all along. Udall also pointed out that Schaffer had voted for the Iraq War and for the Bush tax cuts.
[Mark Udall, one of the foremost environmentalists in Congress (I think), recently flipped on offshore drilling. So now energy is a kitchen sink strategy from Udall.]
There was also a discussion on Big Oil's profits, with Schaffer saying Oil has a profit margin of 8% ("reasonable considering other parts of the economy"), while Udall worked on the absolute numbers - $40 billion?
Final thoughts - Schaffer knew he's behind in the polls, and came prepared (with a list!) to attack Udall as "part of the establishment" in-charge of the financial mess today. Udall didn't seem as ready, even giving the generic "core principles to get us out of this mess" (yes, whatever Obama also says). He finished much better though, linking Bob Schaffer to Big Oil.
Addendum: video! [Read worker's diary on this event published just before mine, and his request for video]
[Hmm.... NBC video appears to work in the preview, but not on the "published" diary. Here's the link.]
Update: Video from Youtube, courtesy EdinNederland: