What follows below is an unorganized, badly written summary of the debate. I sacrificed quality for speed to get a comprehensive look at the debate as quickly as possible, so I hope I can be forgiven for that :) Please note, while not thorougly objective, I tried to remain as accurate as possible. I may not have gotten many exact quotes, but I tried not to stray from the intent of the answers.
I'll start with my overall impressions: Don Sherwood, while well spoken and knoweledgable of the issues, came across as a stern lecturer. It could be the fact that Bucknell University, where the debate was held, is a decidedly liberal school in one of the more liberal parts of the district. He definitly sounded like a George Bush conservative: "9/11" and "lower taxes" made up the bulk of his answers.
Chris Carney did very well, coming across both knowledgable and affable. He sounded very down-to-earth in his answers, and framed them in a way that people could "get". While not as progressive as some Kossacks might like, in the context of the district, I thought he sounded surprisingly progressive in many of his positions, yet conveyed them in just the right manner to appeal to red America.
But you don't have to take my word for it, let's look at the debate.:
Opening remarks
Sherwood: Terrar! Lower taxes! I bring money back to you!
Carney: Values (a subtle way to mention this). College professor, Lt. Commander in Naval Reserves, Counter-terrorism experience in the Pentagon, father of 5.
"Fix Iraq in 3 minutes..."
Questions were asked from several moderators, including a local radio host, the newspaper publisher, college students, and previously submitted from the public. This was one of the first asked from the college students, all questions of which were phrased in an almost snarky manner. Sherwood needed this question repeated several times before understanding it.
Sherwood: Everything else pales in comparison to the threat of Islamofascism. We're all going to die if we don't win!
Carney: "I heard the question the first time." Pointed to the NIE released last week that showed the Iraq war is creating more terrorists. Mentioned that he saw the pre-war intelligence reports that predicted an insurgency, yet that was ignored by the administration.
On a local transportation project
Carney predicts a Democratic majority in the House.
On outsourcing
Carney: "Keep the jobs here, Mr. Sherwood, we need them."
Abortion
Carney: An excellent response from Carney. Pointed out that it is a wedge issue and doesn't mean anything. He is against abortion, he hates abortion, and wants to work for more adoptions, more comprehensive reproductive health, but leave the constitutional protections in place. The pro-life crowd uses abortion as a wedge issue, they do a lot of talking but don't get anything done. We need a plan to make abortion unnecessary.
Sherwood: I'm pro-life. I have a pro-life record. I vote pro-life. Carney's point is made.
The elephant in the room
The question was asked about Sherwood's affair, and the questioner had the balls to add, "Should you resign?" Mark Foley was worked into this question too somehow.
Sherwood: Repeats copy from TV ad Mark Foley should resign.
Carney: Nails Sherwood on this issue, especially regarding Foley. Mentions the fundraiser he had a few days ago with Boehner. Questions whether Sherwood will cancel his upcoming fundraiser with Hastert. (The Republican Party has been fundraising hard in the 10th district the last couple of weeks.)
On recent flooding in the area, and relating question to Katrina, role of federal gov't in both cases
Sherwood: Somehow blamed flooding on environmental regulations and managed to claim that New Orleans was devesated so badly because their government was corrupt.
Healthcare and roads and other sundrys
Sherwood: If we don't win the war on terror, and none of that will matter anyway. He seriously said that, and came back to that point several times during the debate. I also made a note that during this question, Sherwood used his remaining time to respond to a prior question for the 2nd time during the evening. He was definitely on defense the majority of the evening.
Budget defecits
Sherwood: They're bad, but we're in war, 9/11! My buddy leaned over and mentioned Sherwood studied economics at Dartmouth, so this answer might be good. He blamed Clinton for the umpteenth time tonight (Part of the Republican strategy this election year: 9/11, Clinton's fault, liberal-ie, throw the word 'liberal' around till it sticks) and claimed that because they lowered taxes, federal revenues were able to rise.
Carney: Mentioned the debt ceiling being raised to $9 trillion and asking why would you cut taxes during wartime? The Republicans like to call Democrats tax-and-spend liberals but they have become "no-tax-and spend liberals."
What's up with gas prices and what does the government do about it?
Carney: This is one of the strong points of Carney's campaign that I did not know about. He is very strongly in favor of shifting to alternate sources of fuel and producing our own energy from a variety of environmentally-friendly sources. He has already met with Jay Inslee from Washington and highly supports the Apollo Energy Act. Claims we can be independent from foreign oil within 10 years by applying our creativity and technology, and all that will result in more jobs, more industry, a cleaner environment, and a safer nation. Instead, Dick Cheney met with the heads of the 5 biggest oil companies in the country behind closed doors and came up with the energy plan, which is still classified. And PS, Sherwood received a lot of money from Big Oil.
Sherwood: Gas prices are set by supply and demand, there's nothing we can do about it, and liberals won't let us drill in Alaska.
Why is the war in Iraq a better use of our money than spending it here?
Sherwood: Cause if we didn't spend it over there, we'd have nothing left over here. It's like not fighting Hitler (I checked my watch, it only took an hour to invoke Godwin's Law.) Referring to an earlier story Carney had told about one of his students returning from Iraq and complaining about having to scrounge in junkyards for armor for their Humvees, Sherwood made an odd comment like "When did we ever use armored Humvees?"
Carney" Excellent response by Carney. In fighting the war on terror, "We can't always go kinetic." We need to get to the root causes of terrorism; among other things, we need to start funding the madrassas and schools. When Bush asks "Why do they hate us?" it's because they're learning to hate us and we're doing nothing to stop that.
Social Security crisis
Carney: Completely opposed to privitization.
Sherwood: We'll fund it when the war is over (?!?) Alluded to raising the age.
Congress is supposed to declare war. If we're in a war and they didn't declare it, what is their role?
Sherwood: It sounded like he was saying, we don't want to declare war because then we couldn't keep changing who we're fighting. Ladies and gentlemen, he can't stress enough how important this war is. Launched into the Republican history of terror: Beirut, US Cole, embassies, etc. Then came 9/11, "and we finally had a president who..." At this point, I couldn't here the rest of the sentence, as the hisses from the audience drowned it out. Keep in mind, aside from a few polite chuckles here and there, the audience was very polite and quiet. This was the only time they made any noise.
Carney: Congress's role is oversight. They have not asked the tough questions that need to be asked. Bush's outlook is in direct conflict with the recently released NIE. Doesn't understand what Sherwood said earlier (He had made a comment about not worrying about creating more terrorists while we're still fighting the terrorists), and in a very dramatic flourish said, "Mr. Sherwood, uh... yeah! We do!"
It's time for bed!
I apologize again for the slapdashery of this diary, hope at least some people find it informative or interesting. The AP released their version about an hour ago and focused entirely on the affair issue, but I thought the best stuff didn't involve that portion of the debate at all.
All in all, putting my personal views aside and looking at the views of the district, it was about even, as both candidates did a good job. However, Sherwood needed something stellar, as he is losing ground in the polls, but instead he played to his base on most of the questions. Carney came across in a way that I feel would appeal to many of the undecideds and swing voters. At the very least, he will get great exposure out of this.
Oh, and Carney could always use contributions!
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