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Sunday, September 17, 2006

Meet the Press Showdown . . . Advantage: Webb

A few thoughts on the awesome Senate debate on Meet the Press this a.m. First, Russert actually asked Allen some tough questions, including follow-ups or -throughs to keep Confederate Heritage from SoCal Man on point when he failed to actually, well, answer the question. If you watched, you know what I mean. Also, Confederate Heritage SoCal Man, also known as George Felix Allen, was on the defensive basically the whole hour, with a few exceptions. He does have a record of supporting the worst president ever something like 96 % of the time. That's a lot of tough questions to answer or . . . not answer, as Allen usually did (not). He would not, for example, say that he would have voted for the Iraq War, if he knew what he knows now, and he wouldn't take a position on the torture bill debate. It can't help a guy like Allen when he's forced to answer questions like he's a politician. At times, today, he sounded like a GOP John Kerry.

Second, Webb started kind of slow, but he warmed up pretty quickly and scored some good jabs. My personal favorite was in response to SoCal Felix's strange attack on Webb's position on the first Gulf War, in which, "even the French" agreed. Webb's comment was to the effect that George Allen didn't fight in Vietnam, but, well, "even the French" fought in Vietnam. Ouch. I actually believe that Allen visibly reacted to that one. Anyone else see it?

Webb really isn't much of a "politician" . . . especially in contrast to the dippy Allen, who remembers to smile. But Webb actually answered questions, sometimes with simple declaratives. Like "Yes," we could have spent the $ 300 billion we've spent in Iraq in a more productive way. (This is such a no-brainer that for Allen to dodge the question shows that one can't answer the question "no" without completely losing your credibility.)

It's a shame that so few people (with a vote in this race) watched the MTP debate, because if Virginians actually gave Webb a look, I think that they'd prefer him to the alternative. Webb is actually a throwback Southern Democrat . . . which makes me wonder if the Tenacious One has an opinion on Webb? Webb seems like a TMcD kind of candidate, to be honest.

Russert did ask Webb some hard questions, especially on women in combat and affirmative action. Although Webb's views on these issues wouldn't endear him to Northeastern liberals, I can't imagine that they will alienate many Virginia voters--especially the voters Webb needs to win. And Webb might just win. It's a distinct possibility at this point.

3 Comments:

At 10:33 AM, Blogger tenaciousmcd said...

Are you kidding? I love that guy. He even wrote a book on the Virginia Scots-Irish. My peeps!

I only caught a few minutes of the debate on replay last night, but I thought Webb did pretty well in what I saw, and Allen looked very dodgy. His defense of past confederate flag-waving was lame. "Heritage" and "sympathy for the rebel" don't work very well if you're a rich So-Cal football player with a famous dad rather than a working-class southerner. Webb turned this around by suggesting that Allen's macaca comment was insulting to rural Virginians (!) because it assumed they were racist, whereas he knew from all his family in that region, including relatives who hosted Sidarth on that trip, that it was an "inclusive" culture. Factually, methinks he embelishes. Rhetorically, it was a nifty pivot.

 
At 11:08 AM, Blogger Scott McD said...

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At 11:14 AM, Blogger Scott McD said...

Here is a transcript:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14815993/

Here is a link to the full show:

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&t=s53&g=e10461f7-89e1-415c-aa58-80d1b6f8066e&p=hotvideo_m_edpicks

Good stuff.

 

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