O'Donnell and Coons Hold Debate
Politico reports:
She pinned her opponent to the wall on his tax record, but flubbed a question about current Supreme Court cases.
She argued her instinct to shake up the establishment would help her cut through the partisan divide after labeling her opponent a "Marxist."
She injected humor about the parodies of her on "Saturday Night Live," but was still forced to field a question about witchcraft.
Wednesday night's nationally televised Delaware Senate debate showcased Christine O'Donnell's great strength — as a feisty tea party upstart exuding personal charisma, as well as her primary weakness — as a flawed candidate carrying a heap of baggage who at times appeared out of her depths on substantive policy questions.
For good portions of the 90-minute face-off at the University of Delaware with Democrat Chris Coons, O'Donnell played aggressor, putting her opponent on the defensive about his votes for property tax hikes as a county official, his support for President Obama's agenda and even his writings as a senior in college when he playfully referred to himself as a "bearded Marxist."
"I would argue that there are more people who support my Catholic faith than his Marxist beliefs. And I'm using his own words," O'Donnell said at one point, when the debate turned to the role of religion in public policy.
Coons, who said he was joking when he described himself that way after returning from a trip to Kenya, retorted with a smile, "I am not now, nor have ever been, anything but a clean-shaven capitalist."
Down double-digits in polling, O'Donnell positioned herself as the consistent aggressor, at several points interrupting Coons to land a punch or pose a counterpoint. She accused him of supporting the creation of "a culture of dependency" and singed him for signing onto an Afghanistan withdrawal policy that threatens the country's security.
When she slammed the New Castle County Executive for overseeing a doubling of unemployment over the past year, Coons could only shake his head, before offering, "I suspect that we're going to need to keep a close eye this evening on the numbers that go back and forth."
"I'm not going to stop every single time . . . Much of how you characterize my record is incorrect," he continued.
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