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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Lackluster Senate Debate in North Carolina
via Breitbart Feed
Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Republican challenger Thom Tillis met in a
lackluster one hour debate moderated by liberal CBS news personality Norah O
'Donnell Wednesday night in North Carolina. The debate failed to move the
needle in favor of either candidate.
Aided by a string of predictably liberal-friendly questions posed to both
candidates by O'Donnell, Hagan struck an aggressive tone against her
challenger, blaming Tillis repeatedly for the Republican "War on Women,"
because he "doesn't understand the needs of women" and is "out of touch with
women."
Hagan also attacked Tillis as a supporter of the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby
decision, an issue served to her in a setup worthy of Candy Crowley by O'
Donnell. Tillis, Hagan said, "is denying women the rights that other women
had in order to access birth control.
Tillis responded lamely, saying Hagan had not done enough to decrease the
cost of contraception for women--an argument likely to prompt push back from
some of his limited government, free market supporters."We need to provide
broader access and work to lower the cost of contraception," Tillis told
Hagan.
Hagan hit repeatedly on issues of redistribution and the inevitable
progressive march of history. Tillis, she argued, wanted to "take us back"
to the bad old days by giving tax cuts to the rich in North Carolina in his
role as Speaker of the North Carolina House.
"At every opportunity he [Speaker Tillis] has fought for policies that are
taking our state backwards," Hagan said. "He's put tax cuts for millionaires
and big corporations before our students, before women, before our middle
class, and ultimately before our future."
Tillis also had failed to spend enough money on education, she argued, while
Tillis argued back that as Speaker he had increased teacher salaries. "
Speaker Tillis," Hagan charged, "feels that those who have the most should
get the most help."
On immigration, Hagan defended her "yes" vote on the Gang of Eight bill in
the Senate, which she claimed was "not amnesty." She also stated that she
was on record as opposing President Obama's plan to grant amnesty through
executive orders.
Tillis missed an opportunity to tie Hagan's vote for the Gang of Eight bill
to amnesty.
"I don't know where Senator Hagan is on amnesty," he said. "It appears as
though the President is prepared to grant amnesty. I think that's a colossal
mistake."
Tillis added that "[t]he immigration problem has been a bi-partisan failure.
For years, Presidents and Congressional Members have talked about sealing
the border. Not allowing amnesty."
But again, Tillis missed the opportunity to attack the President's
anticipated efforts to grant amnesty through executive action as a
constitutional usurpation of the powers of the legislative branch rather
than merely a "colossal mistake."
Despite aggressively attacking Tillis for his failure to support a
redistributionist progressive agenda, Hagan repeatedly called herself "the
most moderate member of the Senate." She pointed to her bi-partisan work
with Senator Inhofe (R-OK) on the successful addition of an amendment to a
bill that gave veterans a minor education benefit as the crowning "moderate"
achievement of her first term in Washington.
She also attempted to distance herself from President Obama, saying that she
supported his policies when it was warranted, but opposed them when it was
"right for North Carolina." She cited her support for the Keystone Pipeline
as one example.
Tillis countered that she voted with President Obama 95% of the time, and
noted that when she ran for election against former Senator Elizabeth Dole (
R-NC) in 2008, she criticized Dole for supporting President Bush 92% of the
time.
In contrast to Hagan's aggressive attacks using the predictably divisive
class warfare and gender warfare themes of liberal Democrats, Tillis's
demeanor was steady, unflappable, and moderately condescending.
The big winner in Wednesay night's debate may have been Libertarian Party
candidate Sean Haugh, who was not invited to participate. Haugh is receiving
between 6% to 8% support in polls despite a bare-bones campaign consisting
largely of YouTube videos.
The debate was the first of two scheduled debates between Hagan and Tillis
sponsored by the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters Education
Foundation. |
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