Tommy was a bit more emotional and animated at times, though both were fairly reserved overall. Both did well overall from the perspective of key points to hit on their sides. Tommy did go with the theme of continuing to attack her is "too liberal" and "out of the mainstream" and I wish she had punched back harder on that by reiterating that the labels don't mean much where Tommy talks about being a uniter then signs the Grover Norquist pledge. Just wish she'd have punched back harder at times, though she did ok overall. Held her own. And she did say twice that he signed the Norquist pledge and did tie him to big pharma and big money special interests.
I think she played it more "Wisconsin Nice" than did Thompson who is behind in the polls so he was a bit more aggressive. Hopefully his demeanor that was a bit more bullyish was noticed by debate watchers. As I understand it, Wisconsites don't like bullying and prefer the Wisconsin Nice approach.
I do wish Baldwin had been a little smoother and more flowing in her delivery which was sometimes a bit choppy, and that she'd been just a little more "folksy". She seemed a little stiff. But she has time to perfect it. It was the first one. I also wish she had hit him harder on his videoed comment about wanting to "end Medicare and Medicaid" (or was it Medicare and SS??). She did score some points though on repeating how he wanted to Voucherize Medicare and raise taxes on the middle class.
I think going forward she needs to hit harder on the damning video of him talking about ending Medicare, tie him harder to the Bush Adminstration and the Norquist pledge, and fire back harder on his attack that she is too "liberal". All in all, virtually a draw. She held her own and made some good points. He gets a few extra points for being a little more pointed and folksy and relaxed in his answers. She did ok. She needs to keep hitting him hard on the stump, and her team needs to get his damning video comments on ads all over WI.
= new reply since forum marked as read
