Kos:Halter won last week's debates, Lincoln refuses to do another

[cal04]

Bill Halter had a fantastic weekend down in Arkansas.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/4/26/860952/-AR-Sen:-Halter-won-last-weeks-debates,-Lincoln-refuses-to-do-another

John Brummett, political columnist for the Arkansas News:

Bill Halter won it by a wide margin on three accounts, mainly:
http://arkansasnews.com/2010/04/24/halter-wins/

First, he challenged Blanche Lincoln to back down from mailers her campaign has sent putting his face in a pill bottle and accusing him of “shady drug deals,” and she wouldn’t. Her defense is that independent groups, unions, mainly, have attacked her, and that she must stand up for herself — a point she repeated to me as we discussed this after the debate. But the issue is not that she stands up for herself or fights back. It’s that those mailers were over the line. Innuendo. Smears. Creepy. “Unbecoming a U.S. senator,” as Halter said to her face, and I must agree.

Second, Halter hit her hard for taking Wall Street money while overseeing part of Wall Street’s activity as Senate Agriculture chariman, and Blanche responded, well, indelicately. She said there wasn’t anything wrong with taking money from soybean farmers, cotton growers, rice farmers. Her point was that Ag regulates those, too. But Halter is fairly smart and he knew to pounce on this unintended likening of Wall Street thieves and good East Arkansas farrmers. As a matter of politcal theater, he floored her by saying it wasn’t farmers who brought this country to economic collapse.

Third, Lincoln spent much of her time hammering that Halter won’t say yes or no on card check, or the Employee Free Choice Act. But Halter is right on this that card check is history and that negotiations have since turned to an incremental reform to give unions a better or fairer chance. Mark Pryor could confirm Halter on this, but he’s for Blanche and probably will say something on Blanche’s side instead in a few days. You see, Blanche wants to make sure the state Chamber of Commerce is sufficiently afraid of this union man in a right-to-work state. But they’re plenty afraid already.

Tolbert Report, a conservative blog, has video of the debate and extensive straight-up (as in non-partisanized) play-by-play:

More commentary later but my initial overall thought is that Halter came out swinging in this debate and took Lincoln by surprise.

On Twitter:

@TolbertReport
Great debate! @BillHalter clearly won this one #ARSen

After that performance, Halter was ready for more, from a press release:

Halter Challenges Lincoln to Debate Again on Meet the Press

North Little Rock – Lt. Governor Bill Halter, who is challenging Sen. Lincoln for the Democratic nomination for Senate, today challenged her to another debate on Meet the Press. The Sunday morning talk show has invited both candidates to appear, and Lt. Governor Halter has accepted.

"I thoroughly enjoyed our debate on Saturday and regret that it wasn't televised so that more Arkansans could have had the opportunity to view it," said Lt. Governor Halter. "I am looking forward to doing it again on Meet the Press. How about it, Senator Lincoln?"

Nice try. Blanche found an excuse: Mother's Day.

But, of course. Blanche says she won’t do this Meet the Press debate because Halter, not she, is the one running for national interests, and that, more to the point, that’s Mothers’ Day <...> This is a good excuse for Blanche, and it keeps her from losing another one.

[BlooInBloo]

1. "it wasn’t farmers who brought this country to economic collapse." - That's gotta HOIYT!

pwned.

[Radical Activist]

2. I wonder if this primary would be getting more attention if it were on the east coast.

Like Connecticut. People should be paying more attention. Lincoln needs to go. The rest of the Senate needs to see that cozying up to corporate lobbyists isn't politically palatable back home. We need to strike fear into the hearts of Senate wafflers.

[napi21]

3. I was surprised that it wasn;ot televised, at least in AR. Did Halter's team record it?

At least then they could put it on you tube and promote viewing it.