In what has been described as a “crushing” defeat[1]
for U.S. Senate aspirant George Allen during his first debate with former
Virginia governor and U.S. Senate hopeful Tim Kaine, their Homestead debate once
again established Tim Kaine’s adept political and debating skills.
During the debate, Allen attempted to tie Tim Kaine’s
political aspirations to President Obama, referring to Kaine as President
Obama’s “handpicked” candidate for U.S. Senate[2]. But what Allen’s line of attack against Tim
Kaine signals is the formers lack of confidence in primarily attacking Kaine on
his own policy positions and previous political record.
Instead of primarily challenging Kaine on his record as
governor of Virginia or mayor of Richmond, Allen and his campaign have chosen
to focus on the relationship between the president and Kaine. Unfortunately for
Allen, this narrow approach has left him vulnerable on matters of actual
political substance.
When referring to the automatic spending cuts to the defense
budget that could take place in January if a debt-reduction deal fails to be
hashed out, Allen responded, “National defense should never be used as a
bargaining tool to raise taxes.”[3]
Not to mention that the automatic
spending cut deal was passed with bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress[4],
the implication seems to be that all other sectors of the economy are open to
be used as bargaining tools to increase taxes. How does this approach make
political sense?
Furthermore, when asked to name any particular disparities
Allen shared with presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Allen couldn’t cite any[5].
That’s odd considering Romney’s form of health care while he was governor of
Massachusetts, “Romneycare,” was the model President Obama used to form his own
health care reform legislation[6].
As usual, Allen came off during the first debate as
visionless and concerned primarily with reactionary policies and attacking Tim
Kaine’s relationship with President Obama. For undecided voters among
Virginia’s electorate, I can’t imagine this is a winning strategy.
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