Senate Race

I keep an eye on the Senate race going on here in Montana. It's a very tight race and is hotly debated in Montana circles. There was a debate in Butte last night between the candidates and I found an article that very accurately describes how it went.<br />n<br />n<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/23/AR2006092301309.html" >Sen. Burns, Tester Debate in Montana</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns accused his Democratic challenger Saturday of wanting to raise taxes and weaken the U.S. Patriot Act, but brushed off allegations of ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.<br />n<br />nJon Tester, locked in a tight race with the three-term incumbent, blasted Burns during their debate for running up the federal deficit and claimed he has lost touch with Montana.</blockquote><br />n<br />nI listened to the debate as best I could via the streaming audio available at <a href="http://www.mtstandard.com/" >The Montana Standard</a>, kudos to them for this service, and would have to agree with the above blurb on the debate. Sen Burns would never answer the questions about Abramoff and completely avoided the question. Sen Burns being the typical politician was very adroit at ducking any question he didn't want to answer. Tester didn't duck the questions as often as often as Burns but he still did his fair share of this.<br />n<br />nWinners and losers? I have no answer to that. When it comes to political debates I don't think there are winners or losers. If you are really interested in the politics the winners are the voters, and the losers are the candidates for having to stand there and sweat it out in a venue other than the media.<br />n<br />nI will give you a quote of the night though which is mentioned in the article.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>"Let me be clear. I don't want to weaken the Patriot Act. I want to get rid of it," Tester said.</blockquote><br />n<br />nI give kudos to Tester on this one. I might not like him for the most part but my stance weakens a little bit hearing him say this.<br />n<br />n <a class="block_level" href="http://www.sarpysam.com/archives/2073-Senate-Race.html#extended">Continue reading "Senate Race"</a>