In today’s Post, Mike Shear has a roundup of bloggers’ take on the Kaine/Kilgore debate on Sunday, looking at comments by Chad Dotson, Lowell Feld, Kenton Ngo, Sic Semper Tyrannis, Norman Leahy, Cries in the Night, and Bacon’s Rebellion. Of course, both Democrats cited were quoted as saying that Kaine won, whereas four of the five Republicans said that Kilgore won.
Who won the debate on Sunday night?
It was a runaway victory for Republican Jerry W. Kilgore , who spoke clearly and honestly while his opponent, Democrat Timothy M. Kaine, evaded answers and looked shifty.
Or, Kaine was the clear victor, offering smart, substantive answers while Kilgore ducked and dodged, giving canned, sound-bite speeches.
Neither is true, of course. Most news organizations and political pundits declared the debate a draw, giving both candidates credit for holding their own while noting that neither went far beyond his campaign rhetoric.
But don’t tell that to the bloggers on both sides of the aisle.
Ahem.
As I wrote after the debate, I was withholding judgment on who won to see what the polls said. I wrote that I would abide by the public wisdom on the topic. And, in fact, the wisdom is where I’d expected and hoped it would be. Rasmussen polled on who won, and found that, among those who believed that there was a winner, 54% thought that Kaine had won, while 46% felt Kilgore had won. (Fully a quarter of respondent couldn’t say one way or another.) Were the gap closer, I’d say the public figured it was as much of a toss-up as I thought, but with an 8% spread, that seems to settle it, short of a sharply contradictory poll being released.
The most interesting about this poll is that essentially the same numbers of Kaine and Kilgore supporters thought that their candidate won (76% to 73%), which means that this majority who thinks Kaine won are undecideds. This isn’t a particular surprise to me — I maintain that if every voter in Virginia saw some or all of the debates, Kaine would win easily. (Kilgore’s campaign knows this, hence their desperation to keep the debates as close to private as possible.)
A couple other bits of news from the poll is that the race is unchanged (it was Kaine/Kilgore 45/45, now it’s Kaine/Kilgore 44/46, way within the 4.5% MoE), Potts is down to 1%, damned near nobody watched the debates, and 10% of voters still don’t have a preference in the race. And Governor Warner has a 71% approval rating, but that’s hardly news.
Actually, Waldo, I thought it was a draw.
I’m sorry, Norman, I don’t know why I wrote that — I knew full well that you said it was a draw. I’ve corrected accordingly.
Thanks. The more I think about that debate,
the more I miss George Fitch.
Interesting how we get quoted, because my main message was that the debate wouldn’t fundamentally change the Kilgore-Kaine race. Also, that the only thing I was certain about was: a) the people of Virginia had lost; and b) Jerry Kilgore is an unremittingly negative, lying little weasel who’s obviously not fit to be governor of Virginia. Now, let me tell you how I REALLY feel about Jerry Kilgore! Ha ha.