Well, the first televised senatorial debate is in the can, and while both candidates ย Democrat Harold Ford and Republican Bob Corker ย continued to hew to the same centrist (or mildly rightist) themes during their statewide TV broadcast from WREG-TV, News Channel 3, it was arguably possible to choose between them on style points.
Patriotism and a political open-mindedness were the two attitudes both candidates chose to feature in their responses to questions Saturday night. They agreed on: a supportive but skeptical attitude toward the Iraq war, support of an amendment to define marriage as heterosexual, concern about Iran; a need to control immigration; even, surprisingly, on issues like tort reform (which Ford seemingly did not dismiss) and Social Security privatization (which Corker did seemingly dismiss).
(For the complete story, go to “Political Beat”.)