Meet the Press Senate Debate

Now you understand why I've been so against Casey engaging in debates. Santorum chewed him up and spit him out. It was rather ugly. On issue after issue Santorum showed a grasp and a passion (even though his facts were almost always wrong) while Casey was weak and indecisive. Santorum strongly objected when Bob interrupted him but frequently interrupted Casey without challenge.

When Bob had the opportunity to make some serious points he failed to land a punch. The few points he did make went thud because of his meekness. Even when the residency issue arose at the end Casey missed the chance to attack. Santorum lied about spending a month a year at that Penn Hills house and Casey allowed the statement to stand. There's no way the Senator and his family are there four weeks a year. He also whiffed at the chance to attack Santorum for falsely charging his campaign workers with trespassing. he had the chance there to make Rick look like a fool and missed it.

On the Social Security discussion, which should have been Casey's, Rick won because Casey didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Instead of proposing some concrete solutions and attacking Santorum for wanting to destroy the program he waffled, allowed the Senator to interrupt and take over the conversation, and lost the argument. How the heck do you lose this argument to Santorum????

Santorum made some every stupid statements, especially about Iraq and Iran. He showed an appalling lack of knowledge about a number of issues. His strong advocacy for his positions, regardless of their merit, had to make an impression with voters however. He showed a strong passion all morning while Casey looked weak all morning.

Santorum kept stating that Iran is responsible for the mess in Iraq. He said they were the main destabilizing factor in the Middle East. Wow, what an appalling lack of insight. Iraq is a mess because we invaded the country. It's a mess because WE created that mess. Yes, Iran has taken advantage of the situation but it's a situation WE created for them.

Rick also stated Iraq had connections to AlQaeda and had weapons of mass destruction. These are complete lies. There are NO facts to support those allegations. He showed an appalling lack of knowledge and intelligence when it comes to national security matters. Iraq was never a threat to this country. Santorum said just because people march in streets condemning us that constitutes a national security threat to this country. He's a freaking imbecile if he believes that. An idiot who is dangerous to have in the United States Senate.

No capability means no threat. Anyone can march down a street and condemn someone else. That does NOT constitute a threat to the other country. Iraq had no method for actually attacking us in any way. We destroyed most of their military in the 1991 Gulf War, boxed them in with sanctions and no fly zones, and had them completely subdued. They had no way to mount any military attack against us.

There is no evidence anywhere they had any real ties to terrorists or Al Qaeda. Anyone can have contacts. Heck, a telephone call is a contact. We have contacts with Iran so does that make us a terrorist country? Under that faulty logic, yes.

Saddam hated Osama and the Islamic movement was more of a threat to his regime than anything else. Zarqwari was living in area of Iraq controlled by Iran, not Saddam. Iraq had nothing to do with Al Qaeda's attacks. Santorum is living in a fantasy world if he thinks Iraq had ties to Al Qaeda and that's a danger to all Pennsylvanians if he remains in the Senate.

Those are my initial observations. We'll examine it more a little later.