The debate finished approximately two hours ago...Betty won hands down. She was intelligent, strong, and she infused her rhetoric with the language and feeling of moral outrage over Mel Martinez's stances and actions. Betty made quite an impression on swing voters tonight.
Here's the AP's write up:
Castor, Martinez face off in first debate
BRENDAN FARRINGTON
Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. - Just about the only thing Republican Mel Martinez and Democrat Betty Castor agreed on Monday during the first of two U.S. Senate debates is that it's time to talk about something other than Sami Al-Arian.
They differed on abortion rights, the war in Iraq, President Bush's tax cuts, a proposal to increase minimum wage and how to solve a looming crisis in the Social Security program.
"How can you justify continuing tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans when we are at war, when we have not kept faith with our veterans, when we have young men and women coming back from this war who do not have health care coverage?" Castor asked Martinez.
"Because I understand what makes America work," Martinez responded. "We put in place a tax cut which created economic opportunity, which created growth, which put people back to work."
Martinez then asked Castor why she would support a tax increase.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I have no tax proposal out there," she said.
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