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Monday, November 04, 2002

 
Mondale/Coleman: Who Won? Josh Chafetz at OxBlog seems to think Mondale won, as did the larger part of C-SPAN's call-ins. Poweline is disappointed in Coleman, though he cites RealClearPolitics saying Coleman did well(though RCP brings the caveat that, apparently, pundits at Fox & CNN think Mondale did well).
I thought Mondale did a poor job for the first seven minutes, but then broke out of his slump when he hurled his first invective; several other times he took Coleman to task
On the whole, I thought Coleman did a far better job. By far the most incredible manipulation of this debate was how Coleman was able to repeatedly cite his experience as a mayor as something that made him the elder statesman in the debate -- he made Mayor of Saint Paul trump Vice President of the United States!
Coleman won far more talking time thanks to overwhelmed moderators, a big victory.
Mondale beat Coleman on the issues, but in a way that wasn't readily apparent. Coleman flip-flopped all over ANWR and other environmental issues within the debate -- not a good sign, but you have to wonder how many people noticed.
But Mondale's presentation might be what sticks with Minnesota voters -- assumedly, he'd know. Coleman seemed to adopt an accent that at various times sounded either New York-ish or Massachusetts-esque -- that probably doesn't serve him well with Minnesota voters.
Most of the calls in to C-SPAN were likely Dem/Rep operatives(one, in particular, sounded like he was reading from a script), so you get a sense of how they'll spin it: the Dems, and even one Rep, thought Mondale kicked ass; meantime, the Republican hit on Mondale was that he wasn't respecting Coleman enough; firstly, given that one was VP and one was mayor, the imbalance is understandable; more importantly, if that's the best hit you've got, you're admitting defeat.
BASICALLY: Coleman tried to act like Bush, and Mondale tried to act like himself; Coleman came off as stupid and savvy, Mondale came off as slow but biting. Mondale won on the issues, Coleman won the debate.
The AP adds its analysis(which everybody fronts), which is essentially that Coleman talked about the "tone in Washington", while Mondale attacked Coleman for his stances on the issues.