Rand Paul, the Republican nominee for the Senate, debated tonight with his opponent, Democratic candidate Attorney General Jack Conway. Although I have endorsed Paul, and continue to do so, I have to admit, he did not acquit himself well tonight. Oh, for the most part, it was the typical debate, the kind that would change no one's mind, the kind geared towards winning over the relative handful of undecideds. Unfortunately, if those undecideds end up deciding the race, I am afraid Paul is in trouble.
This is due mainly to his response to one charge leveled by Conway early in the debate, a charge that has been the subject of a recent attack ad leveled against Paul. He supposedly while in college belonged to a secret society which ridiculed Christianity and the Bible. Additionally, he allegedly at one point tied a woman up and forced her to bow down to his god, which Conway described as a "false idol" named "Aqua Buddha".
Paul denied the charge, lambasting Conway for leveling untrue charges from his college days thirty years ago. I can see why. If there is any truth at all to the charge, Paul knows it would not exactly play well in conservative Kentucky. But if it is true, he should own up to it.
My guess-if there is anything to this story, it probably involves not so much a serious religious belief as a secret society, Skull-And-Bones type ritual initiation.
The name of the woman involved in the charge was never given (Paul referred to her as an anonymous accuser), but if it really happened I suspect she was a part of the ritual and the words attributed to her have been edited and taken completely out of context.
Still, Paul knows what is at stake here, and can't take the chance this late in the game, when most polls put the race at too close to call, with Paul holding a slim lead just within the margin of error.
There were other things, other charges, leveled against both candidates, and they both did a good job of answering them, despite the unmistakable hint of political snake-oil that pervaded the overall atmosphere coming from both camps.
Notably, charges that Paul wished to impose a two-thousand dollar Medicare deductible (which he has been recorded saying numerous times), as well as the charge that he did not take Kentucky's drug problem with sufficient seriousness. The charge that he wants to dismantle the Department of Education, mining safety rules, even Social Security, etc., were all par for the course insofar as charges typically leveled against conservative Republicans and especially Tea-Party favorites such as Paul. Paul did an adequate job of defending himself from these accusations, for the most part, while pointing out that under Attorney General Conway's watch, meth labs and drug related crimes were on the rise. At one point, he even suggested Conway return his salary for the month of September due to his absence from the state to raise mo0ney for his campaign, citing alleged meetings with Nancy Pelosi in California.
Conway responded that it was Paul who derived the majority of his campaign contributions from outside the state.
The most notable charges against Conway were that he accepted donations from utility companies, who have lately raised their rates, and that he supported Obama's agenda in full, especially Obamacare, which he refused to challenge in the courts at the side of various other states Attorney's General that have done so.
Conway scored one major point in his own defense, however. He claims to have challenged the EPA in court when it tried to impose Cap And Trade. I don't know if this is true, but if it is, it might be enough to sway some independents in its own right. It certainly is strange however that I was not aware of it.
Overall, however, the night ended on a sour note, when Paul in his closing statement declared that he would not shake hands with Conway, due to his accusations and slurs against his faith-making sure at the end the audience understood that he and his wife were Christians. At the very end, he all but stormed off the stage, past Conway, who just stood there.
Paul might have thought this was a matter of principle, but it looked more to me like a matter of petulance.
I still hope he wins, and I think he will still pull it out, but if he does not, you can trace his downfall to his performance this night.
