The debate heavily focused on the ideas of Social Security and retirement security.  The Republican candidate, Rob Simmons, is the candidate for re-election in this case.  He was extremely well spoken and clearly knew how to play to his audience (mostly elderly citizens).  The moderator brought up a question about why Simmons downplayed the urgency of the Social Security problem and he did a very good job of saying how important Medicare and supporting our troops are right now.  He made a point to note that the SS program won't go "belly-up" until 2046 and that Medicare and our troops should be a priority of the country right now.  However, before that question came up, he made many good points about how SS cannot be the sole retirement plan for young working people today and that personal savings, away from accounts that the government can tax it, is the key.
Joe Courtney, however, seemed to clearly be the loser in this debate.  His arguments were not focused toward the crowd at all and he was not nearly as well spoken as his opponent.  He wasn't able to pull it all together until his closing speech in which he was still stumbling over his words a bit.  Even at the end, I did not really understand his position or his answers to the problems at hand.
Overall, I felt Rob Simmons did a good job of making known what issues were important to him and to the senior citizens in the crowd, but even made it clear he understands the problems of the future and brought up good examples of what he has told his children to do for the future.  Rob Simmons was definitely the winner of this debate in my eyes.