Candidate shares his debate thought processes
Without the blogosphere, material like this would be very rare and hard to find.
Candidate Stephen Harrison (D) shares his perspective on the first three of his five congressional debates at DailyKos.
He sounds quite adept. Yes, he is tooting his own horn, but here was the situation:
One night's sleep and less than 24 hours later we met again. But this third debate, our first in Brooklyn, had a different focus. I'd intended on opening with a standard biographical run-down, but I changed my mind when I arrived at the debate, having just seen Vito Fossella's latest campaign piece. On the back of this four-pager was a picture of myself (rather amusing, in how ridiculous it was) but also a picture of Osama bin Laden.A vote for Steve Harrison, Vito Fossella claimed - a vote for a Democrat, he more than implied - means you support Osama bin Laden and terrorism.
Harrison told himself to keep his cool and respond effectively:
Am I angry? No, but I am stunned. In one fell swoop, the vileness of the Bush/Fossella/Republican policies became crystal clear to me, as I was falsely accused of supporting terrorism. The Republicans do not own patriotism. I'm going to respond, but I'm not going to swing wildly. Keep your arms up, your combinations tight. We can win this thing.
Go to his diary to see how he dealt with it and what the result of his rhetorical choice was.
CQ Politics has upgraded the race (though Fosella is still favored).
