One More 8th Congressional District Debate

There have been, I think, seven debates in the 8th congressional district race. There is one more tomorrow night, Oct. 29th; the debate is taking place at Central Bucks High School West, 375 W. Court Street, in Doylestown. Doors open at 6:30pm and the debate begins at 7pm.

I've watched four of the debates, three in person and one replayed on PCN, and written on two of them (Shir Ami, PCN broadcast of Bristol Riverside Theater ). If you haven't attended any of the previous debates you should go out to the Oct 29th event. Here's a quick preview:

Tom Lingenfelter (Independent): Get government out of the way.
Tom Manion (Republican): Washington is broken.
Patrick Murphy (incumbent Democrat): Green energy jobs. Fourth largest solar field in the US being built in Bucks County. Increased veterans benefits. Veterans cemetery. Need to bring our troops home. Voted my conscience.

Mr. Lingenfelter has, in my opinion, grown more cantankerous as the debates have done on. At the last one I attended he seemed to have progressed from trying to educate the audience to hectoring them.

Mr. Manion is very low-key and often starts sentences with "Well, ..." The exception is when he got angry at Murphy for talking about naming a post office for a Bucks County resident who died in the war. Manion, who also lost a son in Iraq jabbed his finger at Murphy and shouted "Watch yourself!" two or three times. He also said at every debate I attended that Murphy's work to increase veterans benefits took no effort because, after all, who would oppose that? Actually Sen. McCain voted against increased educational benefits for veterans who served for only a few years because it would discourage people from re-enlisting. Manion also hits Murphy for voting against war funding bills that did not include a timeline for troop redeployment (bringing the troops home).

Murphy does well in these debates, though I may be prejudiced having following his 2006 campaign closely. He discusses his record and emphasizes his bipartisan approach in Congress. He often recognizes community leaders or businessmen in the audience that he knows. He mentions his family. At one event a man wearing a Manion button started kibbitzing; Murphy handled it well.

If you live in the 8th and haven't been to one of the previous debates, please try to attend the one on the 29th.