Musgrove - Wicker debate thoughts

A friend and I watched the debate from the comfort of my front porch. Unlike the presidential and vice-presidential debates these two candidates hit hard from wire to wire. The moderator ran a tight ship regarding the clock, holding both candidates to the agreed upon time limits. The format featured news anchors from across the state taking turns asking questions to the two candidates. Both candidates were allowed an opening statement and a closing statement, Below are some random thoughts about the debate.

• Roger Wicker wasted no time breaking out his bug guns. In the opening statement he hit on abortion law, Barack Obama and liberals in general. In the next ten minutes he repeated the beef plant story twice.
• Ronnie Musgrove's plan tonight was to indict Washington for its failures over the last 14 years, and to in turn indict Roger Wicker for being a voting participant in a lot of those failures. He came back to this theme in nearly every answer.
• Musgrove also tapped into the economic populist side of Mississippi by harping on Roger Wickers participation and support of one of the most fiscally irresponsible administrations ever. He repeated the deficit and surplus figures multiple times. This point really ties in to the point above.
• Roger Wicker tried to lure Musgrove into a debate on Barack Obama. When the question was asked which presidential candidate did they support, Wicker repeated a fib about Obama tax policy regarding the middle class. Musgrove decided not to go there and pivoted back to Roger Wicker's record more than once. While the Obama fan in me wanted Musgrove to set the record straight, I understand and appreciate his decision to keep the debate focused on Roger Wicker.
• If I had to score it, I would say Ronnie won by little bit. In percentage terms I would say 55-45 or 60-40. I do not know if it was enough to move voters on the fence or not. In this pundit's estimation Musgrove looks like like a good bet to win this election.