Steve O'Donnell wins debate against Tim Murphy

[illusionofjoy]

While many local Democrats were attending the Obama rally downtown (held in Mellon Arena, the only Pittsburgh venue large enough to contain Obama's ego), I decided to spend my evening doing visibility for Steve O'Donnell prior to his debate with Tim Murphy. O'Donnell is running against the Republican incumbent in an attempt to capture his seat in Pennsylvania's 18^th Congressional District. Visibility, of course, is the act of holding up campaign signs in the hopes of getting vehicles to honk in support of one's candidate. To make it more amusing, one can assign points to each vehicle: one point for each beep from a vehicle with an Obama sticker, five points for cars with no sticker, ten points for Port Authority buses, fifteen points for fire engines and ambulances and twenty points for vehicles with a McCain sticker.

To ultimately no avail, I made it my mission to get at least one car with a McCain sticker to beep. After each failure, I'd call out, "oh, come on! You can split the ticket," to the general amusement of those standing around me. One man, fresh from the Obama rally, thus joining the proceedings late in the game, wasn't amused.

"I don't get it," he griped at me, "what do you mean, 'split the ticket?'"

I explained it to him, "I call that after every car with a McCain sticker - they don't have to vote straight ticket Republican. There's no law saying you can't split the ticket." I thought I was being clever, the latecomer thought I was some kind of heretic.

"What, are you voting for McCain," he barked at me.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with the top of the ticket; I'm here to support Steve O'Donnell"

"I didn't want to hear that," the bitter man said before walking off in a huff. Later in the auditorium where the debate was being held, I sat in the row behind the man, who then made it a point to glance behind him, relinquish his seat and take one on the opposite side of the room.

The debate began at 7:30PM, lasted ninety minutes and was fuelled by questions from the audience. Suffice it to say that O'Donnell came out the clear winner, with a solid grasp of the issues and a straightforward delivery. By contrast, Murphy came off as slimy and all too willing to evade directly answering questions. By the time the debate ended, my blood was boiling because of the republican incumbent and I was ready to go up to Murphy and tell him what a bag of shit I thought he was. The choice is clear for PA18: Elect Steve O'Donnell for US Congress!