The three candidates for U.S. Senate held their second of three debates on Sunday, which became a jumble of strikes and counterstrikes between Democrat Michelle Nunn and Republican David Perdue, with Libertarian Amanda Swafford watching mostly from the sidelines.
Read a complete account here. But if you're in a video frame of mind, we've boiled down the 60-minute confrontation to these clips:
RUBBER STAMP: That's what Perdue has called Nunn, and he does so again. Nunn points out areas where she disagrees with President Barack Obama, including the Keystone pipeline, military spending, and his lack of engagement with Congress:
iPHONE GUILT: Just as predictably, Nunn asks Perdue about his outsourcing history. Perdue asks this question of voters: "Do you own an iPhone? If you own an iPhone, did you outsource jobs? Do you own an Apple computer? Did you outsource jobs?"
BIPARTISANSHIP OR DOUBLESPEAK: Who's to blame for gridlock? Perdue says it's Harry Reid and Senate Democrats. "I don't believe it's just Republicans or just Democrats," said Nunn:
LEADERSHIP OF THE U.S. SENATE: Our own Daniel Malloy asks Nunn if she'd vote to make Harry Reid the next majority leader, should Democrats hang onto the chamber. Likewise, Perdue is asked if he'd support Mitch McConnell. Note how expertly both candidates decide not to answer the question:
A REDIRECT ON HARRY REID: Later in the debate, Nunn is pressed on the matter of Harry Reid. The Democrat says she's told Reid "no" before -- when he asked her not to run. Nunn leaves herself some maneuvering room, but does say this: "I think there are real reasons to say to Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell that we need to do something different." Perdue was not pressed on where his leadership vote would go:
NUNN SAYS NO TO ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN: Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, a pal of Michelle Nunn's dad and an advocate of gun control, has dropped $350,000 into a pro-Nunn Super PAC. What does that oblige her to do? Nunn said she would back a beefed-up background check on gun-buyers, but would go no further:
PERDUE SAYS YES TO A U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. WE THINK: Earlier this month, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pushed out an ad accusing Perdue of backing the dissolution of the U.S. Department of Education. Perdue says he never said that, but...:
FINALLY, THERE ARE THE WOMEN: If there was a gaffe on Sunday night, it might lay in Perdue's answer to a pay discrimination lawsuit filed by female employees of Dollar General, which he once headed:
"If you look at Dollar General as an example, there was no wrongdoing there. That lawsuit, or that claim or that complaint was settled five years after I left. She knows that. It was less than 2,000 people. We had upward of 70,000 employees in that company."
"Two thousand women -- that actually seems like quite a lot to me," Nunn replies. In the same clip,, Perdue attacks Nunn on complaints filed with the EEOC by two Points of Light employees -- and that's where the debate ends:
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