Early Propaganda From The Miller v. Webb Debate

Interesting post from The Richmond Democrat (aka. Jim Webb shill headquarters): Breaking! Disaster at debate for Harris Miller!

It’s not interesting because it might be true, mind you. It’s interesting because of the obviously baseless slander directed at one of the candidates from a blogger who is obviously campaigning for the other candidate. The title might as well say, “Breaking! I love Jim Webb, and I don’t have any evidence, but Harris Miller sucks!” The shocking text of the post reports that Jim Webb cleaned Miller’s clock in their debate today. (As if the “Webb for Senate” link at the top of RD’s page isn’t enough to indicate what the outcome of the debate would be.)

Here are just some of the baseless assertions J.C. made (and no, I don’t consider unnamed “sources in Norfolk, Virginia” to be valid sources). 1. Harris Miller is desperate. 2. Miller was gambling on this debate. 3. The debate was a humiliating defeat for Miller. 4. Jim Webb has “surprising momentum.” 5. Webb “demolished” Miller. 6. Jim Webb is “unflappable.” 7. Miller has a “notoriously short fuze [sic]”. 8. Miller “lost his cool.”

Here’s what J.C. isn’t saying: The “unflappable” Webb, who has “declined to campaign against Miller in a negative fashion” appears to have lost his cool a bit, too. I suppose it’s a good thing when Webb does it, though. He’s the scrappy “combat veteran and skilled boxer,” after all. Oh, and he likes to take his shirt off for the cameras, too.

Unlike J.C. at RD, I’ll reserve my pre-arranged judgment until at least after I see the debate. Keep in mind, though, that I’ll be looking for substantive material backed by researchable facts, not idiotic one-upsmanship. [UPDATE 3:15 PM: Note how I’m calling the process of one-upsmanship idiotic, not any particular person. By which I mean I hope the debate is not just a bunch of name-calling back and forth.]

Here’s the link to the WVEC article RD cited, by the way, which has video clips of what is presumably the debate: Webb-Miller go On The Record, debate turns into argument. I can’t look at the video from work, but “it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to guess” why RD didn’t link to the video. Correction: Okay, that was a cheap shot — RD did link to the video in another post. I’ll look forward to watching it tonight.

UPDATE 3:15 PM: Oh, those tricksey web guys at WVEC. Now you have to register before you can look at the debate video. Curses!

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