Well...I for one was surprised. David Purdue had struck me as tough guy, good ole boy businessman who would woo the mostly male Chamber of Commerce audience and on the surface I had Michelle Nunn pegged as the shy type. WRONG.
It turns out that Ms. Nunn has a lot of the likes of Senator Dianne Feinstein in her makeup. She's as tough as any man, well spoken and informed and not afraid to take the fight to any man. David Purdue on the other hand (unfortunately for his campaign) has a bit of the bumbling Rick Perry in him.
Purdue spoke first and sounded affable as he focused primarily on making friends with the Chamber audience. He offered no great shakes in the way of ideas or plans and never mentioned his opponent. Nunn started off by saying she 'recognized many in the audience' and then she proceeded to rip into a whole slew of Mr. Purdue's ideas and previous comments and made it clear that she was a fighter with real political skills. You could feel the sweat on the back of David Purdue's neck trickling.
On the next go round Purdue showed the first glimpse of his Rick Perry-ness. He reminisced about 'Riding my bike home from football practice during the Cuban Missile Crisis' and then Perry-ed "We all remember the...nuclear...uh, training thing...you know...we, uh, all got under our desks....?' It was Perry-painful for sure.
Leaning Right, Nunn went back at him with...'You know David your campaign photo of me with president Obama is a bit misleading, that was taken at the George HW Bush presidential library and president Bush was in the photo, but you cropped that out.'
They both unwisely self-vetoed a lift in the gas tax (which is inevitable) and Nunn said the Affordable Care act needed fixing as Purdue said it needed killing. The Chamber audience likely is with Nunn on that one as well as her stated desire to fix the immigration system in more ways than just a wall as Purdue suggested.
All in all a win for Nunn and a better race in the offing than we might have expected.
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