Former Govs. Tim Kaine and George Allen will trade punches for the first time in person during Wednesday’s U.S. Senate debate after months of launching attacks from afar and still half a year before they officially become their party’s nominees. The pair of skilled, season politicians will waste little time digging into the main issue at hand, the ailing economy, with vastly different takes on who is to blame for the prolonged high unemployment and historic deficits. The campaign could swiftly evolve into a referendum on whose economic policies were a bigger failure, George W. Bush or Barack Obama.
Since Kaine entered the race for the Democratic nomination, Allen’s campaign has repeatedly criticized the former Democratic National Committee chairman for siding with President Obama on virtually every issue, from tax increases on the wealthy to the latest attempt at a jobs bill. For his part, Kaine hasn’t shied away from the Obama comparison, and on Tuesday laid the groundwork for a new round of attacks on Allen’s record in the Senate from 2001 to 2007.
Under Bush, the Republican Allen spent “six years in Washington squandering the largest surplus in American history and turning it into a huge deficit, and who is now asking voters of Virginia to re-elect him to the senate to do more of the same,” Kaine adviser Mo Elleithee said.
In turn, Allen pins the ballooning deficit on Obama’s Kaine-backed agenda and promised to highlight the differences during the debate.
