Carly & Barb, Together Again

It's still early in the second Carly Fiorina-Barbara Boxer debate (which you can listen to at KPCC) and Boxer has already invoked Alan Blinder and the often wrong but never in doubt Mark Zandi.

Boxer continues to demagogue the outsourcing issue. A local tech executive asks if she opposes outsourcing in all cases, and she dances.

A sensible followup from Patt Morrison (I think): Is it time for U.S. wages to float and fall? Boxer: "Absolutely not."

1:24: Boxer says she supports border enforcement. Brags that border-crossing apprehensions are down 80 percent.

1:25: Fiorina can't name the extreme environmentalist groups she accuses Boxer of supporting.

1:28: Fiorina: "Scientists agree that a single state or single nation acting alone can have no impact on global warming." Opposes cap & trade.

1:31: Boxer: "Fact is we have to act" on global warming.

1:35: Fiorina: "We're not helping people." PPACA is "not compassion." Insurance companies are "oligopolies" that face no competition. Subsidize the highest-risk pool and let everybody else compete. Breast cancer survival in United States is "30 points higher" than in UK and Canada.

1:39: Boxer: "The way we drew up [PPACA], the states have a lot of flexibility."

1:43: Boxer: "We're 29th on infant mortality behind Cuba."

1:44: Because of course the U.S. Senate is where Roe v. Wade was decided, we are once again back to a lengthy disquisition on the candidates' abortion views. Patt accuses Fiorina of making up a story about a pregnant family member.

1:48: Boxer: "I gave birth to two premature babies." And that's not even counting PPACA.

1:50: Military assistance to Mexico to help fight the narcotraficantes?
Fiorina: "Mexico is approaching a failed state." Gives a nice Spanish pronunciation of Monterey. "We should support government of Mexico, and we haven't."

1:52: Weird segueway to assault weapons and no-fly list allows Boxer to skate on the military assistance question.

1:54: Boxer: "I worry about the corruption" in Afghanistan and Iraq. "I don't support nation building. I support nation helping." Very important that America "not have an open checkbook."

1:55: Boxer close: "She laid off 30,000 workers, she shipped their jobs overseas, she enriched herself and she says she's proud of her record."

1:57: Fiorina close: "I started my working life as a secretary. And when I was a secretary I was accountable for my work to my boss."

Done. Advantage: Fiorina.