An assumption by all too many Georgians leading up last Friday’s U.S. Senate debate in Savannah was that Republican candidate Herschel Walker would underperform while the more experienced speaker incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock would dominate. Just the opposite occurred as analyzed by various pundits on all sides of the political spectrum.
Walker’s performance wasn’t perfect, but as I stated on yesterday’s “The Georgia Gang” on Fox5Atlanta WAGA-TV, his aggressive and well-prepared performance shattered the narrative by Warnock and his allies that the former University of Georgia football legend is simply a “dumb jock.”
On social media, a pundit known only as “Bonchie” with RedState had this succinct analysis: “With a story breaking recently that Walker paid for a girlfriend’s abortion back in 2009 (a story he denies), it’s actually surprising that he was willing to go that hard on the topic. Having seen him do it, though, I’m convinced it was the right move. Walker did not need to give up on the chief way to paint Warnock as an extremist, especially when the Democrat is limited in how he can respond because he has his own skeletons in the closet he doesn’t want to be brought up. All in all, it was a good strategy.
“On the economy and other policy questions, Walker pressed Warnock on his support for Joe Biden and his inability to make positive change for Georgians. It was another good segment for the Republican candidate.”
As I said on the “The Georgia Gang,” Walker was the aggressor, and an aggressor usually wins a debate. Warnock, on defense for a large part of the hour-long debate, was relegated to defending himself and dodging answers to several questions posed by panelists. Incredibly, Warnock actually refused to answer whether he’d support Joe Biden for president in 2024 even though he has been a reliable vote in the Senate for virtually all of the far-left Biden agenda.
By the way, Warnock fumbled his answer on whether he supported Biden’s suggestion that the Atlanta Braves baseball team be renamed because the name is somehow “politically incorrect.” (Walker is for keeping the name.) Again, let me close by quoting the perceptive “Bonchie”:
“It’d be easy to assume that a disastrous non-answer like that won’t amount to anything, but never underestimate how shallow voters can be. There’s a non-zero number of people in Georgia who will see that and see Warnock as a coward, so warped by Washington politics that he can’t even support the hometown baseball team.
“In the end, Walker’s closing argument came down to the same point many have been making about this race: That Warnock is a ward of Joe Biden and both have helped diminish the country to its current, sad state.”
Walker’s unexpectedly good performance might have just boosted his voter support and guaranteed him a run-off with Warnock, with no candidate achieving a win on November 8th with 50 percent plus one of the vote.
