Well, that didn’t take long.
It may have been Republican candidate Linda McMahon who asked the most important question of this week’s first match-up of Senate candidates in Connecticut on Monday. “How do you create a job,” she asked Democratic Attorney General Dick Blumenthal, who has a slight lead in the race.
Blumenthal replied with a slightly tortured and tautological answer.
“A job is created, and it can be in a variety of ways, by a variety of people, but principally by people and businesses in response to demand for products and services. And, the main point about jobs in Connecticut is we can and we should create more of them by creative policies, and that’s the kind of approach that I want to bring to Washington,” he said.
Today, the McMahon camp exploits the gaffe by running a a simple ad, which plays McMahon’s question and Blumenthal’s answer, unedited. “Why can’t Dick Blumenthal answer this question?” reads the text over Blumenthal’s response.
The pair met again today for a second debate, in which McMahon hit the same theme as Blumenthal criticized the WWE, the wrestling empire that built McMahon’s fortune. The group has been under federal investigation for steroid use among its wrestlers in the past, and Blumenthal accused McMahon of tipping off a doctor— a charge she’s denied.
“I think you want to constantly focus on WWE because it’s really difficult for you to focus on the economy and creating job,” she told the attorney general. “You don’t understand business. It’s not your fault. You’ve been in government all your life.”