Tuesday, November 08, 2011

YES, there's also debates in Spain:

Spanish opposition leader Mariano Rajoy defeated Socialist Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba in their only election debate, polls showed, strengthening the People’s Party’s chances of clinching a record majority on Nov. 20.

A poll by newspaper El Pais, a traditional Socialist backer, showed Rajoy won by a margin of 5 percentage points, while broadcaster La Sexta gave him an 8.7 percentage-point advantage. A poll by El Mundo newspaper showed 51 percent thought Rajoy won, compared with 44 percent for Rubalcaba.

Rubalcaba's main mistake is that quite a few times in the debate, he tried to make everyone forget he had been deputy Prime Minister under Zapatero, so his recipes of what he would do opened the question of why he didn't do them when he had a chance. Also tactically, he kept asking Rajoy what he will do, even going as far as saying "I know what you will do; you will raise taxes", which was an admission that he sees himself as having zero chance of winning..