O’Donnell Debate: Comes Up Blank on Supreme Court Question, Calls Opponent Marxist

Far right-wing Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell got a chance to show the country her stuff last night on a debate televised by CNN. The result? She can’t name even a single Supreme Court case in recent years she disagrees with. After trying to dodge the hot seat by asking the moderator to give her a specific case as an example, she gave up; “I’m very sorry, right off the top of my head, I know that there are a lot, but I’ll put it up on my website, I promise you,” she said.

Later in the debate, she seized on a humorous college op-ed by her opponent, Chris Coons, to declare him a Marxist. He laughed off the accusation. And critics watching felt this finger-pointing was likely to scare voters away from her, not him. Salon’s Steve Kornacki wrote:

To swing voters, the headline “O’Donnell accuses Coons of being a Marxist” will surely reflect worse on her than him; they already suspect she’s unhinged – that she’d make such an extreme-sounding allegation on national television will only confirm that judgment.

O’Donnell trails Coons by double digits in statewide polling.

Gawker and Salon have full recaps.