Foxnews Blog

by Sarah Courtney

Las Vegas, NV - Democratic Senator Harry Reid and Republican Sharon Angle faced off in their one and only televised debate Thursday night, both throwing punches.

"Man up Harry Reid," Angle exclaimed at one point, "You need to understand that we have a problem with Social Security." The Republican candidate for the Nevada U.S. Senate race was on the offensive throughout the sixty-minute exchange, accusing her opponent, Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of mismanaging Social Security in Congress. Angle takes the position of most Republicans, backing partial privatization, which Reid opposes.

The two disagree on virtually everything. Topics of the debate ranged from immigration to Yucca Mountain to education to health care reform. "My opponent doesn't like any insurance companies to have to do anything." Reid said of the Tea Party Express backed Angle, "She's against mammograms, colonoscopies, and as we've heard lately insurance companies covering kids who have autism."

Never calling his opponent by name, Reid referred to Angle as "extreme" on more than one occasion. She hit back hard, ripping on Reid for letting other countries join the federal law suit against Arizona's tough anti-illegal immigration law. "Senator Reid, you've allowed 11 foreign countries dictate our immigration laws. That's just nuts".

Angle attacked Reid on the war, saying he owed an apology to the troops, "When you said the war was lost and General Petraus was dishonest, you demoralized our troops and endanged them, you need to apologize to them." Reid was cool in his explanation. The soft spoken Senator who has been endorsed by Veterans of Foreign Wars said his statement was that "the war can not be won just militarily, but economically and diplomatically". He called the surge "the right thing to do".

Going into the debate 21 days before election day, the two were locked in a statistical tie, the Real Clear Politics Average had each at 45.4 percent. Early voting in the Silver State starts Saturday.

Carl Cameron contributed to this post.