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The Democrats debated at Wesleyan College and West Virginia Public Radio was there. Link to MP3 audio download or click here to stream from the site. Link to transcript (pdf).
Barth: The other thing we can do as a government is support trade remedies like the Byrd Amendment. It required that duties on illegal imports be paid directly to the industries harmed, like steel. And in 2006, the Republicans in Congress voted to repeal the Byrd Amendment, over the objections of the entire Democratic delegation of West Virginia.
Cooper: We have to figure out what we do best in this country. There are some types of commodities that come in and some jobs, they're not coming back. Like textiles, the clothes that most of you guys wear are made in other countries. Those jobs are not coming back.
Robb: What I think should be done, and this is very difficult, I think products should be looked at individually with respect to whether there is indeed fair trade, or whether slave labor, or polluting industries, or whether child labor is being dumped in the United States.
Barth had a great answer and I liked Robb a lot in 2006 and I think you can see from that answer his heart is in the right place. However he finished third in the primary that race and he just doesn't have the support. I'd rather he had run for state senate. Cooper sounds like someone who thinks we should just throw our hands up instead of come up with solutions.
Finn: At the end of the day, Democrats have one overriding question - who can actually beat Shelley Moore Capito, who has beaten back competitor after competitor for the past eight years. Barth says her experience running Senator Byrd's office in West Virginia gives her the edge.
Barth: People often say that Congresswoman Capito is a nice person, and that's true. But her policies are bad for our families. She came in with George Bush seven years ago and voted with him four out of
five times. Cozying up to George Bush and Dick Cheney may have worked as a strategy to help her own political career, but it has been a terrible strategy for helping West Virginians.
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