It may not have been held in an octagon, but a debate last night at Penn State between Karl Rove and Howard Dean was still a rhetorical brawl, according to reports. The pair clashed over the basic battle lines of the reform debate, with Dean arguing that a public option is “imperative” for reform’s success, and Rove claiming the entire Democratic reform model is sure to drag the country in to debt, despair and destruction.
Overall it was a “cerebral” affair, according to the AP. But the crowd wanted fireworks, and they made sure they got their wish.
“Liar! Liar!,” some in a crowd of mainly students yelled at Rove toward the end of the night, when the former deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush brought up the No Child Left Behind education legislation as an example of an issue that could attract bipartisanship.
“These people must be from Michigan — or they must be from Ohio State, I don’t know,” Rove quipped, referring to Penn State’s biggest football rivals.
