Harold Ford And Michael Steele’s Secret Debating Past

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Harold Ford Jr. and Michael Steele are debating “America’s future” tonight, but it turns out these two politicians have a past.

Apparently, they’ve faced off at least twice before in debates on college campuses.

Back in October 2008, the two squared off at Duke University, and talked about everything from race to energy policy.

Steele, who was then chair of a Republican Political Action Committee, GOPAC, reportedly said at the time: “We can be a little intellectual here, we can get gritty-not greedy, that’s Wall Street, but gritty-we can be friends and we can be adversaries.”

When asked what advice he would have for the incoming President, Steele responded: “Don’t panic and don’t do anything stupid.”

Ford, who was then chair of the Democratic Leadership Council, piped in: “Don’t blame anyone and work hard.”

This past October, the two went head-to-head again at American University. This time, things were a little more heated.

Steele apparently slammed the White House push for health care reform, calling it “reckless.”

Ford fired back: “Where Chairman Steele and I disagree fundamentally, is I think now is the time to act.”

But Steele wasn’t finished!: “When the federal government starts a program, it doesn’t go away. The Frankenstein monster has nothing on it.”

“I love the outrage of the tea parties,” Ford countered, “but where was it when you all ran up a trillion dollar deficit?” Burn!

Here’s a tantalizingly quick clip of an unidentified blast from the Ford-Steele debating past. Skip to the 1:50 mark for the good stuff:

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