When the Senate Candidates Debate Tonight.

The first debate between Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Linda McMahon, to be broadcast live tonight at 7 p.m. on Fox CT, presents different challenges and opportunities for each candidate.  Both would like to score a decisive win, though the rules of these encounters rarely allow one candidate to land a knockout blow. Self-inflicted wounds are more common.

Most candidates are satisfied to get through an hourlong confrontation without any bruises or lost poll points.  A debate ought to be Mr. Blumenthal’s terrain.  He has, after all, argued before the Supreme Court of the United States, where 9 people lob any questions they want. He’s been in public life since the 1970s, so the substance of a question ought not stump him. His poor performance in the winter debate with his Democratic opponent, Merrick Alpert, has to have been an outlier.

Mr. Blumenthal needs to show he’s not running for Attorney General of the United States Senate.  Voters want to hear about economic issues: jobs, deficits, and taxes.  A discourse on his opposition to deep water oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico will seem an incongruous use of his time with unemployment over 9%.  References to suing Pfizer, a company that employs thousands of Connecticut workers, may step on his message of restoring economic vitality to Connecticut and the nation.

The 5-term attorney general should deliver as many odes to the anxious middle class as he can fit into each answer.  It may get repetitious but it must be done to reassure restive Unaffiliated voters who’ve drifted away from the Greenwich Democrat since he began his campaign in January.  Assertive should not become overbearing.  No Rick Lazio moments.  Pressing for details on what Mrs. McMahon would do to cut the federal budget may prove fruitful–if he can also provide some.

There are plenty of areas where Mr. Blumenthal, who is fluent in the language of politics and government, can score points against Mrs. McMahon.  Her life in professional wrestling, however, probably is not a target-rich topic for him.  Mrs. McMahon continues to show herself adept at parrying any steroid thrust.  Talk of wrestling will allow Mrs. McMahon to segue into her record creating jobs, not something that works to Mr. Blumenthal’s advantage.

Mrs. McMahon will survive this crucible by showing she’s fluent and comfortable in the contrived format of a modern political debate. Expect the Greenwich Republican to possess enough knowledge of Mr. Blumenthal’s six years in the state legislature to harass his with references to his budget votes.  The McMahon campaign late last week began blasting away at Mr. Blumenthal’s support for deficits and tax increases while he served in the State Senate before he was elected attorney general in 1990.

Most of Mr. Blumenthal’s tenure as attorney general is a no-go zone for Mrs. McMahon. She’ll have to use reply time to move the debate back to the economy.  Mrs. McMahon will concede with her silence that voters approve of Attorney General Blumenthal, but they are wary of making him a United States Senator.

There’s no sign that Mrs. McMahon thrives on in-the-moment confrontation.  She won’t raise Sergeant Blumenthal’s Vietnam fantasies herself, but she’ll have a zinger or two if someone else does.

They’ll both have some one-liners ready to go that they never get to use.  One of the incongruities of this intense campaign will be on display tonight.  The two candidates are polite by nature and brawlers from the safe distance of a media buy.  Mrs. McMahon draws from a deeper well of charm, Mr. Blumenthal of detail.  Each has a platoon of aggressive spinners ready to try to convince you that you saw what you didn’t, or didn’t what you did.