Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell tonight totally confused the United States’ history with Afghanistan when talking about the Obama administration’s plan to withdraw troops from the country.
She complained that Obama and Democratic nominee Chis Coons are advocating something dangerous by proposing a drawdown of troops begin next summer.
“A random withdrawal, that he has said he supports, will simply embolden the terrorists to come after us even more, saying, ‘I’ve chased away the superpower,’” O’Donnell said during a nationally televised debate hosted by CNN at the University of Delaware.
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Christine O’Donnell: Anti-Masturbation Crusader. Witchcraft Dabbler. Republican Senate Nominee.]
But her description of the United States’ role in Afghanistan in the 1980s came out a bit garbled:
Well if you remember when we were fighting the Soviets over there in Afghanistan in the ’80s and ’90s, we did not finish the job, so now we have a responsibility to finish the job and if you are gonna make these politically correct statements that it’s costing us too much money, you are threatening the security of our homeland.
She also briefly confused Iraq and Afghanistan. Coons corrected her.
Asked if the country is more secure now than it was under President George W. Bush, Coons said “Yes” and O’Donnell said “No.”
Watch the moment on Afghanistan:
The CNN/Time poll issued just before the debate showed Coons leading by 19 points. The TPM Poll Average gives Coons a lead of 56.4%-37.3%.
Additional reporting by Rachel Slajda
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