Missouri’s top candidates for the US Senate squared off in the only true debate the two will have this election. Social Security, taxes, health care, jobs, foreign affairs, guns and the environment – all covered in a one-hour debate in St. Louis, broadcast statewide. Republican Jim Talent denied he would privatize Social Security. Democrat Carnahan criticized Talent’s tax policy, saying his ideas on the Estate Tax and others only benefit the top one percent. Talent defended gun ownership, while Carnahan claimed he would allow ownership of assault rifles. Talent supported the President’s doctrine on embryonic Stem Cell research. Carnahan said it doesn’t go far enough to support promising genetic research.Carnahan, Talent and the Libertarian and Green Party candidates for the Senate meet in a forum on Thursday in Columbia.
