Valerie Kuklenski: And in this corner...

It was never expected to be a lovefest, nor even an agree-to-disagree-fest. "You'll be happy to know we had an argument in the green room," Franken said right off the bat.
With each of them in the habit of calling the other a liar, it seemed in the best interest of either finishing a sentence to let them take the podium one at a time. Franken went first, explaining that it wasn't his preference to do so because it left him without the advantage of responding to his appallingly ill-informed nemesis worthy opponent.
He talked point by point along the lines he raises often on his self-titled Air America radio show, listing what he feels are the laughable mistakes and deadly actions of the Bush administration and the Republican majority in the Capitol.
Instead of countering any particulars raised in Franken's remarks, Coulter came out and addressed the audience as if she were going first, reading from a script peppered with petty snipes and faulty generalizations that was short on real information, new or otherwise. She just plain forgot to exercise her rebuttal opportunity.
She quoted Sen. Joseph McCarthy with high regard, without any supporting facts called the war in Iraq "a magnificent success" -- yes, it was this week she said this -- and predicted that in a year's time the insurgents would be reduced to "three barefoot irregulars in the shed of a chicken."
During the introductions of the pair, my unofficial applause meter suggested to me that the crowd of some 5,500 at the Gibson Amphitheatre was split about 50/50. But that's not what emerged as the night went on.
While Franken scored a few intentional laughs or chuckles and generally was treated with quiet respect as he spoke, Coulter had a harder time, getting laughs for points she raised as facts and ghastly silence when she surely hoped for laughs. If this were a TV sitcom, there would have been at least a few occasions for sound techs to insert microphone feedback or chirping crickets. Her loudest applause came when she said, "I'll conclude now..."
During the Q&A time moderated by Robert Wexler, Franken droned (hey, that's how he talks) in detail about veteran's benefits and some other issues and twice was called on it by one man in the audience who shouted "Boring!" -- a different type of heckling than his stand-up experience trained him for. Franken took umbrage when the guy shouted it a second time as he spoke about cuts to veterans' benefits.
The phrase "Ann Coulter is a lying whore" was uttered twice, but debate judges will note that it was said both times by Coulter herself, again without supporting evidence.
She also repeatedly referred to Iraqis as "our little brown brothers" -- without citing information as to the average height of Iraqis compared with Americans.
Judges scoring a high school debate most likely would tell Franken to tone down the nasal quality and be more concise. And they would tell Coulter to cut the snarky comments and spend more time boning up on facts.