A tale of two debates

South Dakota voters saw two U.S. Senate debates Wednesday night: Rick Weiland, Larry Pressler and Gordon Howie against frontrunner Mike Rounds, and Rounds against President Barack Obama.

Rounds, the Republican, laid out his debating strategy in his opening statement.

"A vote for any one of my opponents is a vote for President Obama's failed policies," Rounds said — a sentiment he would repeat, over and over again, for the next hour.

The other three candidates, all trailing Rounds in the polls, spent their time challenging, critiquing and questioning the Republican.

"The thing that I'm disturbed the most about Mike Rounds is he's not been willing to stand up and take any responsibility," said Weiland, the Democrat, on Rounds' handling of the EB-5 immigrant investor program in South Dakota.

Howie, an independent, was the most aggressive debater, criticizing Rounds almost any chance he got.

"The question we hear as we go across the state is if we can trust Mike Rounds," Howie said, then addressed the former governor. "Even your opening statement was misleading."

Pressler, whose underfunded campaign has been attacked by both Democrats and Republicans, kept asking Rounds to retract allegedly false statements about him.

"For Gov. Rounds to say that a vote for me would be a vote for Obama's policies... almost every week I've been critical of some part of the Obama policy," said Pressler, an independent. "Gov. Rounds, I would like you to withdraw that statement."

Rounds, speaking next, didn't take Pressler up on that — or even address it. Instead, as he consistently did throughout the debate, he pivoted to attack the president and his policies on health care reform and energy.

"If you truly want to see this president limited in what he does in the next two years in terms of damaging policy for South Dakota... then a vote for anyone up here besides myself is a vote for this president to remain unfettered," Rounds said.

Obama is highly unpopular in South Dakota, with just a 34 percent approval rating in the latest Argus Leader-KELO-TV poll.

Wednesday's debate was the final of four Senate debates with all candidates present. It was hosted by KELO-TV.

Near the end of the debate, Rounds finally addressed the attacks in an oblique way.

"You haven't heard a vision from them," Rounds said of his opponents. "What you've heard is them trash me."

The debate did touch on a range of issues, from EB-5 to the Keystone XL pipeline and gun control.

Rounds and Howie defended the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, while Weiland opposed it and Pressler said it should be rerouted away from South Dakota. Weiland and Pressler each supported background checks for gun ownership, which Rounds and Howie opposed. The latter two each touted their endorsements by gun rights groups: Rounds by the National Rifle Association, Howie by the more hardline Gun Owners of America.

Howie, Pressler and Weiland all attacked Rounds' management of the EB-5 program, where foreign investors were recruited to invest $500,000 in South Dakota projects in return for a green card.

"The issue is corruption at the state level. That's what we haven't had examined and looked at," Pressler said.

Rounds ignored the criticisms of how he handled South Dakota's EB-5 program, which is one of hundreds of national EB-5 "regional centers." Rounds said the federal government should review EB-5 nationwide.

"There are lots of federal programs out there that need to be reviewed," Rounds said — before switching back to his core message. "Take a look at Obamacare, that's got to be reviewed."

Weiland, who has feuded with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, shot back against Rounds' attempts to tie him to Obama.

"I've distanced myself from the Democratic Party," Weiland said. "I don't think they're interested in someone... fighting the big money that controls our government."

Weiland endorsed his plan to allow young people to buy into Medicare, but spent most of his time attacking his campaign's prime targets: the role of "big money" in politics, and of special interests such as "Big Oil."

Pressler took advantage of the televised debate to defend himself against attack ads and mailers.

"Your mailboxes are being flooded with false information about me, and the two parties are so afraid I might win because I might disrupt the power structure in the Senate," Pressler said.

As the final candidate to speak, Pressler returned to that topic and closed the debate with a statement all the candidates might embrace after this multi-million-dollar campaign: "Don't believe the ads!"