'You made that up,' Dean tells Rove in debate

As one might have guessed, there were plenty of fireworks Tuesday night during a debate between former Bush adviser Karl Rove and former DNC chair Howard Dean held at Penn State.

Pennsylvania's Centre Daily reports,

There was little agreement, but a good bit of name calling, during the event which ranged in tone from heated to humorous.

“That’s a made up statistic, Karl Rove. ...For the first time tonight, I’m calling you on it,” said Dean, a medical physician and the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “You made that up."

Rove had said that Medicare rejects claims twice as often as the overall health insurance industry, and he promised to put the proof in his Wall Street Journal column next week. “And I would appreciate it if you didn’t question my integrity. ..Mr. Dean, you just called me a liar and I don’t appreciate it,” replied Rove, former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to George W. Bush and a Fox News contributor. Later, Rove called Dean “adolescent” after the former Democratic National Committee chairman interrupted one of his answers.

An Associated Press article adds,

"Liar! Liar!," some in a crowd of mainly students yelled at Rove toward the end of the night, when the former deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush brought up the No Child Left Behind education legislation as an example of an issue that could attract bipartisanship.

"These people must be from Michigan — or they must be from Ohio State, I don't know," Rove quipped, referring to Penn State's biggest football rivals.

A recent poll shows more Americans identify themselves as conservative than moderate or liberal.

Gallup reports:

Conservatives continue to outnumber moderates and liberals in the American populace in 2009, confirming a finding that Gallup first noted in June. Forty percent of Americans describe their political views as conservative, 36% as moderate, and 20% as liberal. This marks a shift from 2005 through 2008, when moderates were tied with conservatives as the most prevalent group.

WTAJ reports

Governor Dean says polls like this don't mean anything. But Karl Rove says its shows the people feel deceived by the President. Because he says President Obama campaigned as a centrist and is more liberal in his presidency.

Some people in the audience weren't surprised to hear the poll results, but some people are skeptical of the numbers.

In the following video, Karl Rove and Howard Dean can be seen debating the poll Tuesday night at Penn State.

This video is from Fox News' America's Newsroom, broadcast Oct. 29, 2009.

Download video via RawReplay.com