It will also be what is played over and over starting tomorrow and will become the only points a good portion of the voters remember.
Wow, I wish I had found this thread earlier. I’ve been reading the posts on the New York Times “Live Blog” of the debate, and for some reason the lunatics are out in force over there.
Well God seems to be behind Obama for the last few contests.
I like the idea that Clinton is not the power hungry one though.
No game-changing moments here. Obama handled the theatrics of the Clinton tape very well with humor, Hillary actually did too. Her bitching about the questions coming to her first was quite curious- like a football coach saying “damn, we always get the ball first.” The SNL quip was a clinker, you’d think by now she would learn that she is not Jay Leno and can’t use a canned line and get away with it. She came as close as she is capable of admitting the Iraq vote was a mistake, Obama finally had the perfect comeback for the Clinton-McCain nonsense about Obama wanting to bomb Pakistan.
Personal observation- I think as a moderator, Tim Russert is head and shoulders above the whole of CNN. His questions were well thought out, his follow ups were laser sharp, and he didn’t ask any stupid questions. He dogged at Hillary about releasing her tax forms and on Obama for the public finance pledge. Outstanding job, Tim.
Well, some people have spoken…and they feel it’s Obama by a KO:
Obama looked and sounded Presidential a few times, which can only help, even if it was obvious when he evaded some questions. His Iraq criticism was very strong and will get some strong play on the news. His last answer was good. And he did do a very good job rising above her obvious sarcasm with the “choirs” thing. She just doesn’t have the capability to do that.
She did get him on the Israel question. He seemed to be deliberately avoiding the word denounce and she called him on it. Otherwise I thought she was strong on the details, but she undermined herself with the “I get the first question” whine and her habit of talking over everybody.
Holy guacamole. I know that sort of poll is decidedly unscientific, but still… wow.
“Uh…med…uh, uh, meni, medved, medved-davuh, whatever, yes.”
Hm, a liberal commentator (Rachel Maddow of Air America Radio) just said the real winner of the debate was McCain… Anybody else think it was that bad?
It was boring, but not that bad.
Do you think Obama would have nailed the name if it had been him asked? I doubt it.
BTW I would have laughed out loud if Obama had credited HRC for his “proud to be here with Hillary Clinton” bit: “… and yes that phrase is borrowed from Hillary …”
I think his strongly positive words that Hillary Clinton would be a good standard bearer (but he’d be better) took a lot of wind out her sails. She was ready with a response that would have been one of her negative memes and instead had to wing it with a “but I’m a woman and isn’t that special. Vote for me because I have ovaries. He doesn’t.”
Sounds like she knew the name but didn’t know how to pronounce it correctly. I don’t blame her, I’ve heard it pronounced different ways and I still don’t know the correct ronuncitaion - is it med-VIEH-di-ef?
Again, boring and wonkish was just the right card for Obama to play right now. Glazing over a few eyes in a few debates is a small price to pay to disarm the impression that he lacks the policy knowledge heft to match his oratory skills.
With the mis-pronunciation thingie, Obama missed a huge opportunity. It should have gone something like this:
“You know, Tim, I just thought I’d interject here and state that I think, if I can speak for the both of us, that I didn’t know the name either, and that this intense campaign season has really made it difficult to keep up with foreign affairs to the extent that we normally would”
Of course it would have sounded better if the Big O had said it but you get the drift. It would be on of those things he does that isn’t really giving up much, and making him seem much more generous.
He has a way of turning these “Gotcha!” politics into non-issues. That’s the great thing about him, because the Republicans will dial it up a notch and he’ll just shrug it off.
I think that, overall, Obama came out the winner. They were both strong on policy points but Obama didn’t share in Clinton’s weak beginning, bombed SNL comment and general snark. She got her game together (I think the muttered boos made her realize going negative wasn’t going to work) but people still saw that first twenty minutes.
More to the point, Obama seemed knowledgable, confident and presidental. He handled himself well under the usual attack points (Pakistan, “Celestial Choirs”, Health care, etc). He didn’t give people interested in him an obvious reason to think “Wow, voting for him would be a mistake!” Clinton really needed Obama to fumble the ball and block his growth in the polls. He’s leading in Texas now and 5-6% shy in Ohio according to SurveyUSA & Rasmussen and I don’t think anything from tonight will kill that. Now, with no more debates, Obama is free to work his rally and speeches ground game which is significantly stronger than Clinton’s. She missed her last chance here and I expect an Obama victory in Texas and Ohio.
Where can I find clips of this debate? I can’t seem to find them in the usual places…
It was an MSNBC debate so I’d start there.
“Reject and denounce” was a very deft answer and took some wind out of Hillary’s sails. I like the way he never takes the bait when people are trying to start shit with him. That calm, measured demeanor of his really is rather “Presidential.” He’s always a cucumber no matter what’s getting thrown at him.
I also liked “Sounds good to me,” which I thing lightened a tense moment.
Speaking of things mispronounced . . . Obama mispronounced Massachusetts (Massa-TOO-setts), twice.
I’ll be damned, I didn’t realize they were still on the air.