WE'VE MOVED
Please note that we've moved to a new blog at www.LibraryGrape.com.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Ohio Debate Live Blog
[Disclaimer: I just realized I am on a time delay due to my DVR, my time references are a bit off as a result.]
Conclusion - Unlike the last debate, which I thought was pretty much a tie, Obama knocked this one out of the park. Hillary Clinton got booed and hissed repeatedly and Obama comported himself well, was strong, cool under pressure. Hillary was repeatedly evasive, blatantly lied and mischaracterized in some really painfully obvious ways.
10:37 - Clinton is asked the same question and, will she take the high road? So far she is. She just gets off a cheap gender card applause line by again noting for everyone that she's a woman. Her question is "Who can actually change the country". Then she goes back to her whole 35 years B.S. My answer to her question? Not you, Hillary Clinton, not you.
10:35 - Williams asks Obama what question Clinton needs to answer to prove she's capable. Obama takes the high road and says she is definitely qualified to be President and goes on to discuss his qualifications.
10:34 - More honesty and straightshooting from Obama, he says that while there is vanity and ambition in this race, it is seriously important that we change the way business is done in Washington.
10:31 - In response to a question regarding what vote in the past would each candidate take back, Hillary takes back her vote. Obama has a nice honest moment when he said he should have fought against the adjournment that led to Congress intervening in the Shiavo debacle.
10:19 - Hillary tries to make some silly point her "rejecting" anti-semites when she ran for the Senate. What is she trying to say? She is somehow implying that Obama is not standing on principle. She is saying there's a difference between "denouncing" and "rejecting". Somehow she's implying he is soft on antisemitism. Wow, he got off a great laughter line when he said that if Hillary was more comfortable with the word reject then "I reject AND denounce". Classy and masterful!
10:13 - The Farrakhan issue comes up and Obama parries well. He gets a great opportunity to address the Jewish community. He makes a great statement on the issue that I think will be getting a lot of coverage in the Jewish press tomorrow.
10:11 - Now Russert takes her to task for not releasing her records as First Lady. Her answer was fair but evasive.
10:08 - Russert takes Clinton to task for not releasing her tax return. Ooh, she takes an obvious and clumsy dodge. Oh wow, she just plugged her website and asked for donations! Have you no shame. Yet ANOTHER round of boos and groans from the audience. She is still evading. More groans and boos from the audience when she says she's real busy right now and can't get to releasing the returns just now. She says she'll "work toward releasing". This is her lowest moment in the debate and shines a very bad light on her.
10:03 - Nice, Obama ripostes by saying there's more to passing healthcare than "fighting". He says, as witness, look to why her taskforce failed. He says we need to mobilize the American people to push for change. He says that there's nothing magical about motivating the voters. Nice, and he just pointed out that she's taking millions from special interests.
10:01 - Clinton says she's a fighter and talks about hobbling the special interests. Hmm, and who exactly is donating to her campaign and NOT to Obama's? Oh yeah, lobbyists.
9:56 - Nice, they're playing the clip of Clinton's derisive sneering mockery of Obama that's getting a lot of play all over the internet. That is NOT good for her. Obama's reaction to her "all words" theme was an excellent discussion of his policy achievements. Well played.
9:50 - Russert is being tough on Clinton, a bit abrasive even. Not very fair, it's true.
9:46 - Nice! Obama frames the decision to go into Iraq as Hillary voting to drive the bus into the ditch and his votes while he's been in office as voting on how to get the bus out of the ditch. Very adept metaphor. Now onto Pakistan and he makes a good statement about the fact that we did in fact just recently take out a high-level Al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan against Musharraf's denial to allow the operation the go forward.
9:43 - Hillary tries to riposte on Obama's discussion of Iraq. She tries to say his opposition means nothing because he wasn't in power yet. Didn't work. Now onto meeting with dictators and "he basically said that he was going to bomb Pakistan."
9:40 - Williams asks Obama about Clinton's recent speeches on his "inexperience". Nice, he frames his answer in terms of Iraq and points out that Clinton equates "experience" with time in Washington. He makes an excellent foreign policy speech and talks about Pakistan.
9:37 - Russert questions Clinton on her economic plan and her pledge to create 5 million new jobs and her 2000 pledge to create 200,000 new jobs in upstate New York when, in fact, there's been a net loss of jobs there. Her response was thorough and direct. I think she cam off well.
9:33 - Obama's NAFTA response is solid and similar to Clinton's. He definitely gets the better of this issue.
9:31 - Dang! Russert is really laying into Clinton. He basically said "the record is clear" on her prior support of NAFTA. I think this will really hurt her in Ohio. Russert just validated Obama's flier saying that Hillary Clinton supported NAFTA and has now flip-flopped. Her response was defensive and unconvincing.
9:29 - Tim Russert just laid into Clinton and validated Obama's reference to her saying that she thought that NAFTA was, on balance, good for New York and good for the country. Zing!
9:24 - She just got seriously booed again after she made some snarky statement about her always getting the first question in the debates. She also made a clumsy reference to the SNL skit that said the media was in bed with Obama . She is really coming off poorly so far. Cringe-worthy.
9:23 - Senator Clinton I think just got booed after Brian Williams told her this was the question on this topic, I think she might have gotten booed again. She is coming off as grating and "bullyish".
9:22 - Obama is keeping his own well and called her out on her mischaracterizations.
9:20 - First 20 minutes of the debate and MSNBC gives Clinton the agenda.
9:19 - What a liar, she just said that Obama has a mandate for parents so their plans are the same.
9:18 - Nice comeback, Obama called out Hillary for her inaccurate statement that he doesn't support universal heathcare.
9:16 - Hillary just said that Obama's flyer was just like something the Republicans would put out. Dirty. She again claimed that Obama was not for universal healthcare.
9:14 - Obama's response to Clinton was solid and well-put.
9:09 - Good job MSNBC, let Clinton determine the first question based on her "Shame on you" remarks. They gave her a great opening remark opportunity. Wow, the gall of this woman to say they should debate over the accuracy of campaign fliers. Talk about the pot calling the kettle.
8:58 - Almost ready. I wonder how this is going to go.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment