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Thursday, February 21, 2008
Texas Debate Live Blog
Crap, I missed the last moment.
I think, overall, that Obama did well and Clinton did well, which ultimately leans to Obama's favor. Hillary did little to stem Obama's surge.
9:38 - Final question! Obama talks about "taking responsibility for my own actions".
9:36 - Nice line from Obama about all the B.S. that people in Washington seem to be interested in. I'm distracted! Argh.!
9:25 - Nice! Obama highlighted how much easier of a time he would have debating McCain because he never voted to authorize the war in Iraq and never supported it.
9:21 - I have to jump off for a conference call.
9:17 - Obama says "I wouldn't be running if I didn't think I wasn't prepared to be Commander-in-Chief". He appropriately brings up Clinton's Iraq war vote. Nice, he paints her with the Bush brush. He goes on to highlight how right he was.
9:14 - Back to the actual question of why Hillary thinks Obama isn't ready. She does a regular double-step.
9:13 - Obama makes an excellent riposte and says that Hillary will garnish people's wages.
9:10 - Moderator asks about readiness to lead, Hillary switches to Health Care and gets booed.
9:02 - Obama on the health care question. Nice line, Obama noted that Bill Clinton's former labor secretary said that Obama's plan does the most to reduce health care costs. Ah, here he goes, he's laying into Clinton for coming up with her failed health care plan behind closed doors. EXCELLENT! Now, a break, I wish he would've laid into her more on her continued insistence on the B.S. plagiarism issue. However, I suppose it could be a good move on his part to minimize the issue.
9:00 - Again, Hillary pushes the plagiarism line. This is RIDICULOUS. Please God don't let her get away with this. Hmm, who was the audience booing, her or Obama? We're getting into the meat of it, now she's digging into him on a moratorium on home foreclosures and other things. Now she segues into Health Care.
8:57 - Here's the plagiarism question. Nice line: "we're getting into silly season in politics". He very effectively deflected the issue by noting that Deval Patrick is a co-chairman of his campaign. An overall EXCELLENT riposte.
8:54 - Nice! Obama calls out Clinton for implying that his supporters are delusional. He said, "It's not just a matter of putting forward policy positions." EXCELLENT RIPOSTE!
8:50 - Ooh, snap, question about Clinton's "Where's the Beef" B.S. She evades, tries to say that her "all style, no substance" statements were about President Bush! Such a liar! Oh, dear God, she just threw out the "35 years of experience" and the idiot Texas senator who couldn't name an Obama Senate accomplishment.
8:42 - On the question of "bilingualness", Obama wins the debate by discussing America's need to educate our children in more than one language to more effectively compete on the world stage and gets a good jab in at "No Child Left Behind" at the same time.
8:41 - Obama expands on the question and scores good points with his push for the DREAM act, whereby children of illegal immigrants are eligible for college assistance.
8:36 - Now onto the question of the border fence. Clinton zings a good line: "there's a smart way and a dumb way" to do the border.
8:35 - Still on the immigration question, Obama is doing a great job. He's making a number of excellent emotional and factual points and draws a great contrast with Bush.
8:28 - Hillary is going on about her proposal to (a) put a moratorium on foreclosures and (b) a multiyear freeze on interest rates. I am SO infuriated that the sheer insanity of these proposals has not been properly vetted. Every economist who has reviewed this has determined that this will DESTROY the mortgage industry for subprime borrowers.
8:22 - I have to take a call, the question is currently about the economy and how the candidates are different.
8:13 - Question regarding Castro stepping down -- moderator asks whether candidate will meet with the new leader of Cuba.
Clinton takes the line that many steps must be undertaken before she'll meet with him. Very reminiscent of her statements on Iran. "I won't talk to our enemies until they do what we want." After Obama speaks (below), Clinton continues on her same tack, which is basically the same Bush doctrine: "We don't meet with countries unless they comply with our demands FIRST". She tries to distance herself from Bush but her stated policy is not that different from Bush's policy.
Obama expands on his previous statements and says that he'll meet with the new leader of Cuba without preconditions as long as an agenda is agreed on. Later, Obama reinforces the fact that he is departing from the Bush doctrine of engaging nefarious leaders, which Clinton continually repeats that se is in favor of.
Winner: Obama, he was more candid and less parsed. He stuck to his previous statements and was open to meeting with both with our friends and our enemies. Clinton is too close to the Bush doctrine.
8:09 - Obama starts his opening statement. Nice start by noting that Hillary and he will remain friends. Nice line "what's lacking right now is not good ideas". He's said it before but it's oh-so-true. It's time to get stuff done. An interesting contract with Clinton -- he said that we need to "push against" the special interests rather than Clinton's "fight against" the insurance industry.
8:05 - Hillary makes opening statement in a snappy all-black-with-gold-collar-accents ensemble. She claims a "life of experience and proven results". The the "life of experience" line is a bit different. What "experience"? Corporate lawyer? Board member of Walmart? Overall, a solid opening.
8:02 - The debate begins, photo opps. Commentators note that Obama has won 11 of the last 11 contests. Also notes that Bill Clinton said that Hillary must win Ohio and Texas by a significant margin in order for her to win.
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2 comments:
Obama is holding his own. He has some good points. Smart too to agree with Hillary on some points. Limits her ability to contrast his points.
Did anybody really listen to the debate!!! Obama wants to fine parents because they cant afford health insurance for their children!! believe me if we could have insurance we would!!! there is no such a thing as affordable these days. every penny counts, and there is no extra pennies in most peoples pockets to buy any type of insurance.---or we would!!!
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