Hillary's Last Stand?
After some nineteen debates and months of campaign palaver, we've finally, mercifully come to the end game. Either Hillary Clinton delivers a knock-out blow tonight or Barack Obama will be the Democratic Party nominee for the fall. It's that simple. Last Thursday's debate was pretty friendly - bet you that tonight won't be. Join me for the fireworks!
posted by gatorbob @ 8:54 PM
14 Comments:
Right, Brian Williams is getting stuck in straight away with a question to Hillary about the photo of Barack in Somali garb that her campaign almost certainly leaked to Drudge over the weekend. She, of course, denies that her campaign did it and Barack accepts her word. Could have been a flash point but it passes. Now, they're back to splitting the atom with their respective health care plans.
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We're fifteen in and they're still arguing about whose mandates are better. I've got three words for them - national health care. Look into it. Works in Canada, works throughout Europe. Congress has it. The U.S. military has it. Gi's the national health care!
We're on to NAFTA now and Hillary is whining about having to answer tough questions and pointing people's attention toward the SNL sketch last weekend where Obama was offered a pillow. Pathetic.
The bottom line is that Bill Clinton was Mr. NAFTA and Hillary has voted for it again and again. Russert's nailing her down on it and she's not doing well.
Obama's not much better on it. He's missed several votes on NAFTA and CAFTA and has waffled in his written record on it. Russert asks him point blank if he would cancel the agreement and he doesn't say yes. He would "use a potential drop out as leverage." Not good enough. Where's Dennis?
On to foreign policy now. Clinton's been bashing Obama over the weekend about how he's as inexperienced as Dubya was when he ran the first time. The problem with her attacks on this issue is that they boil down to "he's as rotten as I am." That may well be true but it's not a great selling point.
After the brief break, Brian Williams has started in on the "hyperbole" of the campaign trail, first showing a clip of Hillary mocking Obama's speeches. The problem with this line of attack is that Hillary comes off as the "anti-change" candidate trying to convince people that change isn't possible.
Russert now asks a tedious question of Obama about Louis Farrakhan's support and whether he'll denounce him. As if a candidate should have to account for every lunatic who supports his or her campaign. Obama answers well saying he can't very well stop him thinking that "I'm a good guy," which gets a laugh from the audience. But Russert is a tedious bore to a fault, pressing him on it again and again until he faithful recites his everlasting support for the state of Israel. Hillary sensing that her opportunities to attack are waning hops on board and wonders why he hasn't "rejected" Farrakhan as well as "denouncing" him. This unfortunately is what passes for politics in the U.S.
Five minutes left - last chance for Hillary Clinton to put the boot in. Instead she's gone into a long monologue about Putin's "hand-picked" successor. That's certainly going to fire up the crowds in Ohio. She's done.
I was really annoyed by that whole exchange. Russert followed that up by playing gotcha with Hillary over how to pronounce Putin's successor's name. Poor.
Well done, lads, I saw the first thirty minutes and then I was off to DVR my way through Idol at warp speed. . . that Archuleta boy can sing, no? . . . Hillary's toast on Tuesday . . .
Apparently the new Russian president's name is....whatever. I agree, it was a bullshit "gotcha" question straight out of the Russert playbook. Agree with Trev. She's done on Tuesday and I can't wait to see the back of her. The worst instincts of the Clintons have come out under pressure and they need to pack off for a long, long vacation.
She's still selling experience when everyone wants change. It's Obama's to lose.
I thought Obama was particularly effective in bursting the experience bubble tonight. Russert showed a clip of him talking about the Clinton "co-Presidency" as if it were another "Gotcha" moment but Obama took it in stride and said that Clinton has claimed her eight years in the White House as part of her experience; without counting that she's a one-term Senator from New York, let's be honest. And Clinton didn't argue the point. Advantage Obama on that score.
Btw, I can't let this pass. Did we just out Sir Trev as a closet American Idol fan? I have to admit that I do enjoy the first couple of weeks of Idol train wrecks but at the point they get down to the final 24 Vegas belters, I'm out.
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