Clinton Falls, Edwards Rises in Whack-a-Mole Democratic Debate
Last night's NBC News Democratic debate in Philadelphia resembled a pizza emporium round of whack-a-mole, with Hillary Clinton as the mole. Except that this time, Hillary, the mole, deserved the whacking.
The winners of this whack fest were unclear. But the losers are crystal clear: Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, and especially Dennis Kucinich, who proudly confessed that he's seen a UFO.
Sen. Hillary Clinton (See Clinton Donors and Fundraising Info)
No one assailed Hillary Clinton on her competency, intelligence, leadership skills or diligence because she's unassailable on those qualities. Sen. Clinton is roundly recognized as a well-qualified candidate for the presidency.
Instead, Hillary Clinton was repeatedly assailed for her honesty and forthrightness. And she richly earned it, as she illustrated before our very eyes last night.
In fine Clintonian politico form, Hillary dodged and weaved innumerable questions with evasive answers and obscuring responses. Edwards, Obama, Dodd and Biden rightfully all accused her of political opportunism and dishonesty. And they charged her with playing both sides of the politcal street (i.e. taking both sides of various issues).
While their accusations were mildly interesting, none of their charges whacked the mole squarely on the head. Instead, Hillary the mole whacked herself by blurting out an immigration issue position 100% contradictory to one she'd stated merely two minutes earlier.
And Dodd and Edwards loudly called her on it. Big time. Game over... the mole lost.
At one point, I thought that if looks could kill, Hillary Clinton would have glared John Edwards to death ten times over. Her composure was ruffled, her countenance was grim, her voice was angry throughout most of the two hours. This is the Hillary that so much of the American fears. This is the Hillary that drives male voters away in droves.
If Hillary Clinton's candidacy can survive the whacks she took at last night's debate, and the similar whacks she will doubtlessly take in the next few months, she will earn the Democratic nomination.
I'm praying that Sen. Clinton learned a thing or two from the legitimate criticism hurled at her last night. Because if she can move beyond the legendary Clintonian ultra-politico behavior, nothing can... or should... stop her from becoming the next President of the United States in 2009.
One thing, though... Sen. Clinton needs to remember that Americans NEVER elect the angriest candidate to the White House.
Most Memorable Line of the Debate :
"I do not want to balance Social Security on the backs of our seniors and middle-class families. That's why I put fiscal responsibility first, because we have to change the Bush tax cuts, which I am committed to doing."
Barack Obama (See Obama Donors and Fundraising Info)
As he framed and intellectualized and yakked and dumbly promised the media ahead of the debate, Barack Obama came out swinging at Hillary Clinton.
Sort of. Eventually. Softly at first, morphing into medium-strength, and then finally confronting her face-to-face.
But that's not a bad thing. MSNBC's Chris Matthews likes to say that if Obama continues to act like an NPR-listening, Starbucks-swilling, peaceable liberal, he has no chance to beat out the rough-and-tumble Clinton machine.
As a bona fide member of the NPR-listening, Starbucks-swilling set, I beg to differ with Mr. Matthews. Democrats are tired of continual alpha-male brawling, and utterly exhausted by politicians who shade and skirt the truth.
Most after-debate polls give the edge to Sen. Obama, and I agree. Obama acted the professor role with maturity and cool intelligence when discussing Iraq and Iran, Social Security, energy policies, transparency of government and so on.
The professor occasionally picked up the mallet and whacked the mole... at first gingerly, then firmly. But never with the unabashed gusto of a killer-instinct politician set free from his inhibitions.
Sometimes, I'm left wondering how much Sen. Obama really likes being a politician...
Most Memorable Line of the Debate:
"Senator Clinton... has been for NAFTA previously. Now she's against it. She has taken one position on torture several months ago, and then most recently has taken a different position. She voted for a war, to authorize sending troops into Iraq, and then later said this was a war for diplomacy."
John Edwards (See Edwards Donors and Fundraising Info )
John Edwards, the gifted trial attorney, emerged at last night's debate, and he made me grateful I'll never face him in a courtroom. Or in a debate.
John Edwards confronted Sen. Clinton again and again and again on her lack of honesty and veracity on the issues. And he was absolutely correct to do so. The Edwards-Clinton match was a dog fight, and Edwards was top dog.
Problem is, Edwards spent more time whacking Sen. Clinton than he did delineating his stances on the issues.
But that's probably not a bad thing, either. Thanks to an endless plethora of debates, we know where these candidates stand on everything imaginable.
If Edwards' plan was to take the Clintons down using their own street-savvy rumble tactics, he executed his plan superbly. With two months remaining until the Iowa caucus on January 3, 2008, Mr. Edwards has plenty of time to convince Clinton supporters to move over to his team.
John Edwards remains a serious contender for the Democratic nomination, and his fortunes may be rising. Don't count John Edwards out, as he really wants this. And gifted trial lawyers are a hard bunch to beat ...
Most Memorable Line of the Debate:
"Unless I missed something, Senator Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes just a few minutes ago. "
Chris Dodd (See Dodd Donors and Fundraising Info)
Sen. Chris Dodd again impressed with great command of facts and progressive ideas, and his vast wealth of experience. He also never hesitated to confront Hillary Clinton when she was offbase, yet refrained from personalizing his attacks.
Dodd reeks of integrity, patriotism, morality and strong leadership, and it continues to amaze me that his candidacy doesn't catch fire with Democrats.
Dodd scored major points when he was the lone Democrat to decry issuing drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, citing driving as a privilege, not a right.
Pundits report that Sen. Dodd is ascending to the top of the second-tier candidates. I hope so, as he is our overall best and best-qualified candidate for 2008. He's certainly the most underrated among them.
Most Memorable Line of the Debate:
"This is a privilege. And, look, I'm as forthright and progressive on immigration policy as anyone here. But we're dealing with a serious problem here...The idea that we're going to extend this privilege here of a driver's license I think is troublesome... Talk about health care, I have a different opinion. That affects the public health of all of us. "
Joe Biden (See Biden Donors and Fundraising Info)
Without Joe Biden, the 2007 Democratic debates would be dull affairs. (Or should I say duller?)
Perhaps jealous of Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, who recently spouted clever one-liners at the Republican debates, Joe was hilariously relentless in his attacks on Giuliani, dubbing him "probably the most underqualified man since George Bush to seek the presidency."
Biden, who recently received the first newspaper endorsement of the 2008 race, spoke authoritatively, especially on foreign policy issues. But, of course, Sen. Biden is chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Like Sen. Dodd's campaign, I'm unsure why Biden's hasn't captured more Democratic support.
Most Memorable Line of the Debate:
"Rudy Giuliani -- there's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11. I mean, there's nothing else."
Bill Richardson (See Richardson Donors and Fundraising Info)
Despite the usual shilling of his resume and recitation of his extensive experience, Bill Richardson seemed to be trying-out to be Hillary's vice-presidential running mate or perhaps secretary of state. The former Energy Secretary and U.N. ambassador under President Bill Clinton openly pandered to an approving Hillary when everyone else was confronting her.
Several cable news pundits wondered out loud if Richardson has given up his chase for the White House. I'm wondering the same...
Most Memorable Line of the Debate:"I'm hearing this holier than thou attitude towards Senator Clinton that -- it's bothering me because it's pretty close to personal attacks that we don't need. Do we trust her? Do we -- did she take money from special interests?"
Dennis Kucinich (Kucinich Donors and Fundraising Info)
Most Memorable Line of the Debate :
"... it was an unidentified flying object, OK? It's, like, it's unidentified. I saw something. Now, to answer your question, ... I'm also going to move my campaign office to Roswell, New Mexico... "
Thank God in heaven that the Democratic Party at long last dropped cranky, crazy Mike Gravel from its debates.
And NBC's Tim Russert continued to ask stupid, irrelevant questions designed to bait and humiliate candidates, not engender discussion of the important issues facing Americans.
The next Democratic party-sponsored debate is November 15th, my birthday. I'm not sure what to wish for in the debate. :)
(Photo taken on October 30, 2007: William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)
Also Read: Hillary Clinton's Quid Pro Quo Mess over Earmark for Woodstock Museum
Comments
Someone needs to take that double talking war mongerer to task. Go, John, go.
And NBC’s Tim Russert continued to ask stupid, irrelevant questions designed to bait and humiliate candidates, not engender discussion of the important issues facing Americans.
…such as asking hillary to comment on a comment she made and giving 30 seconds to explain her very strong stance on an exceptionally complicated issue. i was glad she called them out on trying to play “gotcha” with her on that. clearly she wasn’t prepared for the question, but i frankly agree with her (and obama) that it makes sense to some extent.
dodd makes me want to take a nap, richardson seems to have given up, edwards came across like a whiney, angry man, and biden and hillary were the only ones who seemed in command of the issues. obama, once again, left his passion and convinceability at home.
he seemed to just be jumping on edwards’ coattails with the hillary attacks, only to wind up explaining himself into a place where it was clear he doesn’t really disagree with a lot of what hillary stands for. except for his opening statement, i thought his arguments were weak and played-out.
on a different note, i hope we can expect no more russert-moderated debates in the near future. his questions are more irrelevant and unimportant.
sorry for the two comments in a row–i also have to say, i know and understand why the war comes up in every debate, but i think it’s pretty clear where all the candidates stand on it at this point.
it’s not the only important issue. i’d love to see someone press the candidates to debate in as much detail how to fix education and the environment, since those are both relevant. again, i guess that goes back to russert’s stupid questions. i thought having the “should we make the school year longer” question in there was silly. there’s so much more that can and should be addressed about public education aside from how long students sit at their desks.
(clearly this debate got me fired up)
“Thank God in heaven that the Democratic Party at long last dropped cranky, crazy Mike Gravel from its debates.”
How can you be happy that the debates have one less candidate? It wasn’t the Democratic Party that dropped Gravel, it was the company that owns NBC, General Electric. They currently hold billions in contracts due to the war in Iraq. And who is the only one talking about the military-industrial complex?
The entire first half of the debate was about the impending war with Iran and Hillary’s vote to label the IRG a terrorist, a topic that would not have even been discussed in the previous debate had MIKE GRAVEL not brought it up.
So doesn’t that make you wonder, who’s really important at these debates? Who is saying anything of substance? Who’s actually speaking his/her mind and not just pandering to the people’s wants?
You call him crazy. But if any of these candidates are crazy it’s Hillary. And Gravel is the only one with the balls to stand up to her.
This debate was by far the worst one BTW. Lots and lots of bickering, with no substance. Kucinich got hardly any talking time, and for Christ’s sake they asked him if he saw a UFO! Nonsense. Horrible debate NBC! Great job.