Vote '08

(this is the 1st of 3 posts)

Why, John McCain of course!

Read the full transcript of the debate on ABC News here.

Some thoughts:

• I’d say it was almost a tie, with Hillary barely edging Barack out.
• Both of them looked exhausted.
• Clinton made news by admitting that Obama would receive her full support if he’s the nominee. She has not said that before, & in fact has tried to triangulate herself with McCain against Obama. She appeared to ‘know the score.’
• ..except when she was taking opportunities provided by the debate moderators (on them, more later) to raise questions about a) his electability, b) his ‘bitter’ remarks, & most glaringly c) his acquaintances.
• Obama seemed tired, & that impression was magnified by an obvious attempt to choose his words carefully, as he was still stinging from the ‘cling’ controversy.

Clinton’s Best Moment:

“And I have no doubt — I know Senator Obama’s a good man and I respect him greatly, but I think that this is an issue that certainly the Republicans will be raising.

And it goes to this larger set of concerns about how we are going to run against John McCain. You know, I wish the Republicans would apologize for the disaster of the Bush-Cheney years and not run anybody, just say that it’s time for the Democrats to go back into the White House.

(APPLAUSE)

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be willing to do that. So we know that they’re going to be out there, full force.

And, you know, I’ve been in this arena for a long time. I have a lot of baggage, and everybody has rummaged through it for years.

(LAUGHTER)

And so, therefore, I have an opportunity to come to this campaign with a very strong conviction and feeling that I will be able to withstand whatever the Republicans send our way.

This is essentially her entire campaign strategy at the moment.

Clinton’s Worst Moment:

“I can tell you that I may be a lot of things. But I’m not dumb. And I wrote about going to Bosnia in my book in 2004. I laid it all out there. And you’re right. On a couple of occasions in the last weeks, I just said some things that weren’t in keeping with what I knew to be the case and what I had written about in my book.And, you know, I’m embarrassed by it. I have apologized for it. I’ve said it was a mistake. And it is, I hope, something that you can look over because, clearly, I am proud that I went to Bosnia. It was a war zone. General Wesley Clark is here in the audience with me, as one of my major supporters. He and I were talking about it before I came out.

You know, our soldiers were there to try to police and keep the peace in a very dangerous area. They were totally in battle gear. There were concerns about potential dangers. The former president of Bosnia has said he was worried about the safety of the situation.

So, I know that it is something that some people have said wait a minute. What happened here? But I have talked about this and written about it. And then, unfortunately, in a few occasions, I was not as accurate as I have been in the past.

But I know, too, that being able to rely on my experience of having gone to Bosnia, gone to more than 80 countries, having represented the United States in so many different settings, gives me a tremendous advantage going into this campaign, particularly against Senator McCain.

So, I will either try to get more sleep, or, you know, have somebody that, you know, is there, as a reminder to me. You know, you can go back for the past 15 months. We both have said things that, you know, turned out not to be accurate. You know, that happens when you’re talking as much as we have talked. But, you know, I’m very sorry that I said it. And I have said that, you know, it just didn’t jive with what I had written about and knew to be the truth.”

This absolulely 100% does not put this issue to rest for her. Not sure what she should have said instead, but she definitely should have taken less time in answering.

Obama’s Best Moment:

“Let me just pick up on a couple of things that Senator Clinton said, though, because during the course of the last few days, you know, she’s said I’m elitist, out of touch, condescending.

Let me be absolutely clear: It would be pretty hard for me to be condescending towards people of faith since I’m a person of faith and have done more than most other campaigns in reaching out specifically to people of faith, and have written about how Democrats make an error when they don’t show up and speak directly to people’s faith, because I think we can get those votes, and I have in the past.

The same is true with respect to gun-owners. I have large numbers of sportsmen and gun-owners in my home state, and they have supported me precisely because I have listened to them and I know them well.

So the problem that we have in our politics, which is fairly typical, is that you take one person’s statement, if it’s not properly phrased, and you just beat it to death. And that’s what Senator Clinton’s been doing over the last four days.

And I understand that. That’s politics. And I expect to have to go through this process.

But I do think it’s important to recognize that it’s not helping that person who’s sitting at the kitchen table who is trying to figure out how to pay the bills at the end of the month.

And Senator Clinton’s right: She has gone through this. You know, I recall when, back in 1992, when she made a statement about how, what do you expect, should I be at home baking cookies? And people attacked her for being elitist and this and that.

CLINTON: And I remember watching that on TV and saying, well, that’s not who she is. That’s not what she believes. That’s not what she meant.

And I’m sure that that’s how she felt, as well. But the problem is that that’s the kind of politics that we’ve been accustomed to. And I think Senator Clinton learned the wrong lesson from it because she’s adopting the same tactics.

What the American people want are not distractions. They want to figure out, how are we going to actually deliver on health care? How are we going to deliver better jobs for people? How are we going to improve their incomes? How are we going to send them to college? That’s what we have to focus on. And, yes, they are, in part, frustrated and angry, because this is what passes for our politics instead of figuring out how do we build coalitions to actually move things forward.”

Deft application of the perils of taking things out of context. Will it help him? Maybe a little. Possibly not at all.

Obama’s Worst Moment: the entire first 45 minutes of the debate.

Stay tuned for more thoughts on last night’s debate! What do you think? Post a comment & let us know!

****”The views and opinions represented here are mine and mine alone. They do not represent the views or opinions of any other employee or the management of WTVC-TV or Freedom Broadcasting Corp.”****

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.