The Blog Formerly Known As Vote '08

We hope you’re as excited as we are for tonight’s debate; it’s been so so long since we’ve had one!

& to make things more interesting .. there’s a chance that this may be the very last one between Clinton & Obama.

Here are some links to get you primed & ready:

Chris Cillizza over at the Washington Post’s blog “The Fix” breaks it down this way:

* Clinton — Naughty or Nice? Clinton’s approach has fluctuated widely in recent debates. At times she is magnanimous to and about Obama, at others she appears to be looking for every opportunity to knee-cap him. Our guess is that the tougher Clinton is the one who takes the stage tonight; her campaign, rightly or wrongly, believes that the “bitter” comments made by Obama offer her perhaps her best chance yet in the campaign to change the narrative. If Clinton can’t make “bitter” stick to Obama tonight, she may never have another opportunity to do so; no other debates have been scheduled in the remaining six weeks of the nomination fight.

* Obama — Professor or Pugilist? Like Clinton, Obama has adopted a number of different styles during the 20 (or so) debates of the campaign. The Illinois senator is best when goes off script — often during a heated exchange between candidates. Obama is quick on his feet and has a natural sense for repartee. He’s at his worst when faced with a question about the economy or health care; he dips into his college professor mode, offering a series of philosophical arguments almost entirely bereft of specifics or any real passion. For The Fix, the difference in Obama’s approaches is similar to listening to a CD and seeing a band live. Obama needs to go for that live feel tonight.

Veteran political journalist Dick Polman has advice for what Obama needs to say tonight, at his blog, Dick Polman’s American Debate.

& pollster Doug Schoen has advice for Hillary: go negative.

We hope you watch, think over who you think won, & come back here to post a comment! We’ll be waiting!

Details here.

These are just the first polls & there’s still plenty of time for fallout - if any - to show up before the April 22nd primary.

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Hi! We’re back. I have to work this Saturday & Sunday & thus was off yesterday.

Two of you have commented on the Barack “bitter” controversy (see post below this one) & I hope more of you weigh in as well. We’ve offered our take on it.. but this blog needs to realize its full potential by having you weigh in with your thoughts. All views are welcome.

Tell us what you think of this response ad from Hillary, too…

& also, here’s a parody of that ad. Boy these internets are quick!

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Several of you have weighed in!

Otto J Drobny says:

I do not see why all the fuss except for the media. It should not be a surprise there are bitter people everywhere not just Pennsylvania that do not trust the government. You will find them right here in Chattanooga

Tish Jackson writes

I am amazed at how silly it is….the media, Hillary and McCain making a big deal out of one sentence that is nothing less than true when you take it in context, and when we are all honest. If there is a large contingent of Americans who are not bitter, who believe their government is taking great care of them, then please correct me and show me where they are. I believe the majority of Americans are bitter about how their government and politicians have performed, especially over the last eight years. What’s so wrong in calling it out?

It’s incredible to me that something like this will get so much attention in order to cast it in a negative light, when it is not negative. It makes those trying to make it look negative resemble petty high school kids starting a rumor they hope will stick. It also assumes that most Americans are unwilling to educate themselves, and will take the media’s word for it. Unfortunantly, it’s likely true. Why is it true? Because Americans are bitter and no longer feel they have a voice, and therefore don’t pay close attention. Ironic?…oh yeah!

What’s keeping you from commenting? All views are welcome! Tell us how you think!

Barack Obama spent the weekend explaining himself out of some “inartful” comments he made about voters in Pennsylvania.

Read them for yourself:

“So, it depends on where you are, but I think it’s fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people feel most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre…I think they’re misunderstanding why the demographics in our, in this contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes it to ‘white working-class don’t wanna work — don’t wanna vote for the black guy.’ That’s…there were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today - kind of implies that it’s sort of a race thing.

Here’s how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn’t buy it. And when it’s delivered by — it’s true that when it’s delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laugher), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter).

But — so the questions you’re most likely to get about me, ‘Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What’s the concrete thing?’ What they wanna hear is — so, we’ll give you talking points about what we’re proposing — close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama’s gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we’re gonna provide health care for every American. So we’ll go down a series of talking points.

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you’ll find is, is that people of every background — there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you’ll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I’d be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you’re doing what you’re doing.

The comments highlighted in bold are the ones that many have taken out of context to portray him as “elitist.” Whether or not that’s true, it will be interesting to see how this affects him in the polls.

What do you think he meant? We hope you weigh in in the comments, as this is a topic that is worthy of a lot of discussion.

We discuss this further - including responses from Clinton & McCain, & Obama’s explanation - after the jump.

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