Barack Obama won the debate last night, hands down. And I'll tell you why.
Now maybe my perspective is skewed because I live on the west coast, in Los Angeles. By the time the debate rolled around I had already read the reviews here on DailyKos and elsewhere, telling me this was a hit job on Obama and that he seemed off his game.
That wasn't what I saw at all. Maybe Obama didn't have the energy of some of his stump speeches, but he seemed about on par with how he's been in previous debates. In other words, calm, deliberate, composed. And his answers to almost all of the questions were fantastic.
Don't believe me? Follow me past the fold for a breakdown of his greatest hits (and Hillary's lowest lows).
As you know, the first hour of the debate was devoted to tabloid attacks on Obama, with one break to ask Hillary about Bosnia. From the reviews I was expecting that Obama flubbed his answers. But do these look like flubs?
Bittergate:
Obama: 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 -- 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.
First he dismisses the idea that he, of all people, is condescending towards people of faith. Then he turns it around and questions why we talk about such petty issues when folks are hurting out there, trying to pay their bills.
And he goes on, demonstrating his total class in relation to Hillary:
Obama: 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. 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.
A craven politician would have brought up the cookies remark and used it as an example of how Hillary is condescending towards stay-at-home moms. But not Barack. He brings it up specifically to dismiss it, to stand up for Hillary, and to give her an example of how we need to move past these petty politics.
When Obama was dismissing the irrelevance of the cookie controversy, Hillary actually looked at him and smiled. I think deep in her heart she appreciated the dignity of his response, and probably respected for it. But this is politics, and she never responded in kind.
Reverend Wright:
Obama: I specifically said that these comments were objectionable; they're not comments that I believe in. And I disassociated myself with them.
What I also said was, the church and the body of Reverend Wright's work, over the course of 30 years, were not represented in those snippets that were shown on television, and that the church has done outstanding work in ministries on HIV/AIDS, prison ministries, providing people with the kind of comfort that we expect in our churches.
....
The reason we've attracted new people into the process, the reason we've generated so much excitement, the reason that we have been so successful in so many states across the country, bridging racial lines, bridging some of the old divisions, is because people recognize that unless we do, then we're not going to be able to deliver on the promises that people hear every 4 years, every 8 years, every 12 years.
And it's my job in this campaign to try to move beyond some of those divisions, because when we are unified, there is nothing that we cannot tackle.
Once again he clearly addresses the substance of the question, distancing himself from Wright's YouTube moments while also pointing out the good works conducted by his church. And once again he tries to turn the discussion back to real issues.
Senator Clinton, seeking to squeeze the last drop of political advantage from this story, tries to drive the knife in during her answer:
Clinton: But I have to say that, you know, for Pastor Wright to have given his first sermon after 9/11 and to have blamed the United States for the attack, which happened in my city of New York, would have been intolerable for me.
My girlfriend, an ex-New Yorker who used to be for Hillary back in January, was totally disgusted by this answer. It's basically a right wing GOP attack, saying "why do liberals blame America first?" Totally repulsive.
Does Wright Love America?
Obama: This is somebody who's a former Marine. And so I have -- I believe that he loves this country, but I also believe that he's somebody who, because of the experiences he's had over the course of a lifetime, is also angry about the injustices that he's seen.
If anything, I think Obama could have discussed more about Wright's military service, particularly in comparison to such "patriots" as Dick Cheney with his five deferments. But this is nonetheless a direct and strong response to a ridiculous question.
Hillary, of course, squeezed harder, using everything she's learned from NewsMax:
Clinton: It is clear that, as leaders, we have a choice who we associate with and who we apparently give some kind of seal of approval to. And I think that it wasn't only the specific remarks, but some of the relationships with Reverend Farrakhan, with giving the church bulletin over to the leader of Hamas to put a message in. You know, these are problems, and they raise questions in people's minds.
And so this is a legitimate area, as everything is when we run for office, for people to be exploring and trying to find answers.
This answer is simply craven and despicable. You could see her eyes dodging around as she said it, knowing that she was really in the muck at this point. Obama offered her so many chances to turn this back towards policy, back towards a dignified discussion. But neither Hillary nor the moderators wanted that.
But hey, how do you think Hillary might handle it if the tables were turned? Check out this dodgy response.
Snipergate:
Clinton: 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 the potential dangers. The former president of Bosnia has said that 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, on a few occasions I was not as accurate as I have been in the past.
But I know too that, you know, 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, Tom, or, you know, have somebody who, 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 jibe with what I had written about and knew to be the truth.
What a rambling, confused answer. The usually precise Hillary Clinton says "you know" 8 times! And she not only tries to once again state how dangerous the trip was, she also implies that she lied about things she knew were not true. And what's this about a potential President needing someone there as a "reminder to me"? I thought only 71-year-old McCain needed assistance remembering things? This is the only tabloid-type attack on Hillary the whole night, and she flubbed completely.
Obama could have gone on to say that "Potential Presidents should not be lying to the American people about their foreign policy experience." He could have gone that route. Instead, he said this:
Obama: I think Senator Clinton deserves, you know, the right to make some errors once in a while. I'm -- obviously, I make some as well.
I think what's important is to make sure that we don't get so obsessed with gaffes that we lose sight of the fact that this is a defining moment in our history. We are going to be tackling some of the biggest issues that any president has dealt with in the last 40 years. Our economy is teetering not just on the edge of recession, but potentially worse. Our foreign policy is in a shambles. We are involved in two wars. People's incomes have not gone up, and their costs have. And we're seeing greater income inequality now than any time since the 1920s.
In those circumstances, for us to be obsessed with this -- these kinds of errors I think is a mistake. And that's not what our campaign has been about.
That's how classy he is. The kind of class you expect in a primary between two folks of the same party. He rescued Hillary from her terrible answer, and as a result the debate moved on. This is why Obama is winning the primary, and why he has raised record amounts of cash from small donors. He really is a different kind of politician.
Flag pin:
Obama: And so what I've tried to do is to show my patriotism by how I treat veterans when I'm working in the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee; by making sure that I'm speaking forcefully about how we need to bring this war in Iraq to a close, because I think it is not serving our national security well and it's not serving our military families and our troops well; talking about how we need to restore a sense of economic fairness to this country because that's what this country has always been about, is providing upward mobility and ladders to opportunity for all Americans. That's what I love about this country. And so I will continue to fight for those issues.
And let me just make one last point on this issue of the flag pin. As you noted, I wore one yesterday when a veteran handed it to me, who himself was disabled and works on behalf of disabled veterans. I have never said that I don't wear flag pins or refuse to wear flag pins. This is the kind of manufactured issue that our politics has become obsessed with and, once again, distracts us from what should be my job when I'm commander in chief, which is going to be figuring out how we get our troops out of Iraq and how we actually make our economy better for the American people.
A completely spot-on answer. He discusses what real patriotism is, that he doesn't have any real problem with flag pins, but thinks that they are a symbol of the baseless phoniness into which politics has descended.
William Ayers:
Obama: George, but this is an example of what I'm talking about.
This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago, who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.
And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn't make much sense, George.
The fact is, is that I'm also friendly with Tom Coburn, one of the most conservative Republicans in the United States Senate, who during his campaign once said that it might be appropriate to apply the death penalty to those who carried out abortions. Do I need to apologize for Mr. Coburn's statements? Because I certainly don't agree with those either.
So this kind of game, in which anybody who I know, regardless of how flimsy the relationship is, is somehow -- somehow their ideas could be attributed to me -- I think the American people are smarter than that. They're not going to suggest somehow that that is reflective of my views, because it obviously isn't.
This is one of his best responses of the night. First dismissing this tenuous connection he has with Ayers, points out that the events in question happened when Obama was 8 years old, and then smartly brings up the fact that he is friends with Tom Coburn, but that doesn't mean he agrees with his extreme positions.
At this point it was clear that Obama, while perhaps not prepared for how many tabloid/smear questions would be asked, had great responses for all of them.
When Hillary, who has really become a GOP shill at this point, then tried to tie him to Ayers because they once served on a board together, Obama hit back hard:
Obama: I'm going to have to respond to this just really quickly, but by Senator Clinton's own vetting standards, I don't think she would make it, since President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground, which I think is a slightly more significant act than me (APPLAUSE) than me serving on a board with somebody for actions that he did 40 years ago.
Hillary was offered a chance to respond, and for the first time all night she decided to keep her mouth shut. That was not an argument she was going to win.
The debate continued into real issues -- Iraq, Iran, gun control, affirmative action. I won't break down the responses there, since both Obama and Hillary did just fine. Perhaps Obama could have been stronger on the Israel question, but by his nature he's not the type to say "We'll bomb the shit out of Iran" like McCain or Hillary would. And Hillary's talk about freezing interest rates and putting a moratorium on foreclosures is completely ridiculous.
But overall, I do not see how this can be called a loss for Obama. Perhaps if you went into the debate having watched the clip of Obama saying "Shame on her. She knows better!" then you thought he looked comparatively tired. I didn't. He looked in control, intelligent, dignified, and prepared.
He took on the worst slime of the whole campaign season, and he delivered great answers for each of them. If this is the best the Republicans have, then bring it on. I am completely confident that none of this baseless smear stuff with be enough to derail this campaign, not even close.
This is why Barack Obama would make a great President. And this is why y'all should continue to
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