What was advance- billed as likely to be an “oh my” debate in Ohio turned out to be more of an “oh well” debate in Ohio where neither front-runner Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton scored a record-setting home run or embarrassingly self-destructed, in the view of many mainstream and “new media” analysts and observers. Will its timing before the pivotal March 4th Texas and Ohio primaries make a difference ?
Here’s some media and weblog reaction. As usual, weblogs were more inclined to bluntly proclaim a perceived “winner” than initial debate press reports.
NEWS MEDIA:
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois came under a full-out assault Tuesday night from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in their last debate before crucial primaries in Ohio and Texas that could make or break Clinton’s campaign.
Clinton has heatedly attacked Obama in the past week, accusing him of distorting her record on trade and health care in mass mailings to Ohio voters, and she stayed on the attack Tuesday night.
“I have a great deal of respect for Senator Obama, but we have differences, and in the last several days, some of those differences in tactics and choices that Senator Obama’s campaign has made … have been very disturbing to me,” she said at the outset of the debate.
Obama did not back down. He said that he had faced the same tactics from Clinton’s supporters but that “we haven’t whined about it because I understand that’s the nature of these campaigns.”
—The Chicago Tribune begins its article with Hillary Clinton’s joking complaint about media pro-Obama bias:
With the Democratic nomination likely in the balance, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had argued health care minutiae for 16 tense minutes on Tuesday when the moderators of their presidential debate finally pushed on to a second topic. The question was whether the North American Free Trade Agreement created jobs in the United States or killed them.
It was directed to Clinton.
“Well,” she responded, her voice rising, “could I just point out that, in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time? And I don’t mind. You know, I’ll be happy to field them, but I do find it curious. And if anybody saw ‘Saturday Night Live,’ you know, maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow.”
On a night when she and Obama accused each other of distorting legislative records and clashed across the fine lines that divide them on policy, Clinton’s complaint – and her reference to a comedy sketch that portrayed the national media as fawning over Obama — epitomized the frustrations of a candidate who has fallen from front-runner status to desperately needing a win in Ohio’s March 4 primary.
—The New York Times noted the front-runner (Obama) versus underdog (Clinton) characteristics of the debate:
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton sharply criticized Senator Barack Obama on health care, Nafta, Iraq and his record and political tactics on Tuesday night in her most pugnacious debate performance of the campaign, as she fought for fresh momentum before four potentially decisive nominating contests next Tuesday.
Mr. Obama, pursuing a front-runner’s strategy of nonconfrontation after winning 11 straight contests, mostly defended his positions and views, though he said that he and his team had not “whined” about the Clinton camp’s attacks on him. Sitting a couple of feet from Mrs. Clinton at a circular table, he appeared to listen intently to her attacks before responding in even tones.
The debate — the 20th for Democrats — was the final one before the March 4 contests in Ohio and Texas, states that the Clinton camp has labeled as must-win if she is to keep her campaign alive. Questions about which approach Mrs. Clinton would take to sway voters were quickly answered as she immediately confronted Mr. Obama, and she was relentless throughout the meeting. She insisted on responding to virtually every point that Mr. Obama made — often interrupting the debate moderators, Brian Williams and Tim Russert of NBC, as they tried to move on.
At the same time, it was one of the most detailed and specific of all the debates, with both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama giving long explanations of their records and views.
–The Washington Post focused on specifics:
Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama traded accusations over campaign tactics and engaged in a detailed dissection of their rival health-care plans in the opening moments of a critical debate here Tuesday night, their last meeting before key primary contests in Ohio and Texas next week.
Clinton used the opening moments of the debate at Cleveland State University to delve into health care, repeating her assertion that Obama’s plan would leave 15 million people uncovered. She interrupted Obama and the debate moderators repeatedly to press her points and complained briefly that she had been repeatedly subjected to the toughest questioning in this and previous debates.
Though attention was expected to focus on Clinton as she waged a battle to keep her campaign alive, Obama did not shy away from pushing back — saying that she had been misrepresenting his health-care plan throughout the race in mailings and ads that he said were “simply not accurate.” Obama said that he and Clinton both shared the goal of achieving universal health coverage, an assertion Clinton did not accept.
Clinton, who needs to win next week in Ohio and Texas to keep her presidential campaign alive after Obama’s streak of 11 straight victories in nominating contests, went on the attack early in the debate at Cleveland State University in Ohio.
Obama fired back repeatedly in a series of sometimes heated but controlled exchanges. The debate, the last before next Tuesday’s contests, was sharper in tone than last week’s encounter in Texas, but far less personal and angry than a debate last month in South Carolina.
Clinton kept up her recent criticism of Obama campaign literature sent to Ohio voters that she said mischaracterized her health care proposal, which includes mandates requiring Americans to purchase health insurance.
“We should have a good debate that uses accurate information, not false, misleading and discredited information, especially on something as important as whether or not we will achieve quality, affordable health care for everyone,” the New York senator said.
Obama, an Illinois senator, said Clinton has frequently misrepresented his health care plan, which does not include mandates and which some critics suggest could leave 15 million Americans uninsured.
Obama said he was interested in bringing the cost of health care down and making coverage more affordable and enforcing mandates could create a burden on some low-income Americans. Clinton’s criticisms, he said, were part of a consistent pattern.
—CBS News.com saw Clinton as making some headway and Obama perhaps not doing as well:
Clinton has to sweep all the rest of the primaries after next Tuesday and win 60 percent of the votes in the process just to even the delegate gap, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod. She hasn’t come within 17 points of Obama in the last 11 contests.
“Tonight was the culmination of over a year’s worth of campaign points and arguments,” said CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs. “It was certainly the best debate from both a substantive and political perspective and centered on the basic fault line of experience versus change. Experience kept change on the defensive for most of the evening and Obama was revealed to be a much more malleable candidate than he has in the past when it came to the finer points of issues like Iraq and trade.
“Whether Clinton did enough to stop his momentum and prevail in the must-win states of both Texas and Ohio next Tuesday remains to be seen,” Ververs said.
—The AP noted two of eyebrow-raising points:
The tone was polite yet pointed, increasingly so as the 90-minute session wore on, a reflection of the stakes in a race in which Obama has won 11 straight primaries and caucuses and Clinton is in desperate need of a comeback.
Clinton also said as far as she knew her campaign had nothing to do with circulating a photograph of Obama wearing a white turban and a wraparound white robe presented to him by elders in Wajir, in northeastern Kenya.
“I take Senator Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo,” Obama said.
In one curious moment, Clinton said, “In the last several debates I seem to get the first question all the time. I don’t mind. I’ll be happy to field it. I just find it curious if anybody saw “Saturday Night Live,” maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow.”
In its episode last Saturday, the comedy show ran a feature portraying the news media as going easy on Obama, and a questioner asking at one point if he was comfortable and needed another pillow.
WEBLOG REACTION CROSS-SECTION:
—Andrew Sullivan live blogged. Here’s a small cross-section:
10.36 pm. Obama won it – quite easily. It was overwhelming before the final break. But decisive nonetheless. I can’t see how she manages to rescue her campaign now. And his momentum will continue. It’s over, right?
10.29 pm. A nice classy semi-closer from Obama. And in a very smart way, he made a substance argument and a detail argument.
10.09 pm. Farrakhan. Does Obama understand that saying he has consistently denounced him is not the same as simply saying, “I denounce him”? A weak response – reminiscent of Dukakis. (By the way, why is it somehow only a question for Jewish Americans that Farrakhan is a fascist hate-monger? It’s a question for all Americans.) Obama’s Farrakhan response suggests to me he is reluctant to attack a black demagogue. Maybe he wants to avoid a racial melee. But he has one. He needs to get real on this. Weak, weak, weak. Clinton sees an opening and pounces. She wins this round. He is forced to adjust. His worst moment in any debate since this campaign started. I’m astounded he couldn’t be more forceful. His inability to say by himself, unprompted, that Farrakhan’s support repels him and he rejects it outright really unsettles me.
I have not believed that Obama has an ounce of sympathy for a creep like Farrakhan. But Obama has now made me doubt this. If David Duke called John McCain a good man, would McCain hesitate to say he’d rather Duke opposed him? If this is how Obama wants to tackle this emotive issue, he needs to get real.
–In her live blogging Ann Althouse has this:
Brian Williams plays Hillary the “I am absolutely honored” from the last debate followed by the “shame!” routine from the other day. What’s with the mood swings? It’s a “contested” campaign, she says and segues into a discussion of health insurance. The follow-up is about the “native garb” photo of Obama. Hillary doesn’t know where it came from and doesn’t condone it. Obama accepts her assertion about the “native garb” photo. Both of them derail Williams’s plan and make this whole huge segment of the debate about the details of their rival health care programs. It’s one filibuster after another.
Overall, it’s hard to see this debate as changing the trajectory of this race; Obama was a bit more defensive tonight than last week and had more stumbles tonight than in more recent encounters. Clinton really flubbed that “SNL” line and she did so early so it made it into a bunch of writeups; she should have saved it until it was more appropriate. It was a contentious debate, but civil; and both will probably be better nominees for it.
It’s hard to pick a winner; Clinton was more prepared but Obama survived and that’s probably the name of the game for him at this late date in the campaign.
—Right Wing News’ John Hawkins:
Summary: I thought Hillary started really strongly, but Obama was a little better from the middle on. In the end, they were relatively closely matched, as per usual.
On the upside, they fought with each other a little more, which made it more exciting. Russert also hit them with some relatively tough questions at times, which is a change from the underhanded softballs both candidates, particularly Obama, usually get from the press.
Winner: Hillary Clinton, but probably not by enough to make a huge difference.
Loser: Barack Obama, who came across as tired, arrogant at points, and wasn’t quite as good as usual with Hillary actually trying to go after him.
—Daily Kos has a batch of live blog entries. Here is one:
Russert is being an ass, and he is without question making things harder for Clinton. Case in point: On the question about whether they would withdraw completely from Iraq if the Iraqi government asked, he gave Obama time to answer but interrupted Clinton very quickly. It’s a noticeable difference in treatment. That said, the fact that she is also consistently going after Obama makes her problems with the moderators look like her aggression when I think it’s more a combination of the two factors.
–A couple of reactions from the always-lively progressive site My DD’s live blogging by various bloggers:
Update [2008-2-26 22:19:47 by Jonathan Singer]: I’ve got to say, even though it was defused a bit towards the end of this second segment, that Hillary Clinton would stoop to making insinuations about Barack Obama being anti-Semitic or not sufficiently denouncing anti-Semites is really beyond the pale to me, just totally unacceptable. There can be attacks in this primary, and the candidates can disagree on issues. But I am just shocked that Clinton would stoop so low to make such insinuations. I am somewhat appalled, both as a Democrat and a Jewish American.
…Update [2008-2-26 22:43:37 by Todd Beeton]:Senator Obama often looked uncomfortable to me up there when not answering. Didn’t really project the confidence I’m used to him projecting at the debates lately. Of course while Clinton may have looked more confident and more presidential, several of her lines didn’t really work, and Obama’s taking the high road may have come off better ultimately. But she certainly appeared to be the very image of the fighter she says she is, not sure it helped her though.
—Political Radar’s Rick Klein:
That was an exhausting 90 minutes — just to watch. Probably as close to a draw as you can imagine — really, two very talented politicians and debaters fighting it out extremely closely.
On one level — no clear winner is good news for Obama, the frontrunner, who avoided any significant missteps. But there are plenty of scattered moments for the Clinton campaign to be proud of (though that bizarre reference to the SNL skit, to me, was a low point). All told, she made it substantive, kept the focus on Obama’s record (or lack thereof).
They did not break much new policy ground this evening. But for a Clinton campaign that’s looking to fight out the final week before Ohio and Texas, maybe, just maybe, there’s some pieces here that she can work with. Obama entered and leaves Cleveland State as the frontrunner. But there’s a big week left…
—Marc Ambinder’s post must be read IN FULL. He believes Obama stumbled in a couple of vital areas. But here are a few excerpts:
On substance: Clinton. On style: Obama.
You cannot, said Chesterton, love a thing without wanting to fight for it. If Clinton was the underdog tonight, she kept the upper dog on the defensive for most of the night. Near the end, for example, when Clinton interrupted and badgered him into denouncing the Nation of Islam leader even more fulsomely.
….I suspect, though, that Clinton’s intemperate complaint about the NBC’s debate reflecting the Saturday Night Live parody will be what the morning shows dissect and dissect, and beyond that, there was really nothing else to commend to the new viewer…..
I hesitate to point out her body language, if only because I can easily read too much into it. But she seemed tense, remorseful, sad, at times… her neck seemed leaden; her voice had an edge that all to often crossed the boundary between assertive and plaintive.
Obama seemed more solicitous and upbeat. Even as he was defensive, he was passive-defensive; he was oh-so-cool; one e-mailer, recalling Twain, called him a Christian with four aces. He seemed to be listening to Hillary Stagg with one ear and to Hillary Clinton with the other.
Bottom line: did this, the 20th debate, change much? Probably not.
–From Josh Marshall’s live blogging:
9:10 PM … I may lapse into boxing metaphors in through this debate. But you’ve clearly got both of them right on their game tonight. These are both just incredibly accomplished sharp people and both at the top of their game. (As a side light, as I’ve said before, at least at the level of policy fundamentals, I think Clinton has the better part of the argument on the health care question.) What’s more, this is a tough and not-friendly exchange, but it’s on the substance and about a really serious issue.
This was a debate of several strong, sharp moments that may not have added up to a game-changer for Mrs. Clinton but it gave her a chance to get back to basics — health care, fighter, woman — and to express regret (again) for her vote for the war in Iraq.
But that was after one of her weakest openings, in which she made peevish remarks about her treatment during these debates. Her campaign believes that the media has given her a tougher time while going easier on Mr. Obama, and Mr. Russert certainly pressed her tonight in a way that he did not press Mr. Obama. But her specific complaint was about having questions directed to her first, although she did not explain that this gives Mr. Obama an advantage — time to mull his answer or simply agree with her. And it seemed bizarre to point to “Saturday Night Live” to validate her campaign’s view that she is ill-treated by the press.
One of the more revealing bits — and a new subject to these debates — was over Minister Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement of Mr. Obama.
—The Huffington Post’s Marc Cooper:
Thirty-five years of selfless public service, if we are to believe her campaign rhetoric, deserved more than this tin-pan finale. Clinton, in her best moments, is certainly capable of something more than a torrent of peevish, petty, picayune, and intellectually dishonest bickering and parsing.
Instead, Senator Clinton chose to remind us why she is losing the nomination that she was once so very sure would inevitably be hers. The smell of a loser permeated the entire low-energy event as Clinton tried to pick apart this or that phrase uttered one time or another by her rival.
Obama’s been on a wild tear, continuing to surge and streak and — to dip into the conventional wisdom — it’s hard to see anything that Clinton did Tuesday to stem his rising tide.
You’d think that Clinton could leave the national political stage with some larger, meaningful gesture. But, unfortunately, the only memorable line that she spoke tonight was a poorly constructed joke, surely written by a staffer.
—Pajamas Media’s Stephen Green:
So who really won? My gut tells me that nobody won — which counts as a win for Obama. If you really want to know who won, don’t look at tomorrow’s poll numbers. Instead, wait until the weekend. If by then, Clinton is still sinking in Ohio, then chalk up one very big win for Obama. If Hillary holds steady, then score it as a minor win — again, for Obama. Clinton had too much to do tonight, and too little time to do it in. And with too little sympathy, I think, in middle America for her efforts.
Clinton was at great pains to separate herself from her husband’s trade legacy. She was at great pains to separate herself from her Iraq War vote. She was at great pains to draw distinctions between herself and Obama. Mostly what came across was, Hillary Clinton was in great pain.
Twin losses in Texas and Ohio next week might just put her out of her misery — but don’t count on it. The Clinton we saw tonight might not have fought well, but she certainly showed that, at long last, she’s willing to fight.
–Part of Taylor Marsh’s post:
Russert, any vote you want to take back? Softball to Clinton, the first in the history of their relationship, let me add. She smiles, then says her Iraq vote, which was a sincere vote. It’s about the future.
Same question to Obama. He mentions the vote on the Terry Schiavo, and not standing up, which he regrets. Obama ends with a same type of statement Clinton did last week, only with a lot more words and less emotional grace. What can be said in one hundred words he takes thirty minutes.
You can tell that Hillary is frustrated that Obama is skating his way through the primary season without any significant scrutiny by the press. But as vast and skilled as Team Hillary is, there seems to be no one on the payroll that has any idea how to combat it. She doesn’t possess the debate skills to put her opponent on the defensive, and when she’s speaking at campaign rallies, whatever legitimate point she makes about the media’s messianic complex with Obama gets lost in her shrill delivery.
She may want to be the first woman in the White House, but she’s never going to win by whining. Because of the charisma chasm between her and Obama, she is being treated as a conservative by what she considered to be her allies in the mainstream media, and she clearly doesn’t like it.
What Hillary has not yet realized is that you can whine your way out of contention all you want. Lord knows the Republican Party has enough experience with that. But if you want to actually win, you have to do it on issues and ideas, not sarcasm and excuses.
In summation, all of the punches she threw, even on healthcare, were met with equal or better counterpunches. She looked petty when she complained about being asked the first question and also on the faux reject vs. denounce distinction. Obama, meanwhile, looks better with each debate. He stays cool, he shows humor when asked a question that could illicit a forceful response.
Hillary had two debates to prove all of the things she has said on the stump, that Obama is too airy, and without substance. Then on the debate stage, she doesn’t do better than Obama on major issues, and she is the one making issues of nothing. Nothing that I can think of can come up between now and March 4 which is going to negate her inability to demonstrate that Obama is somehow a fraud. I think this race is over.
He was cool, comfortable, and self-assured. She was tense, resentful, and annoyed. She whined. Her “attacks” — like Obama’s neglect of his oversight subcommittee duties – failed. Hillary Clinton seemed to be desperately clawing her way to a win while Obama was enjoying a refreshing ocean breeze. She’s smart and focused — but no match for someone who is so sharp and self-confident.
—Live blogging by Hillary Clinton? (Satire..warning: adult language)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.