Truemors
The ABC Democratic Debate Stirs the pot and shots fired behind the lines
The New York times, About Last Night…
RALEIGH, N.C. – Senator Barack Obama delivered a mocking critique of Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate, telling an audience here that the 90-minute session with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton exemplified the problems with Washington by not focusing on issues that truly matter to the American people.
“They like stirring up controversy and they like playing gotcha games, getting us to attack each other. And I have to say Senator Clinton looked in her element,” Mr. Obama said. “She was taking every opportunity to get a dig in there. You know, that’s all right. That’s her right. That’s her right to kind of twist the knife a little bit.”
At a town meeting today in North Carolina, where he arrived to campaign in advance of the May 6 primary, Mr. Obama seemed intent on seeking to quell any political fallout from the debate in Philadelphia. Throughout much of the ABC News forum, Mr. Obama was on the defensive, tackling questions about his patriotism, understanding of small-town America and his association with the incendiary remarks of his former pastor.
“That was the roll-out of the Republican campaign against me in November. That is what they will do,” Mr. Obama said. “They will try to focus on all these issues that don’t have anything to do with how you pay your bills at the end of the month.”
With a wide smile, and a sarcastic tone, Mr. Obama sought to brush aside criticism about his performance in what he said was the 21st debate of the presidential nominating fight.
“I will tell you, it does not get much more fun than these debates. They are inspiring events,” Mr. Obama quipped. “Last night, I think we set a new record because it took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people. It took us 45 minutes!”
“Forty-five minutes before we heard about health care. Forty-five minutes before we heard about Iraq,” he continued. “Forty-five — 45 — minutes before we heard about jobs. Forty-five minutes before we heard about gas prices.”
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The Huffington Post: The ABC Debate: A Shameful Night for the U.S. Media -[q url="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/the-debate-a-shameful-nig_b_97122.html"]
In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia. They, and their network, should hang their collective heads in shame.
Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the health care and mortgage crises, the overall state of the economy and dozens of other pressing issues had to wait for their few moments in the sun as Obama was pressed to explain his recent "bitter" gaffe and relationship with Rev. Wright (seemingly a dead issue) and not wearing a flag pin -- while Clinton had to answer again for her Bosnia trip exaggerations.
Then it was back to Obama to defend his slim association with a former '60s radical -- a question that came out of right-wing talk radio and Sean Hannity on TV, but was delivered by former Bill Clinton aide Stephanopoulos. This approach led to a claim that Clinton's husband pardoned two other '60s radicals. And so on. The travesty continued.
More time was spent on all of this than segments on getting out of Iraq and keeping people from losing their homes and -- you name it. Gibson only got excited complaining that someone might raise his capital gains tax. Yet neither candidate had the courage to ask the moderators to turn to those far more important issues. Talking heads on other networks followed up by not pressing that point either. The crowd booed Gibson near the end. Why didn't every other responsible journalist on TV?
To top it off, here is David Brooks' review at the New York Times: "I thought the questions were excellent." He gives ABC an "A." Of course, "A" can stand for many things.
Read more reactions from Huffington Post bloggers to ABC's Pennsylvania Democratic debate
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Barack Gets Rocked [q url="http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2008/04/barack_gets_rocked.html"]
Posted by TOM BEVAN
Let me add my voice to the already huge chorus of those declaring Obama took a beating last night. He got absolutely grilled during the first 40 minutes (when most people were watching) and with every mediocre answer Hillary Clinton was there to hang the issues back around his neck one by one like so many Hawaiian leis.
Clinton did miss one great opportunity last night, and that was when George Stephanopolous pushed her on whether Barack Obama could win the general election against McCain. Clinton, reacting to the pressure, blurted out "yes, yes" when what she should have said is, "I sure hope so." That would have been a killer answer that would have continued to sow doubts about Obama's prospects in November and reinforced her electability argument with the superdelegates.
Another observation: we saw last night just how brutal the Bosnia issue has been for Clinton. Replay the first 45 minutes of the debate last night and imagine what it would have been like without Clinton having to answer on Bosnia.
I generally agree with the recently expressed sentiments that Clinton has run a poor campaign overall, and that her current predicament is a product of faulty assumptions and a fundamental misreading of the political landscape over the last year or more. Nevertheless, with the exception of Bosnia - a big exception, I know - since late February leading into Texas and Ohio she's run a pretty darn good campaign. Some Democrats don't like to hear this, of course, since that's when she started laying the wood to Obama on national security, etc., but Obama's been the one on the defensive for most of the last 5 weeks. But Bosnia clearly knocked Clinton off stride and forced her into an awkward spot, as it did again last night.
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