The Debate Discussion

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So the debate tonight between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was interesting. It’s hard for me to say who won. They both performed well. I think it was crucial for Hillary to at least keep up with Obama. Of course, she succeeded at this because she’s stronger in debates than at giving speeches. She had some very positive moments, or at least moments the public wanted to see tonight. I thought she was trying to cry when she started talking about seeing those soldiers walk out to her with their injuries. It seemed a little forced. When confronted with having to stir up the thought of a struggle she immediately referenced to her public humiliation 8 years ago courtesy of her husband, President Bill Clinton. At least she acknowledged that others have gone through worse, she said these are a the people that make her get out of bed everyday. I was reminded of an SNL skit of Hartman as Clinton in a McDonald’s. After having taken a boys French-fries, Clinton says to his father “We’re gonna wake up everyday thinking about you.”

It wasn’t however the only reference to times before Bush. Clinton tried to remind us of how good we had it before GDubz. She assured us that she could get us back on the track we were on before he took over. She wanted us to know that the policies of Bill would carry over into Hillary. Unfortunately, we don’t have the same ingredients for that recipe this time around.

Then there was Barack Obama. He did a fantastic job of keeping up with her considering she needed to really shine tonight. Is it me, or did he sound like he’s had the flu? His single greatest moment was in rebuttal to Hillary’s shrug-off of the question of super-delegates and pledged delegates. Hillary said that she didn’t think it would come to her going after super delegates and possibly upsetting the popular vote over THEIR choice for a nominee. Obama made the argument that the supes ought to strongly consider voting along with he people based on the point that the popular vote being over-turned again would be very disheartening for a population has only increasingly felt alienated from the behaviors of the government. I agree that such a situation would be a call on people to ensure their government is listening. His reference to “silly season” was my favorite part of the night. After being attacked for taking a line from Mass. Governor Duval Patrick (we’re neighbors, no joke) Obama warns of the dangers of negative energies of this kind. His demeanor was good tonight, and I appreciate his tone. I think Obama takes more time to articulate the response he’s looking for in these debates, but I think he goes a lot deeper than she does.

3 thoughts on “The Debate Discussion”

  1. I have to say, I think Hillary really screwed up with her ‘xerox’ statement – referring to the ‘silliness’, as Barack puts it, of questioning his using a line from a Deval Patrick speech. She got booed! I think Obama shined in that moment, also, as he used it as an opportunity to say he was tired – and believes we’re tired [and he's right] – of these kind of attacks that have nothing to do with policies or a candidates abilities, hence ‘silliness’.

    I also think his demeanor in general is always much more ‘hey, I’m a real person’ than hers. After the xerox comment, he actually just shook his head, looked at the table in front of him and muttered something like ‘now, that’s not right’ – as if actually dismayed by the situation, not because it was hurtful, but because it was wrong, and pathetic.

    All around, I’d say Hillary performed better than expected – but it was too little too late. Her reference to the ‘struggles’ she’s had was amusing, but I don’t see how you could allow that to sway your vote – missed opportunity. And here referencing the Clinton white house, as Phil says, lacks the most important part of those 8 years: BILL as president. I mean, I just found Hillary’s closing speech trite. Barack’s wasn’t much better – but she’s getting a lot of press for pretending to be a human being. It was a pre-written closing argument, in my opinion, that she forced into the answer of the question in such a way as to pluck at the heart strings, or whatever, of the everyday American – which she is not.I KNOW you know the US is a mess lady, I wanted to know how YOU’VE dealt with adversity, other than the adultery thing. Missed opportunity.

    I think Barack was stronger on the Cuba/Iran/North Korea thing too. DIPLOMACY – what a crazy idea. But he put it best [I paraphrase]: ‘Setting conditions for another nation to meet, even once, with the President, suggests that we as Americans are better than the rest of the world’[if someone has the actual quote, toss it up after me]. Plus, in terms of Cuba – it has nothing to do with dictators and communists [um...China, anyone?] – it’s about 40 year old political BS involving the Bay of Pigs and all that nonsense.

    I think another point to come up that CNN suggested she was stronger on was health care. I plan on investigating this a little for the page here, but in general I think they’re plans are almost identical [obviously] – and that where their not it’s Hillary who’s got a problem. Follow me on this train of thought:

    Health care is expensive. People don’t want to be sick, but they can’t afford coverage. I once had no health care, and when I looked into getting it I immediately realized that I couldn’t afford it. I live in MA, and they changed the laws – so I was covered under my parents again. Had I not been covered by them, it would have cost me 500 bucks out of my pocket a month to get coverage. Now, who benefits from this? HEALTH CARE COMPANIES. Hillary acts as if shes protecting us from their scams, but this is the biggest scam of all. It ensures that ALL AMERICANS WILL HAVE TO PAY AN HMO. For those of you with health care in MA – you need to file that shit with your taxes as proof! How is my healthcare related to taxes? I’m sorry, but if that’s not a conspiracy I don’t now what is.

  2. You make some very valid points. Thanks, Ryan. I think the fact that she tried to hit at Obama on health care as much as she did was a mistake. I mean, she came back after a commercial break and was still harping on it. And in the end, his point about people not being able to afford it and having to pay subsequent fines seemed to make some good sense and her word games came out as childish, just as her xerox comment did.
    The two strong attempts she made at taking him down failed. She didn’t do herself enough favors either.

  3. Exactly man – them dragging health care out was retarded. very ‘I say tomato, you say tomahtoe’ or whatever.

    I still think that this whole requiring healthcare thing is a conspiracy tho. But, my rant aside – her comparison to Medicare and Social Security was pretty hilarious. It both showed her age [nobody under 40 thinks they're getting Social Security - shit, even people older than that think they're going to be left in the cold by a program they've been paying for forever]. PLUS, you pay a pretty small amount of money into those two programs. I mean, not an inconsequential amount, but a small enough payment [taken right from your check] that you can handle it, I guess. Maybe if her healthcare plan actually proposed making it a government run organization – that we all paid 50 bucks a month for or something – then it’d make sense. But honestly, only someone who’s always had coverage would think requiring that everyone pay for it themselves was a good idea.

    AND it’s now tied to your taxes somehow, which is odd as hell to me.

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