The Ho Hum Democratic Debate
Apr 17, 2008 Political
Though ABC’s moderators did everything they could to incite a war between the remaining Democratic contenders, last night’s debate was about as boring as they get. The Washington Post saw it as ABC dredging up old stories to try to spark a fight and the WaPo believes that ABC favored Clinton and showed Obama in a negative light.
I think that each candidate was taken to task and I think that both of them did a good job of accusing the other of unnecessary attacks while actually attacking in that fashion. Obama was upset that the Clinton campaign ran with his smear of small town USA and made sure we knew that Hillary was seen as elitist with her cookie remarks a long time ago. Hillary attacked Barry with regard to his past associates and he countered by letting us know that she had a controversial pastor as well as the fact that her husband had pardoned two people from the Weather Underground, a radical member of which Obama is associated with.
As far as it goes, the debate was boring. These two tried to show how the other was evil and then of course the replies showed that they are both just as evil. He hangs with terrorists who hate America and her husband pardoned them. She tries to exploit his elitist remarks by saying her family had factory workers in it and he counters by talking about his broken household and growing up a poor single parent child, blah, blah.
I thought Barry did a good job of countering what she said but his counters were not denials of his failings and were more of a “She did it too.” All he did was point out that she had done the same things in her past. He never denied being wrong or associating with the wrong people, he just said that she did it too. He lamented about things that are decades old being brought up and then he brought up her suspicious activities from, you guessed it, nearly two decades ago.
These two are absolute failures and neither could lead a group of people out of a burning building. He continues to deny the obvious and to make excuses about his associations and she continues to accuse him of the very things that she has done for years. There was a lot of finger pointing, a lot of venom, a lot of nice talk with nastiness wrapped inside and there was no substance.
Hillary talked about being ready to lead, about having her past already dug into and about how George Bush ruined the economy her hubby made great (another liberal myth). Obama talked about how people want change, how he sometimes chooses improper words and about how people should focus on issues and not nuances (unless his people are focusing on Hillary’s nuances). I also think it was pretty clear that they will not run on the same ticket though that remains to be seen. Democrats will do anything for power so they might kiss and make up when all is said and done.
The big winner last night was John McCain. He received ammunition from each candidate (though you can bet the Republicans are working overtime getting their own) and he probably benefited from the fact that these two looked like school children rather than leaders. McCain looks like the adult in this group and people will see that. I also believe that Obama got flustered a few times and gave circular answers that made no sense. McCain has to believe that he can wax Obama’s rear in a debate. At least last night showed that Obama is not unflappable.
I am sure that neither of these two should be president and last night reaffirmed that belief. I am also sure that the only thing either knows is that raising taxes is the answer to all problems. They both lied about our tax structure, they made false claims about the wealthy (which both of them are) and they both showed that if either of them is elected America will be in for some real bad times.
But it was fun to watch. I rarely get to see two clueless people have a fight. Watching them made me think of what it might look like if they rearranged the furniture at the school for the blind…
Tags: boring, Clinton, corruption, debate, lies, Obama, pastors