Democratic presidential debate summary: Senator Hillary Clinton was far and away the nights loser. While she came across as competent, she had a certain sour bitchiness that came out when she answered questions. Not exactly the way to win over those Americans who - fairly or not - already have a negative view of her.Her answer to the question of drivers licenses for illegal immigrants in New York State was the ultimate waffle. The play-by-play from Kevin Drum:
Hillary gave a rambling response explaining what Spitzer was trying to do but without really taking a position. Dodd disagreed with the Spitzer plan ("I think it's troublesome") and Hillary then stepped in to muddy the waters some more: "I did not say that it should be done," she said, "but I certainly recognize why Governor Spitzer is trying to do it." ...and then by Russert pressing her to give a firm answer ("Do you support his plan?"). Hillary hedged, and never really answered.Ouch!
...[Sen.] Edwards said, "Unless I missed something, Senator Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes just a few minutes ago." And [Sen.] Obama uttered a devastating phrase for anyone who remembers the 2004 campaign: he said he couldn't tell if she is "for it or against it."
For the most part though, Sen. Obama was listless and pathetic. With all of the pre-debate chit chat on the blogosphere yesterday about how Obama would call Sen. Clinton out on her fence-straddling strategy, the fact that he didn't left me feeling a bit let down. The first primaries are two months away. The Senator from Illinois needs to show some cajones. And quick.
Edwards was more aggressive than I've seen him in a while, but I still can't shake the perception that he would become another Carter in the White House, unable to cope with global crises and handing the presidency to the Republicans for a generation. (And, for the record, I started to feel that way about Obama last night, too.)
The winner of the night was Sen. Joe Biden. Despite being relegated to the second tier by the debate moderators, Biden has consistently shown throughout this campaign that he is the most qualified person on the Democratic side to be president. He is essentially the only grown-up on the stage, offering intelligent responses on the most important issues of this election, while the kids fight and whine amongst themselves.
His comments on how the globe became a bit destabilized when the Senate voted to call Iran's military a terrorist organization, as well as his thoughts on how Pakistan could become a huge mess if we're not careful, were prime examples of elder-statesmanship.
And then later, he said this about one of the Republican candidates:
Rudy Giuliani is probably the most underqualified person since George Bush to run for president. He can only say 3 things in a sentence: a noun, a verb, and "9/11." This man is truly not qualified to be president.He shoots, he scores!
Yeah...once again Sen. Biden has become alot more attractive to me and as of this moment is sitting at the top of my list for the primary election.
(Photo: MSNBC)
