Posted on 04/17/2008 9:44:49 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
A fatigued and hesitant Barack Obama appeared badly rattled when peppered with almost relentlessly hostile questions combined with strident attacks from his rival Hillary Clinton during a televised debate this morning.
Mr Obama, who holds a clear national opinion poll lead and seemed to have weathered recent crises before Tuesday's crucial Pennsylvania primary, gave what even his allies said was perhaps his poorest performance of the 21 Democratic debates.
He was taken aback by the succession of questions about his recent comments that voters were clinging to religion and guns because they were "bitter", his association with a former member of the 1960s terrorist Weather Underground group, his controversial pastor the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and even why he didn't wear a flag lapel pin.
Whether Mrs Clinton will benefit from the debate, however, remains to be seen. Her "high negatives" and low marks for trustworthiness in polls mean that every time she goes on the offensive she risks alienating undecided voters and reminding them of the partisan battles of the 1990s.
The more uncomfortable Mr Obama seemed in the Philadelphia debate, the more pointed Mrs Clinton's jabs became. Taking a leaf out of the book of Rudy Giuliani, the defeated Republican candidate, she repeatedly invoked the September 11 attacks
"For Pastor Wright to have given his first sermon after 9/11 and to have blamed the United States for the attack, which happened in my city of New York, would have been just intolerable for me," she said, noting that Mr Obama had not left Rev Wright's church.
She also blasted Mr Obama for sitting on the board of a Chicago philanthropic group with links to William Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground. In comments published, coincidentally, on September 11 2001, Mr Ayers was unrepentant about bombing the Pentagon and other US government buildings.
Mrs Clinton said: "If I'm not mistaken, that relationship with Mr. Ayers on this board continued after 9/11 and after his reported comments, which were deeply hurtful to people in New York and, I would hope, to every American, because they were published on 9/11, and he said that he was just sorry they hadn't done more."
Mr Obama protested: "The problem is that that's the kind of politics that we've been accustomed to. And I think Senator Clinton learned the wrong lesson from it because she's adopting the same tactics.
"What the American people want are not distractions. They want to figure out, how are we going to actually deliver on health care? How are we going to deliver better jobs for people?"
Afterwards, the Illinois senator's aides were livid, complaining that the ABC News debate was unfair and an example of "old politics" designed to tear a candidate down.
"I've never seen anything quite like it," said David Axelrod, Mr Obama's chief strategist. "People around Pennsylvania were probably asking what the heck is going on."
He added: 'I would think she [Mrs Clinton] enjoyed it a lot. It's easy when you can sit back and the moderators direct all their questions at one candidate."
The Clinton camp was indeed delighted. "Senator Obama was very much back on his heels for the whole of the debate," said Howard Wolfson, a senior strategist for the former First Lady.
But Mrs Clinton also came under pressure at times. She came close to saying that she had lied by embellishing her account of a 1996 visit to Bosnia by saying she had landed under sniper fire.
"I'm very sorry that I said it," she said. "And I have said that, you know, it just didn't jive with what I had written about and knew to be the truth."
She was forced to concede for the first time that she thought Mr Obama would defeat John McCain, the Republican candidate, if he faced him in the November general election. "Yes, yes, yes," she said when pressed, undercutting her argument that Mr Obama was unelectable.
Careful now... whatever doesn’t kill them only makes them stronger. A month or two is enough to swallow a bitter pill (look around at FR). This is still their election to lose.
That said last night was fun to watch!
even why he didn’t wear a flag lapel pin.
how did he answer ?
Some men, under the notion of weeding out prejudices,
eradicate virtue, honesty, and religion.
— Thoughts on Various Subjects
Jonathan Swift
It doesn’t get any better than this!!!!!
I hope Hillary wins PA and Obama wins NC and they go on battling right to the convention over Michigan and Florida!!
Stumbles?? Around here we refer to his display as a “face plant”.
All in all, it is good that they are ripping into each other the way they are. The Ayers issues will get vetted now, even in the mainstream and that is a very good thing.
For democrats, your choices are: A lying crook, or a lying crook. Choose wisely.
White trash with guns
Here we sit clinging to our bibles
Need religion-we’re all Xenophobes
Worry sometimes about our survival
Here he comes! Mr. Hope and Change! And he says:
We’re white trash with guns
All our jobs moved to overseas
Might fight back if we get enough guns
We’ve been inbred for centuries!
White trash with guns
White trash with guns
Other dudes are living in the ghetto
But born in Pennsylvania don’t seem much betto
We’re white trash with guns
All our jobs moved to overseas
Might fight back if we get enough guns
We’ve been inbred for centuries!
White trash with guns
White trash with guns
We’re all bitter cause we can’t find any work
It’s our fault-we’re just typical white trash jerks
We hate everyone who isn’t just like us
Bye, bye Barak! Here comes John McCain’s bus!
We’re white trash with guns
All our jobs moved to overseas
Might fight back if we get enough guns
We’ve been inbred for centuries!
White trash with guns
White trash with guns
He was simply awful
It’s spring 1862 inside the DNC party at this point.
Obama sees direct questions about things he has said as attacks.
Presidential material? I dont think so.
More liberal hogwash, I apologise for upsetting you, I misspoke, a staffer accidentally wrote those paragraphs, not me, I do and don’t support gun control...
VIDEOLINKS to the Debate:
Part 1
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y4WDUb1B_WYPart 2
http://youtube.com/watch?v=MEfx-pSDkZwPart 3
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7v7prs3m1g0
Good post.
I saw this part of the debate.
If the direct question was asked “why did he not wear a Flag pen?”, he didn’t answer it. I don’t know if the question was worded exactly that way.
His answer didn’t include anything about the Flag pen. He did go on and on about how he revered the American flag, as he revered the Country, how by his very candidancy, could he NOT revere America? I thought that was a strange way to answer (how could he NOT?). But I don’t recall a specific reference to Flag pen. The moderator mentioned before Obama answered the question, that Obama had worn a flag pen the day before.
Did anyone get more from his response than this?
Part 2, above
Watch Part 2 of the debate, link above, as Obama answers the question (but I’m not sure how the question was worded) about wearing (or not wearing) the American Flag pen.
As a typical white person living in a rural community, I do not think it is the government’s job to “deliver better jobs” to anyone or to “deliver health care” to anyone.
May they implode and explode loudly and continuously in public for the next 6 months.
That’s not the way the debate was spun by the US media.
Between now an November who knows what new stuff will come out about Obama or what slips come out of his mouth to continue to show the real side of him, full of racism and elitism...but it won’t matter to the media.
They’ll be falling all over themselves trying to help him explain what he really meant to say.
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