ABC Proves Obama's Point About Petty Politics

Time.Com ^ | April 17th, 2008 | MICHAEL GRUNWALD

[The_Republican]

Obama's memoir dripped with contempt for modern gotcha politics, for a campaign culture obsessed with substantively irrelevant but supposedly symbolic gaffes like John Kerry ordering Swiss cheese or Al Gore sighing or George H.W. Bush checking his watch or Michael Dukakis looking dorky in a tank.

"What's troubling is the gap between the magnitude of our challenges and the smallness of our politics—the ease with which we are distracted by the petty and trivial," he wrote.

Last night at the National Constitution Center, at a Democratic debate that was hyped by ABC as a discussion of serious constitutional issues, America got to see exactly what Obama was complaining about.

At a time of foreign wars, economic collapse and environmental peril, the cringe-worthy first half of the debate focused on such crucial matters as Senator Obama's comments about rural bitterness, his former pastor, an obscure sixties radical with whom he was allegedly "friendly," and the burning constitutional question of why he doesn't wear an American flag pin on his lapel — with a single detour into Senator Hillary Clinton's yarn about sniper fire in Tuzla.

Apparently, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos ran out of time before they could ask Obama why he's such a lousy bowler.

It must be said that Obama did not seem very comfortable on the defensive, and he had trouble answering questions like whether he's more patriotic than the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Hillary Clinton constantly salted Obama's wounds, all the while insisting that she was merely concerned that Republicans would salt them in the fall, and that his various controversies simply "raised questions" about his electability; at one point she claimed that his exhaustively chewed-over relationship with Wright "deserves further exploration," which is kind of like saying that Whitewater deserves further investigation.

[The_Republican]

You have the COOLEST screen name! Was it chosen with Bill Klinton in mind? ;o)

[expatpat]

Kneepads and sour grapes. Where was he when Republicans were getting trashed by the “moderators”?

[Wade827]

At a time of foreign wars, economic collapse and environmental peril, the cringe-worthy first half of the debate focused on such crucial matters as Senator Obama's comments about rural bitterness...

Ah, yes. When, if ever, will debate moderators get around to asking Hil & Barry about the economy? Or Iraq? Or global warming? Or health care?

[rollo tomasi]

I don't wish death on anybody but would not shed a tear if some “rollo tomasi” came along and ran into Clinton.

I liked ‘L.A. Confidential’ and while debating a collectivist at another forum I was called a “criminal” for denying justice to “the oppressed”, (I made the “mistake” of calling those looking for handouts forced from tax payers leechers).

I lurked at Free Republic for the longest time and just so happened to dive in FR around my “criminal accusation” days.