Debate Wire II

0845: Obama relents; brings up Bill Clinton's pardoning two terrorists.

0844: If it's true that Democrats are fed up with the media and its coverage of these associations/word games/side shows....the backlash against this debate will be very big.

HRC: "I have a lot of baggage."

0842: Obama is very frustrated at the question...compares William Ayers to Sen. Tom Coburn..... 35 minutes or so of unrelenting short punches to Obama's midsection....

0840: William Ayers! ABC is clearly being aggressive here and treating Obama as the frontrunner.

0839: Even Clinton advisers can't believe that ABC asked about wearing the flag on his lapel. Wow indeed.

0838: Video of woman asking why Obama doesn't wear the American flag..... the questions have not been friendly to Obama..... he clearly is not happy with them. He's being forced by ABC to defend his patriotism.

0837: Obama is bogged down here a bit... the format isn't helping.... the questions aren't helping... Obama seems to be chiding the moderators to move beyond the word gotcha games.

0836: Clinton campaign denies that Clinton knows about the pastor of hers who defended Obama -- see here.

0835: Obama hasn't commented on the issue of Bosnia. GS: "Your campaign has." Obama: "Of course."

0834: HRC: "I know too that being able to rely on my experience on having gone to Bosnia...having visited 80 countries...... gives me a tremendous advantage in doing into his campaign..."

Did HRC just call George "Tom?"

Comments

Nope. Tom was the guy on the "Ask the Candidates" video. But she sounded awkward when said, "Well Tom."

Posted by Andrew Slack | April 16, 2008 8:38 PM

This is a joke of a debate. Seriously. A hit job, and nothing more. By the way, it's being reported Steph was on Hannity's show yesterday, as well as in a meeting with Newsmax scum, taking notes for questions to ask.

Posted by oh my god | April 16, 2008 8:44 PM

45 minutes into the debate and not ONE issue!!!! This is horrible!!!!!!!!

Posted by Stephanie | April 16, 2008 8:45 PM

Wow - this is incredible. Absolutely pathetic gotcha questions from the moderators. Obama is clearly extremely uncomfortable, and for good reason. I'm not sure sure how he's supposed to respond aside not directly attacking the moderators, which is never a good strategy, though it may be warranted.

Posted by Dave | April 16, 2008 8:51 PM

Just to follow up, Marc -- when Obama said "of course" about whether his campaign had responded on Bosnia, he finished the thought by saying they had done so in response to questions about it. I think it's pretty obvious that Obama has not made hay of Clinton's problems in the same way that she's attempted to do with his.

Am glad to see that you are taken aback by the sorts of questions that are being asked. I'm following the feed with audience responses, and thus far Obama is scoring as handling them well. But who knows who the focus group is.

I'm surprised about George S. I'd have thought he'd have tried harder to overcome the potential charges of bias seeing as how he used to work for the Clintons.

Posted by Maggie | April 16, 2008 8:52 PM

Worst debate ever. Maybe this is ABC's way of making sure nobody is even tempted to replay a 30 second clip.

Posted by Alex F | April 16, 2008 8:53 PM

This is unbelievable. It took almost an hour for a question of actual substance to be asked. Is this for real?

Posted by BLeigh | April 16, 2008 8:55 PM

I really expected more from a network anchor and a former White House staffer. I hope national columnists and other credible news outlets seriously condemn the way Gibson and Steph's handled this debate.

Posted by Sam | April 16, 2008 8:56 PM

I really expected more from a network anchor and a former White House staffer. I hope national columnists and other credible news outlets seriously condemn the way Gibson and Steph handled this debate.

Posted by Sam | April 16, 2008 8:57 PM

I don't think Hillary got Tom's vote with her answer to his question.

Posted by J | April 16, 2008 9:00 PM

THIS IS WRETCHED DEBATE

Posted by Lloyd Webber | April 16, 2008 9:03 PM

This debate is a shameless piece of crap. It took them 2/3 of the allotted time to introduce a single policy question. Not only that, after ABC unloads the entire catalogue of opposition research available on Obama, and offers one measly question of Clinton regarding her sniper fire fable, they apologize to HER for the "imbalance of time". Her response? "I've noticed."

Posted by Will | April 16, 2008 9:12 PM

"0844: If it's true that Democrats are fed up with the media and its coverage of these associations/word games/side shows....the backlash against this debate will be very big."

Read the comments section here or almost anywhere in the liberal blogosphere, and you'll know there IS quite an appetite for these kinds of "distractions," with one caveat -- only when they're aimed at Hillary. When Obama is the recipient, not so much. So, yes, there might be a backlash, but only because their guy was on the receiving end. And it's not because they want a "new politics," because this is very much of the old variety.

Posted by Sue | April 16, 2008 10:12 PM

Since Obama has chosen the political high road, we have no real test of Hillary Clinton’s political viability in a run for the Presidency. She claimed that the Republicans had thoroughly vetted her during her husband’s two terms, but she has given them new ammunition.

To maintain his campaign’s positive tone, Obama has given Clinton a pass on her Bosnian sniper landing “misstatement.” If he had gone down the low road, then Obama could have pointed out that Clinton had lied for political gain. He could connect the dots with other accusations that repeatedly, she struggled with the truth. Obama could point out that her boss on the Watergate prosecutor’s staff, Jeff Zeifman, claimed to have fired her at age 27 for politically motivated, unethical behavior. Over the last thirty-three years, Clinton has other ethically questionable incidents that Obama could knit together to show a pattern of her dishonest behavior.

Obama has also held his fire in his own defense. In 1992, Bill Clinton had said essentially the same thing about the Republican’s ability to split the Democratic base over guns and religion. Obama could have used Bill’s words to defuse Hillary’s attacks, but he has yet to do that.

Democrats need to question whether Hillary Clinton can survive a more critical look at her character.

Posted by musiccitybill | April 16, 2008 11:01 PM

This debate was the most fair one yet. I liked that the responses were timed, and each were given an equal amount of time. I liked that the questions were staggered, and that they "flipped a coin" to see who would go first on opening and closings. I was impressed that both were challenged with tough questions and not allowed to wiggle out of fully answering.

ABC handled this debate in a very admirable way, and I think both candidates supporters should have been satisfied with the fairness of the debate, for a change.

Clinton was questioned about her positions on Wright and Obama's bitter comments, and she responded, owning her position, while Obama hedged on the Bosnia question, admitting his "campaign" was hammering on it, "of course," yet somehow dodging personal responsibility for what his campaign is doing? That just seemed dishonest to me. If his campaign is doing it - HE is. I'd much rather see the candidates own their positions and actions, than try and appear above the fray, when their actions don't match the perception they're trying to falsly portray.

Posted by Teri B. | April 17, 2008 12:51 AM

Good grief Teri...Obama said of course his campaign has talked about Bosnia...because they were ASKED about it.

Read the dang transcript.

Your gal is a mud wrestler and Obama spent the whole night saying what most of us were thinking...get over the gotcha crap and discuss the seriously horrid problems this country is facing. Either that, or quit wasting our time.

Hillary spent the whole night talking to the superdelegates...begging them to overturn the real results of all those real votes. It's the only shred of hope she's got and she could care less about how ridiculous she makes the party, her opponent or even herself look in the process.

The good thing that might come out of this is that reforming the media will move up on the list of to-do's once Obama is sworn in.

What a shameful disgrace by a major network tonight...their only job is to educate the electorate and all they can do is play gotcha.

At the least they could have asked BOTH candidates about all the weirdo associates they have in their past/present. The Clintons list would have taken 10 hours of gotchas though, so they can't do that...

A pox on all their houses.

Vote hope, not fear.

Posted by G Davis | April 17, 2008 3:58 AM