Posted on 11/18/2007 7:08:55 PM PST by SmithL
Hillary Clinton didn't win Thursday's CNN Democratic presidential debate so much as Barack Obama and John Edwards lost it. When the smoke cleared, it was obvious why Sen. Clinton of New York is leading in the polls.
After the last debate on Oct. 30, Clinton was forced to admit she "wasn't at my best." She gave a convoluted answer after NBC's Tim Russert asked whether she supported allowing illegal immigrants to obtain drivers' licenses. Clinton accused Russert of playing "gotcha." When Russert asked all of the candidates if any of them opposed licenses for illegal immigrants, only Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut raised his hand.
After the Philly debate, Clinton again rejiggered her position on drivers' licenses. She now, like 65 percent of New York voters, is agin 'em. Which ought to have made Clinton seem more craven and less trustworthy.
Except, what did Clinton's top rivals do in Las Vegas? They out-parsed her. Edwards hit Clinton for saying "two contrary things at the same time." Then he answered "no," when asked if he supported drivers' licenses for illegal aliens - a switch from last month. He added that he supports licenses for those on the path to citizenship and suggested he would change his position given comprehensive immigration reform.
After criticizing Clinton for not giving "straight answers to tough questions" such as the licenses query, Obama waffled. Asked the same question, Obama said he once voted for licenses for illegal immigrants, but, "I am not proposing that is what we do." Later, Obama answered yes, when asked if he supported drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants.
Edwards and Obama had morphed into the bad Hillary.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
CNN and Blitzer made sure Hillary was going to win the debate.
Clinton accused Russert of playing “gotcha.”
The embarrassment was Clinton’s fault, not Russert’s.
I liked the exchange. Blitzer made a fool of Obama by telling him that the illegal immigration question could be answered “yes” or “no.” Then when Hillary was asked the question, she said “no.” Reversing herself for the umpteenth time.
Hillary is facing a group of weak primary opponents.
Has Hillary ever faced any strong competition about anything?
She grew up in an upper middle class home and went to an exclusive college.
She went to a top notch law school. Give her credit, that Yale isn’t the easiest place to get into, though.
She became a partner in that Rose Law Firm because she was married to the governor of the state.
She became a Senator because the N.Y. Democrats all stood aside and didn’t even mount any serious primary challenge to her in the 2000 elections. Her being the wife of a popular democrat president had nothing to do with it, yeah right.
And now she’s decided she wants to run for president, and is not being challenged very much by her opponents or the MSM.
This is a great article. She does some fairly decent analysis in the first part, but towards the end she seems disillusioned with all the candidates. Imagine that, a leftist writer for a leftist rag disillusioned with a menangerie of leftist candidates. I’m a lovin’ it.
I don’t think Debra Saunders is a leftist...she seems to be the token non-leftist writing for the San Francisco fishwrap.
Yep, she’s 1% “non-leftist” in the 99% leftist SF Chronicle...
Debra Saunders is the lone conservative for SF Chronicle, I believe.
This rag has no shame. Of course Hillary fell in eyes of the American public. She proved herself a political light weight. Imagine her trying to stare dowm someone like Hugo Chavez, or Amadinijad? ...........and stammering and evading....and putting her foot in her mouth....and posturing.........and playing he said , she said, as the missiles rain down on our allies?
Last week showed the true Hillery Clinton to the nation, and she was found incredibly flawed and wanting in basic political skills. She has no presidential skills.
And this rag attempts to "reconstruct" Hillery?
Buahahahahahaha!
Hillery Humpty sat on a wall,
Hillery Humpty had a great fall,
All the MSMs horses,
And all of their pollsters,
Couldn't put Hillery Humpty
Back Together again.
*********************************
Take your lickin' Hillery, go home and retire.
You ain't got a hope of being president of the United States.
Christopher Dodd has more on the go than you do.
I walked out of the Google campaign stop thinking that, unlike Clinton and the smarmy Edwards, Obama is the only top-tier Democrat who says what he means.
I took what she was probably stating rhetorically to mean she had always had hotter hots for Obama than Oprah.
I’ve seen Saunders do some punditry on TV. She is a solid conservative.
“Blitzer made a fool of Obama by telling him that the illegal immigration question could be answered “yes” or “no.” Then when Hillary was asked the question, she said “no.” Reversing herself for the umpteenth time.”
Yet, the fact she was reversing herself will not be remembered, and was not the ‘massage’...
Blitzer allowed each candidate to blather on, after demanding a yes or no. Hillary was cued to say NO, let it sit.
That way ,it will be shoveled to us, Hillary gave a firm answer, and the others made fools of themselves.
Biden didn’t play well with others, cause he refuses to sell out. I believe he was making sure we knew that the Debate Audience were not total strangers, and that the Candidates had spent time with the ‘audience’ before, during, and after the show.
“CNN and Blitzer made sure Hillary was going to win the debate.”
I don’t agree. I think they produced a ‘debate’, a one party debate, where all input came from the same ‘source’, and each ‘candidate’ expects special treatment, even though the idea is that it doesn’t happen.
Hillary may have ‘won’ the debate in the minds of ‘undecided voters’, but not because of CNN’s or Blitzer’s performance.
It was because of the job the other candidates did. They each deserve Academy Awards.
“Which ought to have made Clinton seem more craven and less trustworthy.”
Well they got one line correct in the article.
The ONLY thing I got out of the staged “debate”, was sick to my stomach...
The realization that those pompous performing clowns were the best the majority party in America could come up with -— was enough to generate alarm for the future of the Republic.
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