Posted on 02/27/2008 5:37:25 AM PST by vietvet67
You don't have to love Hillary Clinton to feel her pain. By the end of Tuesday night's debate, she knew she had failed to change the dynamics of a race slipping away from her. The deflated look on her face telegraphed acceptance, even resignation.
But any sympathy is tempered by the fact she has only herself to blame. Her uneven performance, punctuated by one of the strangest complaints I have ever seen in a presidential debate, likely dashed her last hopes of victory. The self-pity behind the complaint was shocking and unappealing.
She started by being feisty - to a fault. The first 14 minutes were devoted to health care, her signature issue. Yet she was on the defensive and kept interrupting the moderators because Barack Obama skillfully focused on the requirement in her plan that every American purchase health care, whether they want it or not. It is a fair attack because Clinton has never explained how she would enforce that requirement or say what the penalties would be; she didn't last night, either.
Clearly frustrated by that rocky start, she began her answer to the second question, on NAFTA, with the complaint. "Well, can I just point out that in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time? And I don't mind," she said, clearly minding.
Then she made the mistake worse with a foolish rehearsed line: "And if anybody saw 'Saturday Night Live,' you know, maybe we should ask Barack if he's comfortable and needs another pillow."
Wow. Woe is her. What a blunder. This is political malpractice of the first order.
This bomb was far worse than her "change you can Xerox" line of last week. This was a petulant whine. There was rustling in the audience, but mostly there was an awkward silence of the kind you notice when someone has said something weird or inappropriate. Creating discomfort in voters over your pain is not a traditional formula for victory.
Obviously, Clinton believes the press is biased in favor of Obama. It's a charge her team has made frequently. Yet her raising it with a victim's tone came off as a plea for sympathy - not an endearing quality in someone who wants to be President. A President is supposed to feel sympathy for the people, not the other way around.
There was one other noteworthy exchange. Asked about the endorsement he got from Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who makes frequent anti-Semitic statements, Obama said he had renounced those remarks. He went on to say he was a staunch friend of Israel and cited its "special relationship" with America. He concluded with the touching note that many American Jews were instrumental in the civil rights movement, and that, as President, he hoped to restore what he called a "frayed" bond.
No complaints there. Or here.
mgoodwin@nydailynews.com
Who are you kidding? She's gotten where she is by repeatedly playing the victim. It's not working at the Presidential level because her media sycophants are not as effective as they have been in the past.
The idiot O did not know who the new Russia Premier’s name or anything about him or the current situation with Putin. Watch the idiot, he would not answer the question and he hedged and let the Beast address the question. He was a deer in the headlights but the Beast jumpred in- too bad it woud have been a Dan Qualye moment. Her big mouth blew it..
No one around the she-devil dares tell her how awful she appears.
Who would be attracted to a nasty, self-absorbed, know-it-all, unfair, and screechy shrew.
All Obama has to do to be named the party candidate is to keep breathing.
Vince and Ron and Jim are pulling for him.
The press are tip-toeing all over the debate results this morning- she’s toast, and it is SUCH an embarrassment to them they wont even just come out and say it
Hillary! & Obama, Whine & Cheese...............
Assuming that Obama gets the Dem nomination, he will be a total nincompoop against McCain in a head to head debate this fall.......................
Baarack probably does not know that he sun rises in the East. He is the Messiah and he can make it come up where ever he wants it to. Do not under any circumstances use his middle name.
I leaped from the couch, grabbed my pistol, and shot six rounds into the TV.
When the police came, I told them that I saw a snake go in the TV, and tried to kill it. They wound up taking my gun, and gave me a warning.
I suppose I will wait a day, or two, then go to my garden and dig up another.
Hillary didn’t know his name either. Russert had to prompt her.
It's not surprising that the press could be biased against a candidate. And for us republicans, we are so used to it, we can't figure out how Hillary is handling it so poorly.
Of course, she's NEVER been in this situation before. So to her, it's like that scene in Star Wars III where the Jedi are fighting and suddenly the clones turn and start shooting at them.
You are right about that-—she forced him into it.
One was the Farrakahan deal. Jeremiah Wright is not only Obama's pastor, but in his own words , his closest spiritual mentor. She should have junped on this: "Senator Obama, surrounding yourself with excellent advisors and counsellors is critcal as President, And you chose as your closest mentor a man continually overflowing with praises and honors for a racist like Louis Farrakhan. When I am in the Whitehouse, neither racists nor those who praise them will be advising me, I wish we could say the same for you."
The second opening came when Obama begged off his NATO/Afghanistan oversight responsibiities because he didn't get that subcommittee assignment until the campaign began ( a year ago) and therefore couldn't find time to meet with the subcommittee. She should have whacked him with "You're too busy speechifying to do your job."
Whatever... the positive candidate usually has the edge.
Sounds like somebody in the Clinton campaign is getting fired for yet another disastrous fumble by Hil... one... two... three...
The media, including the drip that wrote this article, will not give her a fair shake anymore. On the other hand, she was coy and unapproachable from the beginning and avoided media contact.
I see her now as a more appealing candidate and person than she was months ago. Her handlers, the so called professssssionals are nothing but a bunch of idiots.
But on the other hand, the democratic leadership sold her out also for Obama.
If I were her, I would be very very very bitter towards them.
DOES ANYONE IN THIS FORUM ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT HILLARY WILL SUPPORT AND EVEN CAMPAIGN FOR THE DEM NOMINEE IF IT’S NOT HER?
nick
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