Josh Marshall nailed it: Russert epitomizes "militant simpletonism". Was he hoping for a George W. "Musharraf moment" when he asked Hillary if she knew the name of Putin's successor? (Of course, to continue the silly SNL line of attack – why didn't Russert ask Obama this question, since he is the one whose foreign policy credentials are more open to question?)
I missed the middle half hour of the debate (had to have my nightly "In Treatment" fix), so (based on press reports today that the debate was fairly even) my view may be skewed, but while I was watching, I though Hillary rocked (except for the lame SNL joke – she just does not do well with scripted humor). Two images/moments remain fresh:
1. Obama looking like a little school boy, raising his hand to be heard.
2. When Obama answered Russert initially on the Farrakhan question (which, given all the internet chatter, was I think fair game until Tim went way overboard on follow up), I thought Obama's answer was a bit too careful in its wording but I was prepared to accept it because I don't accept the whole guilt by association charge in this particular instance. I was also thinking that even though this was not a question that called for a response from Hillary, it would be a perfect opportunity for her to score some grace points by stating she knows Barack Obama and the type of person he is and she knows something about innuendo and these internet reports are ridiculous. Instead, she chimed in with a personal incident about her first Senate campaign which managed to draw attention to how he had danced around his answer, and while he tried to make a joke about whether there is a difference between "denounce" and "reject" – and maybe he was right on the merits – I think he looked bad in the moment. Whether Hillary would have been better served by personal grace than hardball remains to be seen.
I had been thinking that if Hillary lost either Texas or Ohio, she was done. Now I'm thinking that if she wins Ohio convincingly (which last night may help her do), loses Texas narrowly and picks up either Vermont or Rhode Island, she will live to get to Pennsylvania. Can't wait for March 4.
1 comment:
It's funny, when Hillary was getting ready to chime in on the Farrakhan question, I had the same initial thought, "ok, HRC is going to say something about how stupid Russert is to try and associate Obama with Farrakhan, he's a good person, etc." I was a little surprised by her tone and her attempt at one-upmanship. Really, the Independence Party had popular support in New York and it was an unpopular thing to do to reject them? That was a big stand which required HRC to buck trends and political expediency and put her candidacy for Senate on the line for what was right? Come on. Maybe I would agree with your point about his looking bad if she had hit him with a better anecdote than that, but I thought his conceding the point to her made it clear that he wasn't dancing around his answer and just chose different words. Particularly in the gotcha-simpletonism context of a Tim Russert question. Now, maybe I'm biased.
Also, during the horrific post-debate commentary (ah, Matthews and Russert, insufferably together), Russert claimed he just threw that Russian question out there to either of them and HRC grabbed it. I can't remember if he did or did not direct it to her, but the whole tone of the question was a stupid gotcha moment (with Russert running down the guy's stat sheet when it was over) when it could have posited a serious discussion about Russia. I write about this here.
I would also point out that Obama has been raising a finger to denote his desire to respond since the first debate. With Brian Williams and Tim Russert cutting off and interrupting the candidates, the only other way to make sure you have an opportunity to respond is the interrupt. This is not to say that Obama didn't look "like a little school boy," as you say. Just to say that they run these debates like class rooms, with the moderators acting like antagonistic teachers rather than moderators of a discussion between candidates.
As for picking up states and continuing on, HRC is likely to win RI, but there is no way she is going to win VT, where Obama is up nearly 25 points in all recent polling.
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