Post Debate Analysis

well...it was an interesting, sometimes odd, debate this evening on msnbc.

i thought brian williams did a nice job of showing that his five nights behind the big desk has given him a wide range of information from which to mine questions.

tim russert continued to use quotes and statistics from the candidates themselves to frame his questions.

so who won? conventional wisdom says as long as hillary clinton doesn't make any major stumbles, she wins. but did she stumble? did obama draw the blood he promised in the times over the weekend?

let's break it down.

edwards wins
i think that was pretty clear... at least from my standpoint. he took the chris matthews approach and drew clear distinctions between himself and the front runner: hillary clinton.

his attacks were strong.... his distinctions clear.

he hammered and hammered and hammered away at clinton and took any spotlight away from obama.

will the attacks hurt him or help him?

i think his constant return to the theme of clinton's "double talk" may resonate. especially after something unforeseen happened with just a few moments remaining in the debate.

hillary stumbles
it was a simple question. only two minutes or so left in the debate. russert asked my girl about governor spitzer's plan to issue driver's license to illegal immigrants in new york. she said she supported his idea...or it seemed like a good plan.

then chris dodd went off....

then it happened. hillary backtracked and said she wouldn't necessarily support it.

why? why, hillary? you had this thing in the bag.....

edwards immediately pounced and said she just gave two different answers in a matter of two minutes. "double talk."

hillary had fended off attack after attack so well all night... she was particularly strong early in the evening. but as howard fineman of newsweek pointed out: she "came off like a politician."

a clinton stumble...... well, fuck me.

biden covered her ass a bit in the post analysis on msnbc saying she was clearly not decisive but held off on calling it "double talk."

amazing....

obama attacks...kinda
his attacks were there...but they were subtle. he had a particularly strong moment when he called out hillary to release all correspondence between she and bill clinton during his presidency from the clinton archives. he said we're coming out of the most secretive administration in history. americans want transparency. he also said if she's running on her experience in the white house as first lady - why not release the records?

it was a good point......

best line
no big surprise....joe biden. during a series of answers to a question about rudy giuliani doubting the experience of clinton and the other dem candidates.... biden said nobody is less experienced to run the country than bush but rudy giuliani.

then his great line: "rudy giuliani...there's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11."

perfect.

most bizarre moment, i
first off...who knew shirley maclaine was a godmother to one of dennis kucinich's children? secondly, in all seriousness, russert asked kucinich about an episode maclaine recounts in her new book that he saw a UFO and it was a deeply moving experience for him.

kucinich? yep....he saw it. freely admits it.

jesus...the man can't win.

most bizarre moment, ii
bill richardson defended hillary. he said other candidates were acting "holier than thou" and the attacks were boardering on personal. he said he trusts hillary...but he disagrees with her on big issues.

that's where the debate should be, argues bill. save the attacks for the republicans... keep the democratic debate positive.

well done, sir. i hope you get the v.p. job (if obama doesn't want it).

best spontaneous moment
when asked if he believes in life beyond earth, obama chuckled and then said, "i don't know... but i do know there's life here on earth." and then went on about how we need to take care of people in the united states that have been ignored too long.

it was a strong moment... one of his best.

quick hits

• the first question went to obama - directly asking him about his plans to attack clinton.
• the next twenty minutes were spent on obama and edwards attacking hillary and she fighting them off.
• dodd also got in on attacking hillary. she handled it great...very strong in her answers.
• i still think hillary has the best body language. she's engaged when others answer. she nods and shakes her head. she smiles. i think it shows a great deal of confidence.
• the first question posed to bill richardson was 21 minutes into the debate.
• first question to kucinich? 22 minutes in.
• where was that ole kook, mike gravel?
• kucinich mentioned impeaching bush 3 times throughout the night.
• kucinich is very passionate about HR-676.
• bill richardson, bless him, just doesn't handle lightening rounds very well.
• this was clearly dodd's best performance in a debate.
• chris matthews clearly does not like hillary clinton and it's really starting to piss me off.

i'll probably have more later but, for now, i'm exhausted.

hillary...you're still my girl. now go clear up your stance on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

a state's issue.... causing hill to stumble....

who knew?

e.