Texas Debate Last Night

[toasty]

Anyone watch this? Any thoughts?

My thinking is that Clinton needed to hit a long ball and by virtue of failing to do so, Obama wins by default because there were no serious stumbles or advances by either of them. I think that Obama did help himself by demonstrating a much deeper policy knowledge than he's shown in the past and that there is otherwise some substance behind the speeches. If I'm being objective, Clinton's close was actually really good, but with her "change you can Xerox" line going over like a turd in the punchbowl, it's probably a wash between the good and the bad for her.

I heard some commentators offer the opinion that the comments Clinton made at the end of the debate were intended to be a sort of concession of defeat, and/or a passing of the torch to Obama. Can't say that I saw them that way. On the other hand, if she were still fighting, I would think that she would have been either incredibly positive or incredibly negative and with her falling somewhere in the middle, she might just be out of options and is planning to bow out gracefully barring a miracle on March 4. Can't believe I'm suggesting that, but she's got to see the writing on the wall -- perhaps her legacy (or at least the legacy of the Clinton name) is better served by saving the party a vicious fight now and trying again later...

Thoughts?

[Miroslav]

Re: Texas Debate Last Night

basically same thing over here... Clinton generally did well and probably scored some points; Obama was good, though not always great...but my guess is that in most peoples' eyes she didn't succeed in significantly changing the game, which is what she needed at this point. It was interesting to watch her trying to manage her image in the way she went from going from her trademark bulldog attack to conciliatory, gracious comments...her wide swings in this regard implied to me that she had been prepping quite a bit to "soften" her image appropriately while still trying to keep up the offensive. Unfortunately for her, her "change you can xerox" line flopped...I don't think that did her any favors.