Stephanopoulos, ABC and MSNBC were much tougher last fall when Clinton was the frontrunner. It was a bloodbath ten times worse than Wednesday night. They even asked other candidates to attack Clinton. See for yourself. I remember most of the debates attacked Clinton. It will be like this from here on out for the frontrunner. Via TPM, Stephanopoulos said today:
Overall, the questions were tough, fair, relevant, and appropriate. People also take into account…how candidates handle controversy. That’s what campaigns are about, as well. If you look at the fall campaign, there are some clear signals from Senator Obama’s opponents that all of these issues are going to be put together in a general argument. They all go back to that same theme. It’s not only, who will be the best president, but who has the best chance of winning.
3 responses so far ↓
jsmooth995 // April 20, 2008 at 1:47 am
My impression of the complaints about the debate is that they were not about tough questions, but frivolous questions, which is not the same thing.. those questions came across as “tough” only because Obama answered them poorly IMO.. Hillary did a much better job of answering the Bosnia Qs (which I find equally irrelevant) without seeming awkward or defensive.
To me there were two distinct issues going on A) an annoying amount of time spent on frivolous Qs (to BOTH candidates, was not anti obama issue to me beyond the increased heat frontrunner always gets) and B) Obama simply having a bad night and answered those questions poorly, which magnified the impact of that segment.
and I guess point B means obama supporters are more likely to complain about point A, so A and B have gotten mixed together.
I appreciate your work giving this perspective and as an obama voter usually will not butt in, but am commenting here since I did make a video complaining about the debate.. speaking only for myself as big tent democrat would say, i was complaining cuz i thought the lapel pin mode of questioning was a disservice to all involved, not Obama specifically.. he came out the worst of it cuz he was off his game, separate issue.
donnadarko // April 20, 2008 at 2:04 am
Hey Jay! Good to see you.
The Clintons have been attacked by trivial questions for 16 years. This is a double standard.
The lapel pin question is a staple of American politics. This or allegiance to the flag always comes up. Ridiculous but you’d be surprised how many people care about it.
lancethruster // April 21, 2008 at 11:24 am
“The lapel pin question is a staple of American politics. This or allegiance to the flag always comes up. Ridiculous but you’d be surprised how many people care about it.
”
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Hence Sen. Clinton’s pandering with her support of the flag burning amendment. Clearly a case of a solution looking for a problem (I do not remember ever choking on the smoke emanating from flag burning fires running rampant but I do recall losing essential liberties sacrificed on the bonfires of alleged “patriotism”).
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