The Debate

I got home in time to watch the debate tonight, and I have to say, I thought Obama easily won this (hopefully final) round. And I say that as someone who thinks Clinton generally does pretty well in this format. Tonight, though, she just seemed rattled and off her game. For once I thought she was the more nervous one. Clinton's attempt to portray herself as the victim of media bias came across particularly poorly. It's not that she doesn't have a legitimate gripe; the media has been pretty unfair to her at times. But when you try to make that point yourself, particularly in the context she tried to make it tonight, it just comes across as whiny and pathetic. That's an argument you need to leave to your surrogates.

Moreover, it's not an entirely accurate complaint either. Today Atrios echoed a point I made last week:

It's certainly true that the media, in a lot of ways, isn't exactly kind to the Clintons. Though I have to say that it's also the case that their bizarre obsession with the Clintons has helped her keep the campaign going. While there's a degree of cheering on of her downfall from many quarters, I also think that if the tables were turned and Obama was seen as the presumptive loser by a similar margin they'd be treating him like they treat Huckabee now, as a peripheral figure.

That's absolutely right. There's no question that many members of the mainstream media have been unfair to Clinton, but they've also been pretty slow to write her off and pretty quick to accept her campaign's spin about the significance (or lack thereof) of various election results. They've also been surprisingly accepting of ludicrous and insulting Clinton campaign arguments, like the claim that she should be awarded all of the delegates from Michigan, from a contest which everyone agreed did not count and in which only Clinton's name was on the ballot. That idea would not have been taken seriously for even a second if the situation were reversed.

Tonight Clinton just seemed to run out of confidence, to run out of effective spin. I've been surprised too many times in this election to make any more predictions, but I'd be shocked if this debate did anything to help Clinton. Obama seemed like he finally felt comfortable in this format. I guess the good thing about having 20 debates is that it really prepares you for the general election.