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Showing posts from April 16, 2008

Live-blogging the ABC Philadelphia debate
How do you close the deal?

Hillary : I'll tell the superdelegates that I'm a fighter. That's how, dammit! Barack : Defining moment in history. People lost trust in gov't -- not just Dems, but indies and Repubs, too. Change happens from the bottom up. That's why we don't take PAC money. Woman, 74, never voted before, says she's voting for me. (Gotta call that round for Hill, huh?) All right; shake hands; go home.

Live-blogging the ABC Philadelphia debate
Gasbagging on gas prices

Hillary Clinton just said that we should stop putting oil in the strategic petroleum reserve, and "sell some of it off"? How strategic is that? Great. We have depleted armed forces and then we'll have depleted oil reserves. I barely heard what Barack Obama said, because it just sounded like the same old. Nobody mentioned public transportation. Our rail system, if you can call it that, is the embarrassment of the industrialized world. We have very little in the way of viable public transportation in the suburbs, never mind rural areas. People need to get out of their damn cars. (How does your blogstress maintain her girlish figure? Her bicyclette, mes amis .)

Live-blogging the ABC Philadelphia debate
Merciful words

Charlie Gibson : "We're running short on time."

Live-blogging the ABC Philadelphia debate
Pardonez-moi; got a little bored

...what, with all this talk about Iran, Iraq, the economy and taxes. Let's keep this thing focused on sniping about race and class, kids! We need some good TV here!

Live-blogging the ABC Philadelphia debate
Stage Wright

That Jeremiah Wright -- he just won't go away. Charlie Gibson just asked why Barack Obama disinvited Pastor Wright from the launch of his campaign, if he did not indeed know of Wright's comments about 9/11. Obama explained that he was responding to different comments by Wright that had been published in Rolling Stone . For her part, Hillary Clinton sounded very defensive when asked to defend her assertion that she would have left the church if Wright had been her pastor. Later, she said that Obama's explanation "is something that deserves further exploration." Then she went on to assert that Wright had "given over the church bulletin" for a message the leader of Hamas.

Live-blogging the ABC Philadelphia debate
Jujitsu

Obama just invoked the furor Clinton 's famous cookie-baking comment to say that she was doing the same thing to him -- in light of his "bitter" comment -- as was done to her in 1992.

Live-blogging the ABC Philadelphia debate
Dagger look at George

Moderator George Stephanopolous earned a steely look from Hillary Clinton when he ask her not to respond to his assertion that she had told Bill Richardson that Barack Obama cannot win the presidency. Then Stephanopolous framed a question in such a way that Clinton and had to say that Obama could win the presidency.

Live-blogging the ABC Philadelphia debate
Obama: I understand why they're offended

Obama seems to be doing okay explaining his apparently condescending comments about why regular people turn to guns and religion when they're frustrated, saying that it wasn't the first time he had "mangled up" a statement. Thing is, he didn't mangle this one. What he said made sense, and was rather eloquent.

Live-blogging the ABC Philadelphia debate
Why not take your opponent as your running mate?

When Charlie Gibson asked, why not take up Mario Cuomo on his suggestion that each of the Dems promise to take the other has his or her running mate, he was greeted with a pair of dumbfounded smiles. Then Clinton gave an answer that seemed to imply that she doesn't expect to get the nomination.

Live-blogging the ABC Philadelphia debate
Neither of us was included

Opening volley: extremely civilized. Barack Obama spoke of the voters' "frustration" over the economy, and issued a subtle dig at Hillary Clinton by speaking of frustration, also, with "special interests" in Washington. Clinton made a point of the "firsts" that she and Obama represent, by mentioning the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, saying, "neither of us was represented in those founding documents."