I didn't see the Democratic debate last night, hosted by ABC. But I've read about it. Sounds like it was awful. I pity those of you who sat through it.
But I have to disagree with those who say that Obama lost the debate. For right here is the money quote, courtesy Steve Benen:
At one point, about 20 minutes or so into the debate, Stephanopoulos seemed to encourage Obama to go after Clinton on the sniper story. Obama not only took a pass, which was gracious, but actually tried to explain that there were more important things to talk about.
“[T]he fact of the matter is, is that both of us are working as hard as we can to make sure that we’re delivering a message to the American people about what we would do as president. Sometimes that message is going to be imperfectly delivered, because we are recorded every minute of every day. And I think Senator Clinton deserves, you know, the right to make some errors once in a while. I’m — obviously, I make some as well.
“I think what’s important is to make sure that we don’t get so obsessed with gaffes that we lose sight of the fact that this is a defining moment in our history. We are going to be tackling some of the biggest issues that any president has dealt with in the last 40 years. Our economy is teetering not just on the edge of recession, but potentially worse. Our foreign policy is in a shambles. We are involved in two wars. People’s incomes have not gone up, and their costs have. And we’re seeing greater income inequality now than any time since the 1920s.
“In those circumstances, for us to be obsessed with this — these kinds of errors I think is a mistake.”
When I went out today, I wore my Obama pin, which I don't do often around here. Frankly, people here think wearing your political emotions on your sleeve—or your car bumper—is strange, so I tend to assimilate. But I had to show my support today, however trivially.
Apparently, I wasn't the only person over here who recognized the travesty:
What is it about Philadelphia? The city last month hosted one of the most impressive moments of the presidential campaign to date: Barack Obama's forthright speech on race. But last night, the very same venue - the National Constitution Centre - witnessed one of the worst events: the dismal ABC News debate between the Democratic candidates.
The contrast could hardly have been starker. Obama's March 18 speech was sophisticated, honest and, above all, respectful of the intelligence of his audience. Last night's debate - or, more specifically, the performance of its moderators, Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos - was by turns superficial and disingenuous.
Americans aren't stupid. We don't like to be treated as such by our media. ABC made a mistake in treating its viewers like dummies. There are now over 12,000 comments on their website, overwhelmingly negative regarding their coverage. One woman, after convincing her 17 year old daughter to watch with her, was embarrassed by the lack of substance:
I sat down with my 17 year old daughter to watch what I told her would be an important opportunity to see how politics were important, and how she, finally interested in the process, should actually care. I was mortified to here [sic] her conclude, “This is kind of like a flame war on Myspace.” […]
If you were offended, you too can comment at ABC here. (Be sure and sign in first.)
Because sometimes wearing a pin isn't enough.
UPDATE: One more, from a Philadelphia journalist who's so fed up he can hardly type:
With your performance tonight -- your focus on issues that were at best trivial wastes of valuable airtime and at worst restatements of right-wing falsehoods, punctuated by inane "issue" questions that in no way resembled the real world concerns of American voters -- you disgraced my profession of journalism, and, by association, me and a lot of hard-working colleagues who do still try to ferret out the truth, rather than worry about who can give us the best deal on our capital gains taxes. But it's even worse than that.
Wow. He's mad and I don't think he wants us to take it any more.
