Shots Across The Bow

Democrats Debate; Rove Wins

Did you ever think you'd hear Hillary Clinton parroting Republican talking points?

There she was, questioning Obama's electability because of his association with Bill Ayres. And I thought only Sean Hannity was talking about that.

To be honest, as much as I loath the thought of voting for John McCain, after listening to Heckle and Jeckle discuss Iran and Iraq, I just might have to swallow my disgust and pull the lever for the man.

Both Hillary and Barack stated that regardless of what their generals might say, they will pull troops out of Iraq immediately upon taking office. Remember when they criticized Bush for not listening to his generals? Now Obama is criticizing Bush for listening to his generals, and says he will not make the same mistake. Barack says it's because "the buck stops here." (Oopsie! The last time I checked, "buck" is a derogatory term used for young black men. Will he have to apologize to himself? Or will he claim that he didn't know he said it because he wasn't there when it was said? Hey, it worked with Rev. Wright, right?)

Hillary says we can't know what will happen when we pull out. "We can't predict the future." Hmmm. She didn't seem to believe that when questioning why the Bush Administration didn';t see 9/11 coming. Maybe she thinks Republicans are better at evaluating trends and predicting future events than Democrats.

What is all boils down to is that both Barack and Hillary said that they will end the US presence in Iraq, regardless of the consequences, which makes Hillary's response to the next question very odd. She suggests that we gather all the other Middle Eastern nations together and tell them that if they won't develop nuclear weapons to respond to the threat of Iran, we'll place them under our "umbrella of protection." Not only is she going to tie us militarily to the Middle East forever, just how convincing will that promise be after we cut and run leaving Iraq at the tender mercies of Iranian jihadis, Sunni terror cells, and Shia militias?

That "umbrella" seems to have a few too many holes to be much good.

Remarkably, Hillary had the better of the two answers to this question. I don't have the transcript yet, but if I'm not mistaken, Barack spoke for 2 minutes and said absolutely nothing substantive other than "We need to make our position very clear to Iran."

How can you do that when you can't even make it clear to your own country? Here's a challenge for anyone who watched the debate: If Israel is attacked, will Obama respond militarily? If you can't answer that question, and I certainly can't after listening to his answer, what good will a direct meeting between Obama and Ahmadinejad do. Except maybe confuse Ahmadinejad as much as the rest of us.

Gracie Allen diplomacy...it's a provocative concept.

You know, it takes a lot of work to make a McCain presidency tolerable, but these two are making it look easy.

On gun control, there was nothing really shocking. Hillary want to renew the Assault Weapons Ban and says she prefers to allow the states to make their own rules. She says she supports New York laws because "They have worked."

Tell that the people getting mugged at gunpoint every day.

Obama said that the 2nd Amendment recognizes an individual right but that the state or local government can constrain it. He went on to say "I have never favored an all out ban on handguns!" I'm betting that Uncle is researching that one as I type these words.

It was very clear that both candidates were more concerned with reaching the superdelagates rather than the Pennsylvania voters and it was equally clear that Hillary was more successful in doing so. Hillary's use of conservative criticisms was well played, although I'm sure it left a bitter taste in the mouths of her supporters. She was very careful not to agree with the charges, but she made it very clear that Obama had baggage that the Republicans would exploit while minimizing her own baggage at the same time.

UPDATE: Here's the transcript for those interested.

Also, take a look at Andrew Sullivan's take on the debate. A few choice quotes:

• That opening silence was priceless. But he seems exhausted. Since she has had her humanity surgically removed, she seems less so.
  
• Because she's shameless, she's doing better.
  
• I have to say I am actually shocked at the appallingly poor quality of the questions: the worst of the campaign so far. Pure MSM process bullshit. Again: it's now halfway through and there has not been a single question on the economy, foreign policy, healthcare, terrorism, Iraq or any other actual policy issue in this campaign. How much longer can ABC News avoid the actual policy issues in this election?
  
• Clinton will disappoint her neoconservative supporters by such a strong, unequivocal commitment to withdrawal from Iraq. She is, of course, lying. But she does it so well.
  
• It's a huge night for the Republicans. If McCain went up against either of these two in the form they have shown tonight, he'd win.
  

Given both candidates' poor performance on the policy questions, I'm surprised to see Democrats complaining that there weren't more of them. Think about it for a minute: immediately after promising not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $200,000 per year, Obama says he's going to allow the Bush tax cuts to sunset and raise the capital gains tax, both of which will certainly affect people under that threshold. And Hillary's "We've got to abandon Iraq so we can enforce peace between every other Middle Eastern nation" was just as lame.

Posted by Rich at April 16, 2008 9:16 PM | TrackBack