Democrats Debate In Las Vegas

Huffington Post   |   November 15, 2007 11:53 AM


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Read Marc Cooper's debate primer, from OffTheBus.

New York Times:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton heads into tonight's Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas with an opportunity: to try to erase the unflattering image that her chief rivals, and her own mistakes, have helped create.

Yesterday, in an attempt to neutralize one possible threat at the debate, her campaign announced that Mrs. Clinton would not support driver's licenses for illegal immigrants as president. It is the latest formulation of her position, which has shifted since it became a tripping point in the last televised debate on Oct. 30.

Her advisers say they hope the matter will now be off the table, but Mrs. Clinton's top rivals made clear that they would continue to press the argument they have been making in recent weeks, that she is inconsistent and overly political.

Washington Post -- Rivals planning for Hillary to go on the offensive:

For the past several months, Clinton has hewn to a front-runner's strategy, rarely engaging her challengers directly and instead focusing her attacks on Republicans. The closest she has come to taking on Obama has been to stress her own experience -- drawing attention to his brief tenure in Washington -- and to upbraid rivals for attacking fellow Democrats.

But in recent days, the Clinton team has engaged more seriously in a back-and-forth with rivals. Earlier this week, after Edwards ran an advertisement asserting he would take away the health care of members of Congress if they do not agree to a universal-coverage proposal, Clinton aides sharply criticized him, noting that the president has no such authority. Looking ahead to tonight's debate, Wolfson said, "We expect that our opponents will attack Senator Clinton, and we're prepared for it."

Obama's campaign is preparing for more direct engagement. "I'm sure the computers are whizzing over there. I just don't know what they will spit out," said David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist. "I heard her say Saturday night that Democrats should not attack Democrats, and I'm sure she'll adhere to that. I'm sure that it has more than a five-day half-life."

Dean of Iowa political journalism David Yepsen:

The Democratic candidates have another of those "high-stakes" presidential debates in Las Vegas tonight. (Are any of these debates "low-stakes" events any more?) It's at 7 p.m. on CNN. Clinton's poor performance in an Oct. 30 debate and her campaign stumbles in the days afterward put her under strong pressures to perform well. She needs to change the negative story lines that have been floating around about her for the last two weeks.

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If Hillary is in such a tail spin why hasn't it show in the polls. There's been a little tightening in Iowa, and one or two in NH show she's only winning now by just 10-15 points there. But her national numbers are still way ahead of the others. In SC she still has a comfortable lead, and in NV where the debate is being held she's so far ahead her opponents can't see her.

So I guess a supposed poor debate performance and fake scandals like tipgate didn't do much after all. This is all the media trying to make the race more competitive, being a player trying to make this into a horserace.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 04:13 PM on 11/15/2007

these things are pretty friggin far from being a debate.

VOTE KUCINICH!

If you don't, you might as well be a republican.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 04:12 PM on 11/15/2007

At least last time their was some real noise about the different mind sets... but we all must have seen how the questions were "directed" to cause the fighting as it was. I think Russert blew it last time with his direction of questions but it all comes down to selective questions to selective people to get selective responses. Debate? I thought debate meant you get epople up in front and they yelled at each other their opinions until someone slapped the other one. Nope? Is it when rational people get up front and present their side on what/how they would do whatever. No debate seen yet was one I would call informative. Just news/noise makers for everyone to spin their way.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:09 PM on 11/15/2007

"Of course Hillary was not going to slam the Dem. Governor of her state."

That is just another example of Hillary playing politics rather than saying what she believed about the issue. She was either against the plan and refused to voice it, or she was for Spitzer's plan, but once support for it started to fall apart, backed away. Either way she wasn't giving a straight answer.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:57 PM on 11/15/2007

The headline here is misleading. It's NOT a debate. It's a corporate media extravaganza brought to you by (fill in the blank). No other country in the world does this. And we expect them to take us seriously?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:07 PM on 11/15/2007

.
In this "debate", like the last one, all the men will be attacking our beloved Hilary just because she is a woman - God's preferred sex.

Stop it you meanies.

So what if she is double-talking and two-faced and has a platform that consists of: Show-Me-The-Money, Say-Whatever-They-Want-To-Hear, Continue-The-Neocon-Wars, Sell-The-Lincoln-Bedroom, and I-Want-A-New-Pair-Of-Hsu's. So what if there are no depths of depravity to which this moneywhor'e won't go, including staging questions at public events. So what if she is Bush-Lite on the neocon wars and many other critical issues. So what is she is an advocate for the most un-American piece of legislation ever enacted, the so-called "Patriot" Act, which shows clearly that she will be as lawless, secretive and anti Bill of Rights as DickNBush.

She is woman - let her roar!
.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:06 PM on 11/15/2007
photo

Tip:

Tonight CNN will use Brown to go after Senator

Clinton.

The boys of msm love a cat-fight between two women.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:05 PM on 11/15/2007

Of course Hillary was not going to slam the Dem. Governor of her state. Certain questions are not black and white yes - no answers. The exception to this would be the way that Bush thinks. I prefer a bright person who understands a multifaceted approach.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:25 PM on 11/15/2007

Let's hope Brown goes into labor today. Then CNN can replace her with Judi (oops Judith) Guiliani. It will make everything much more fair.
Have to disagree with Yepsin's comment that Clinton gave a "poor performance" during the last debate. I think she handled herself extremely well under the bombardment she faced. I think some of the others would have cried halfway through. Yepsin has not been what anyone could consider an impartial reporter for quite a while when covering the Democratic race. He's certainly entitled to his opinion, but I don't find him unbiased.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:57 PM on 11/15/2007

unless leslie blitzer channels tim russert, obama will be his usual self. And will campfollower brown announce her conflict or does she just think it will be obvious

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:28 PM on 11/15/2007
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