Obama Criticizes Debate, Attacks Clinton For Being "In Her Element"

RALEIGH, N.C. — Democratic Sen. Barack Obama dismissively talked about his debate with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and the line of questioning from ABC News' moderators, arguing that it focused on political trivia at the expense of the problems facing average voters.

At a rally in the May 6 primary state of North Carolina, Obama drew roars of approval Thursday when he mocked aspects of the presidential debate that had him on the defensive Wednesday night. He faced tough questions about his controversial pastor, his comments about bitter voters in small towns and his relationship with a 1960s radical.

Deadpanning, the Illinois senator said, "It does not get much more fun than these debates. They are inspiring events."

In criticism of his rival, he called the debate "the rollout of the Republican campaign against me in November" and said it represented textbook Washington politics that Clinton was very comfortable playing.

"They like stirring up controversy and they like playing gotcha games, getting us to attack each other," he said. "Senator Clinton looked in her element. She was taking every opportunity to get a dig in there. That's her right to kind of twist the knife a little bit ... that's the lesson she learned when Republicans did it to her in the 1990s."

The Obama campaign also sought to capitalize on the debate, sending out a fundraising appeal titled, "Gotcha," and soliciting $25 donations.

"Last night I think we set a new record because it took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people," Obama told the North Carolina crowd. "Forty-five minutes before we heard about health care, 45 minutes before we heard about Iraq, 45 minutes before we heard about jobs, 45 minutes before we heard about gas prices."

ABC News' Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos pointedly questioned Obama, and Clinton politely challenged her rival.

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"When you're running for the presidency, you've just got to kind of let it ..." Obama said, pretending to flick lint off his pants and jacket.

Another debate between the two candidates seems unlikely. Obama had agreed to a debate in North Carolina on Saturday, Clinton has agreed to a debate April 27 in Raleigh, sponsored and televised by CBS News. The two camps have not agreed on a date.

"I'll be honest with you. We've now had 21," Obama said of the debates. "It's not as if we don't know how to do these things. I could deliver Senator Clinton's lines. I'm sure she could deliver mine."

Later, taking a question from a fourth-grade boy who said he had been elected his class representative at school, Obama asked, "How many debates did you have to have?"

"None," the boy replied.

"None! That sounds good!" Obama said.

[WATCH]

Comments

[LOL123]

I watched the debate and had to turn it off ...it was nausiating. Clinton with her cheshire grin pleased that the topics were more about formulated attack questions rather than job skills. I kept thinking please play their game Obama and say "I misspoke about the bitter comment" and then give her that little Cheshire grin right back. Then when they rephrase it just keep repeating it .....I misspoke....I was tired from the campaign trail and then smile again. That kind of catyness isn't even in his nature so it wouldn't even occur to him to play it that way. On the other hand he could have said " from my encounters with people who felt free to speak their minds that's what they had to say, and I like the way Hillary and her husband refer to the average citizen as "joe six pack" yet say they don't look down on them. But Obama doesn't fight that way, he's got class and sticks to it.

[anghiari]

And "her element" was supplied courtesy that duplicitious George Stephanopoulos! They are working overtime to try and get Senator Obama to become as nasty as they are. Bravo Senator, they cannot stand that you are a "class act"!

[AC500]

Yes, she was in her element. People without authentic internal power get theirs from tearing other people down to lift themselves up. You could clearly see this happening during the debate. By the end of the debate she was pumped while Barack looked just plain weary of the whole sorry tabloid 'gotcha' business. I really applaud him for keeping to the high ground away from the trap set for him over Clinton's Bosnia lie which was a clear invitation to him to drop to their (Clinton tag-team) muck wallowing level. Clinton appears ever more a Jekel and Hide ... from 'holier than thou' in the debates to rottweiler on the campaign trail. If she would just come out in the debates as she appears on the campaign trail one could at least have some respect for her. She appears to have no authentic stable inner core ... She manufactures herself as she goes along depending on what's called for in the moment. This leaves her open to being easily influenced and its very troublesome that she has no inner barometer to judge or even recognize that she is being influenced. You see this in her campaign. Like James Carvell to whom blind loyalty is everything, she could very well lead the country off a cliff like she did her campaign ... by unquestioning loyalty to an old friend and adviser. Then there's the failure to manage her campaign funds ....

[swanky]

He exhibits zero desire to compete. That's what this process is all about - competition. And you don't get to be President without a firm desire to compete. Gore and Kerry rolled over like dogs in '00 and '04 because they exhibited no desire to compete. Hillary is the real competitor. Who would you rather have fighting the AMA and insurance lobby for universal health care, a wimpy and unprepared effete snob, or a hard-nosed ass-kicker who is not afraid to fight dirty to win? This whole process has made one thing perfectly clear to me and has made my support of Hillary that much stronger, and that is the fact that Obama is not willing to go to any length to do what he must. He's a crybaby and a wimp. He'd rather just throw money at the issue. If I spent $4 for each $1 my competitor spent, I could be winning too. Hell, my dog could be winning. Hillary is doing what Hillary does, anything to win - and that's exactly what this country needs. We don't need another entitled rich-boy sitting back taking orders from his own staff. The grand experiment of letting the inmates run the asylum has failed. An O'Kennedy win will only make it worse because he won't deliver, and he'll raise your taxes anyway.

[tish]

You are soooooooo right, Swanky!! He doesn't seem to want to work all that hard for the presidency (like Bush). And if he is the presidency (due to the millions he'll throw to win) he will govern by committee. I'm sick of this Bush-like approach. Obama will be as disconnected and unaccountable as Bush.

Hillary is definitely the superior candidate and will be a kick-ass president! No matter how battered she is by her critics--left or right--she is a fighter and is always prepared!

[classof77]

He whined all day yesterday about the debate, and flipped off Hillary in the process. Great! Definitely presidential material, I'd say... president of the high school student body, maybe. What a naive, spoiled, petulant, spineless, bitter excuse for a presidential candidate, even more than our last brilliant choice, John Kerry. The Democratic Party shoots itself in the foot once again.

[dBlogger]

"He exhibits zero desire to compete"??? What are smoking, Swanky?

Here we have a man who has come from nowhere to defeat the strongest political machine in democratic history, and you say he doesn't want to compete?

Obama has amassed the largest pool of donors EVER (1,345,000 and counting), precisely because is dynamic, impassioned and HONEST. He believes in this country, in the American dream, and is incredibly passionate about giving the people this dream back. I must admit, I was sceptical at first, but after listenting to this man, and paying close attention to how he speaks and what he says, I firmly believe this is the leader we've been waiting for to help get our country back on track.

Go Obama, YES WE CAN!!!

www.yeswecansong.com

[margi]

Stephanopolous was fed one the questions by Hannity (fox news) it does not get better than that
watch the recording : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/24191350#24191350.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/18/nash-mccabe-obamas-flag-p_n_97392.html

[kj2006]

I agree that Clinton was "in her element", if you mean a situation that is stressful, high-risk, and requiring intellect and strength. These types of situations occur all the time for a president and Obama failed miserably. Hillary has shown that she is cool, calm, collected and ready to be President.

[pleeezzze]

Point being ...Obama needs a Scripted Speech to sermonize . He cannot hold his own when he needs to answer a question ,without stammering and stuttering around the subject .

[swanky]

Stuttering, stammering, useless. He's not prepared for the job. I don't want him answering the phone at any time, whether it's 3:00 am or 3:00 pm. He's more of a condescending and disdainful prick than any Republican I know.

[LOL123]

obviously you don't know very many Republicans.

[emj2740]

Your so full of crap I can smell it from here!

Clinton/Rove 08

[leftoflennon]

Brush ya shoulders off Senator !

[shengirl]

Why is it such big deal if Obama does or does not wear a flag lapel pin, when Hillary never does, and neither Stephanapolous nor Charles Gibson wore one the other night. I don't recall ever seeing them wear one. Yet they kept hammering at Obama about it, like it was some serious failing. Is it that the guy with the dark skin and the foreign-sounding name has to "prove" that he's a loyal American, but the white men and the white woman do not? No one's questioning their patriotism.

[danceswithyids]

I think it is funny that when Obama criticizes a debate he is cheered but when Clinton did the same in the past she was lambasted and called a whiner.
We've blown it again.
Obama doesn't get that of course the dems think these issues are silly, but the dems alone will not win the general.
Put on a damn flagpin so then the issue is no longer an issue.
Defuse the bombs rather than just lengthen the wicks so that they don't explode until the general.
Obama expects America to suddenly do the very opposite of what it has always done, rather than just defuse the issues so they can no longer be focused on.
He greatly overestimates the public

[OICUR2]

Did he overestimate the public's generosity to his Quarter of a Billion Dollar campaign as well?

[danceswithyids]

See you are missing the point, you are talking about the converted.
I am talking about those who have not chosen.
Anyone who supports Obama already, already gets it.
The goal now is to bring in more voters, and those voters are the ones who care about flag pins and the like.
Personally I do not, but I understand what appealing to the general voter means.

[MoreCowBellNowPlease]

"Mr. Obama is no longer running against someone named Clinton, he’ll stop denigrating the very good economic record of the only Democratic administration most Americans remember."

It's a great point. Bill's administration was properous to ALL americans. If you disagree with that I have to question if you blindly believe whatever Obama says without using your critical thinking skills. To me that means Obama is being successful in pulling the wool over the eyes of his followers in the same way that the repubs take advantage of their supporters that don't use critical thinking skills. Obama's method, in this case, is POLITICS as USUAL --fool your supporters to believe anything you say and to vote on platitudes. Frankly, I am sick of it. I want a candidate with solutions based on strong analysis and detailed plans.

[OICUR2]

Well I am an Obama supporter, but since I decided to take your advice and use some "critical thinking skills", I now support Phyllis Diller for President in 08'. I'm no fool. I'm just sick of it too!

[MoreCowBellNowPlease]

Well, I am a fan of your humor. :)

[OICUR2]

Phyllis Diller in 08'

http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/07/18/phyllis_diller.jpg

[emj2740]

Cool! Can her husband Fang be in her cabinet too?

[Gmoney1]

Obama, don't participate in these so called debates anymore - you've done enough - these people are not interested in debating any issues - their whole purpose is to try to accuse, disparge and divide - they want to see if they can do anything to help Hillary - they think we don't know what they're doing - Obama, tell Hillary to debate herself or continue to spread her lies - she can go on the Joe Scarborough show from now to the end of the primary - she'll do just fine on that show - she and Joe can continue to spread their distorted garbage to the brain dead -

[JFaye]

The true test of how good Mr. Clinton's policies were for America, came (like any other president) after he left office.

While I will argue the benefits of NAFTA and the necessity of America participating in a global economy (we ought to have lead this growth), the application of the program actually hurt our citizens. Corporate executives were provided tax breaks and other incentives to phase out manufacturing plants and even less incentive to re-train American workers. Those who have and continue to benefit most from what we viewed as properous times are corporate executives, including high-end investors; this group is well represented by lobbyists with special interests well-served by both the Clinton and Bush Administrations.

Arguably, a lot of distractions to President Clinton further advancing his good intentions, were thwarted by a hostile Republican Congress. However, his lack of character and personal discipline or integrity served the Republican cause well.

[MoreCowBellNowPlease]

When I listen to experts and not the talking heads on cable news or talk radio, I hear over and over that NAFTA has been incrediblly good for our country.

America's unemployment rate is actually lower today than it was in the year before NAFTA went into effect.

U.S. companies invest far more each year in other high-wage, high-standard economies, such as those of Western Europe and Canada, than they do in such developing countries as Mexico.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=2489

NAFTA did missed out on containing a caveat to give an incentive to those companies that leave jobs in the US. That's it. That is something both Hillary and Obama agree on and want to change.

[LOL123]

Oh really? Well why didn't Hillary's health plan go into effect since her husband was the President at the time she proposed it. Was he that ineffective as a President?

[MoreCowBellNowPlease]

You have no debating skills. Try again with a real grown-up analogy.

[classof77]

Because there was a concerted effort at the time involving the Republicans in Congress and big pharmaceutical companies to shoot it down even before it came out of the gate. The Democrats at the time did not come together and support her plan, but instead monkeyed around with competing plans, and the whole thing fell apart. As Bill Maher has said about HRC's healthcare reform efforts, she had it right back then, and she has it right now. And HRC emerged from that experience as one of the most knowledgeable legislators on the issues of health care and healthcare reform.

If you don't actually remember the past, there are plenty of sources on the internet where you can learn about it. Plus, there are these things called libraries where you can read books for free.

[OICUR2]

TO: PENNSYLVANIA

PLEASE transform from "the "KEYSTONE STATE" and become the "SAVIOR STATE"!

PENNSYLVANIA - Please help take us out of our misery, next week, by establishing "THE BIGGEST UPSET" in U.S. history and send Billary & Family back to Chappequa!

I used to like them very much but I can't take Billary & tribe anymore! Their lies & phoniness is just tooooo much for me!

With Luv,

"Obama the Great" in 08'

[emj2740]

Agree. I was born and raised in Tennesse and have had to put up with a racial sterotype that says the south is all racist. Well I have spent the last 15 years in Chicago and have heard and seen more racism then I ever saw in the south. When Hillary wins PA because as their govenor said they won't vote for a black man, there again is proof racism is not just a southern thing but a country wide thing.

Number 1 pick up line in Tennesse? Hey, nice tooth!

Clinton/Rove 08!

[Repub4Obama]

I'm an Obama supporter and I did not like the 'debate'. No surprise. But I did not like it because it was not a debate. A debate is where an impartial moderator (unlike Stephasnuffalupagus who was Clinton's Media chief) asks a germain question to two or more people, and they take turns stating their opinion, then cross examining each other. There was no debate at all at the debate!

First, George should have recused himself from the debate because even the appearance of impartiality is bad, whether pro-obama or pro-hillary. Second, the so-called debate should have been called the trivia-pick-apart game, not a debate.

As far as them ganging up on Obama, bring it on! He handled it well, and 6 (six!) new superdelegates endorsed him this week. He's only down by 19 SD's, and he's actually ahead in SD's who are elected to office. Not to shabby.

I'm looking forward to a REAL DEBATE between Obama and McCain.

[swanky]

I guess you like the stuttering and stammering then. Real testaments to someone's leadership skills. He was obviously only prepared to be attacked. Had his talking points memo well rehearsed. When it came to the substantive questions (albeit later in the broadcast) he missed the mark entirely and looked like W. He's not ready. He's a hack politician.

[nohat]

Obama is too polite with Hillary, too much the gentleman. Some people at Huff and elsewhere think that if he says anything negative, he is going back on his promise to bring in a new kind of politics. In my view, that is crazy. Is he going to win the Nom, convince people that he is the better candidate, by praising her at every turn? Or just by not saying anything negative---ever? Of course not. Doing that is the equivalent of endorsing her, for heaven's sake!
It is fine to say something negative provided you can back it up AND it's something the voter ought to know before he casts his vote. (If it's something the voter doesn't need to know, that's being negative all for the sake of being negative, which is wrong---and what Hillary sometimes does.) Where those two conditions are met, there is nothing at all amiss in doing it and everything amiss in not doing it.

[Aywaller]

But as Soothsayer08 pointed out, he can't do what you suggest. Some voters are not as discerning as others. There are those who listen and understand will say, Ah-ha!!" but there are others who will simply see it as another AA male assaulting a white woman. We don't know if the former number is greater than the latter. I hate to have to put it in those blunt terms but we all know that these things are constraining him at the moment. I think that Clinton's negatives are becoming crystal clear even without Obama having to go negative himself.

[nohat]

Those who see it as an AA male assaulting a white woman, need to grow up. And those who just pretend they do, need to 'fess up. These are just excuses people use to keep him hemmed in, and I for one don't buy it. Hillary loves to either use or hint at these kinds of things, but then she would: she is Opportunism personified. And a very great whiner as well.

[DWP]

I agree. However, he does need to learn "sound bites" to handle these standard attacks. Flag -- 95 per cent of the people don't wear flags in their labels. Where is Hillary's flag? Rev. Wright, I don't like some of the comments he made, but I have forgiven him because that is the Christian thing to do. Weatherman, I was on a charity board with him. Guilt by Association -- judge not less we be judged. Associating with people who differ from us (even greatly) helps us to understand them. Bitter- I used the wrong words, I have apologized, now I want to move on to LISTEN to people and help them. Guns, as President I will support the constitution. Things like that. Give a major speech on what America means to him. .

[classof77]

Oh yeah, he's too much the gentleman. If, that is, gentlemen go around flipping off strong women who can argue circles around them and leave them stammering and "uh"-ing and looking really stupid. I don't know where you're from, but where I was raised, gentlemen don't flip people off.

[Jess27]

Hillary was trying to jab the knife in Obama but she looked so awkward doing it. She didn't look comfortable. Most of the time she was trying to make a big deal over a gotcha question she couldn't even look in the direction of Obama and had to look away as if she knew that she was trying to lie about and exaggerate the situation. She seemed so childish with her eyes blinking a million times a minute so not to roll her eyes like the teenager she is. The only time she looked comfortable was when she was discussing policy.

ABC should be ashamed for this debate, but so should Hillary for antagonizing it.

[harini]

BITTER HILLARY

A rough road ‘tis to the White House,
When your adversary’s a female louse
With the name of Hillary Clinton,
Hailing from small-town Scranton!

Hillary Clinton! Ever so bitter
That Obama’s the leader
In the pledged delegate count,
She simply cannot surmount!

So what does poor Hillary do?
She clings on to a thing or two!
A shot of whiskey...a glass of beer,
Ah! These are sure to bring her cheer!

[Soothsayer08]

I'm an Obama supporter but I agree that some issues should be addressed. But not the ones that were discussed at length. The Ayers question is undoubtably important to some people that can't access the internet. What he should have said about Hillary's comment about Reverend Wright was to cite Wrights attendance at Bill Clinton's infamous prayer breakfast after the ML scandal. The flag lapel question is purely a matter of preference, and has nothing to do with patriotism. This isn't Nazi Gemany when everyone has to salute in lock step. It seems that like Obama says the MSM keeps people focused on inconsequential trivial things. Politics requires too much thinking and people would rather watch American Idol.

[MoreCowBellNowPlease]

I thought the questions were dumn too, but they are getting a larger point that I think Obama needs to addres to put this crap to bed. These silly questions are getting at the point that he offers too much of a forum to cazies and people fear he will negotiate with terrorists.

Obama needs to take that head on and come up with a solid answer to what he means by sitting down with the leader of Iran versus what Clinton supports which is not sitting down with the leader of Iran but allowing him to engage at diplomacy at lower level diplomats. In other words, sitting down with the leader of the free world is a privledge you don't have when you are a terrorist.

What do you think about that? I am interested to hear what people think about that. Is it good to negotiate with terrorists. Maybe, but I don't know.....educate me on your support of that please.

[StillIRise]

The Bush administration IS negotiating with terrorists; they just don't tell us about it or they disguise it as something else. On this issue, Senator Clinton said the politically correct thing perhaps, but not necessarily what she herself knows is the reality; whereas Senator Obama was simply being honest.

[GravitonX]

Can we send Hillary to see some real Bosnian snipers?

[CindyKay]

No , We should just suggest Cheney take Her a huntin.
If Were Really Lucky they will take eachother out.