I missed the last twenty minutes to go to a lecture entitled "Winning a Cosmic War: Why We're Losing the War on Terror" by Reza Aslan. [It was a really good lecture too. I want to read his book now.]
But to the debate! Hopefully I'll have more time tomorrow to set it out longer in my blog.
I thought Obama did a wonderful job, as did Clinton, but most especially Obama. Clinton stumbled [at least to me] on her answers to Iraq and immigration. She also had some bad faces, and you could just tell when she was getting angry. She would put on her "Umbridge-smile" and then tried to dissect the argument. A well fought match this time around.
I have only seen about four or five of the seventeen debates, and haven't seem Obama falter too much [except for his "you're likable enough" line], as the pundits like to say. But I don't think he made a bad step in this debate [the first 100 minutes I saw of it]. And he built up his plans with specifics too. Notice that Clinton was much more civil this time around. The atmosphere seemed almost jovial, and her admitting that she might not win at the beginning, but would support Obama if he did was a good change too. Clinton's line about needing a Clinton to clean up a Bushes' presidency really rung false in my ears, and gave me a bad aftertaste. There was just so much said and done, maybe I will think of more.
I would like to point out the amazing difference between the Republican debate [less watched] and the Democratic debate [which the whole world seems to have seen]. Just personally, I watched last night's Republican debate alone in the basement of the dorm. Today I shared the room with about a dozen other watchers. More starking contract was the arena the debate was placed in. The Reagan library, which held, maybe a hundred or two versus the thousands in the Kodak theater. The Republican debate was shot with far less fanfare and hype than the Democratic debate. Honestly, just the setting alone, I thought the Republican's was more "presidential" and dignified. I mean, this is the stage that the Oscars are given out each year. The stage that Hollywood pays tribute to. I found it startling, but on content, I enjoyed the Democratic debate better. The choice of moderators was very strange indeed. Wolf Blitzer was just very antagonistic tonight, especially to Clinton. Anderson Cooper was wonderful, as he always is. Just a civil, charming guy trying to get the facts.
