Ho-hum, another Dem debate. So what, right? But there was a slip by Hillary! that is getting some press.
The most instructive part of tonight’s gaffe (some people are calling it that, I’m sure Hillary! didn’t think it was, she’s surely focus grouped and polled this to death, as she does everything including her wardrobe and haircut) in the last 2 minutes of the Dem Debate tonight is how rattled Hillary! gets at being caught out. She doesn’t respond well to Dodd, she wavers, she makes lame arguments, tries to regroup and make a strong point, but fails.
Russert doesn’t give her any cover either, calling her out to state unequivocally that she supports giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. She adds some lame crap about “he has a hard job, he’s doing the best he can” and that “its good to get people to come out from the shadows” so ok, let’s give fugitives from justice licenses too, by that standard. If an illegal gets pulled over, they should get sent to a holding cell for deportation. Having a license seems like a moot point to me.
The main point, however, is the fact that when on the ropes, Hillary! doesn’t rally well. Instead, she looks like she might bust out bawling. She didn’t think well on her feet, she didn’t come back with a quick answer. She didn’t anticipate the question to begin with, it looks like, and that’s inexcusable. I salute Dodd for jumping on her, with an obviously planned attack. Good on him, he had a better prep team than she, obviously.
All this bodes well if the Republicans can get their act together and come up with a strong candidate that will take it to her. I don’t think people will see her as getting “picked on”, they’ll see her as weak and unready for the presidency.
Which is good for Republicans and good for the country, because she, just like her husband, is not fit to lead this country.
via AOSHQ
and he has an update
Dan Riehl has a different take: Big Hit On Hillary Mostly A Miss
Politico Thinks Hillary! bombed the entire night
Wash Post The Trail: Clinton Provides an Opening in Debate
For months, Hillary Clinton successfully made the Democratic presidential race a test of who has the strength and experience to be president — and watched her opponents struggle to keep pace. On Tuesday night, her rivals turned the tables on her, and for the first time in the campaign, Clinton could not pass the test.
Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia shifted the focus of the Democratic campaign from strength and experience to questions of trust and character. The result was the weakest performance Clinton has delivered in any debate this year and a rare instance in which her longer-term vulnerabilities were very much on display.
Mark Video Special: Clinton’s Strategist On Illegal Immigration
Clinton’s major strategist tries to spin her gaffe:
via RCP Shooting the Moderator?
Via Drudge, we see Hillary’s camp is trying to pin the blame for Clinton’s poor performance last night on Tim Russert:
CLINTON INNER-CIRCLE BLAME ‘UNFAIR’ MODERATOR TIM RUSSERT. ‘HE BORDERED ON THE UNPROFESSIONAL,’ TOP HILLARY ADVISER CHARGES. ‘HE BROKE DEBATE RULES AND WAS BELLIGERENT’…
Please. Blaming Russert is not only ridiculous, it makes Hillary and her campaign look like a bunch of spoiled children. Why not say, “so we had one bad night out of a hundred” and leave it at that? Better yet, why say anything at all?
Up until now, the Clinton camp has been basking in near constant media praise for having run a “flawless campaign.” But they hit one bit of turbulence and this is how they respond? Maybe they’re not the smooth operators everyone thinks they are. Or maybe Clinton’s performance last night polled so badly it spooked them into a panicked overreaction.