Thursday, April 17, 2008

Did ABCNews lose the Democratic Debate?

I missed last night's debate because of two things: (1) I had a church activity which demanded my time and (2) I simply don't think the candidates have anything new to say to each other at this point. How many more times can Hillary Clinton insinuate but not outright say that Obama is too young and inexperienced to win, and how many more times can Obama remind us all that Hillary Clinton voted for the Iraq War when he did not? That is really what both of them keep bringing it back to at this point.

But it appears a lot of people ARE still watching, and the consensus seems to be that the big lose of the debate was ABCNews for allowing themselves to appear biased toward Clinton and away from Obama. And if any new organization could not afford to appear biased in such a way, it has to be the one with a former Clinton staffer working as anchorman.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041700013_pf.html

1 comment:

"Nick" said...

I watched some of it, more because it was on, and I thought, heck, I've read alot of what they have to say, I'd like to hear it.

First, Obama looked tired, and he seemed to be stumbling for words. They were intelligent words, answers to the questions, but none the less, he seemed a bit out of it. Clinton was her usual prim and proper self, seemed more comfortable, but very fake. She didn't answer the questions so much as give a prepared speech.

Second, it was clear ABC was trying for a "gotcha!" moment, from either one. They were a bit biased against him, but more trying to get either one to make an incendiary comment.

Third, the debate itself was abismal. ABC had dumb questions about stupid political stuff (the petty kind Obama is trying to stop) for the first hour, and then stupid questions about issues the second (I left around 30 min in and came back around 1:30 in).

As the only debate between them I have seen, I was struck by how bad both are as candidates (Obama needs to seem more up beat, able to go the whole way, he just seemed to have let the process get to him, Clinton is just heartless and creepy) and how good John McCain seemed. He won the debate:)