Hillary Clinton insisted on more debates, and now she has had them. The problem is, for the night of her last showdown, she was tired, testy and temperamental.
The debate did little to hinder Barack Obama’s momentum, but gave us some interesting insights into the mind of Senator Clinton.
Trip Ups & Slip Ups
THE MEDIA
Hillary began by complaining that the debate questioners always give her the first question. She referenced a comedy show to suggest that the media have favored her rival by adding:
“…And if anybody saw ‘Saturday Night Live,’ you know, maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow.”
That set the tone of the evening, the audience groaned and there was still more to come.
NAFTA
Senator Clinton told us she never, ever supported NAFTA. Obama claimed that was inaccurate. The moderator, Tim Russert, pulled out a few quotes where Senator Clinton did indeed sing the praises of NAFTA. Senator Clinton adjusted her story.
NEW JOBS
The moderator inquired about Senator Clinton’s promise to provide 5 million new jobs as President. He cited the fact that while running for Senate she promised 200,000 jobs for upstate New York but after her election, the region lost 30,000 jobs. Her reason for failing to deliver?
“I thought Al Gore was going to be President.”
TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY
Senator Clinton gave no clear reason for her unwillingness to release her tax returns to show where the $5 million she loaned her campaign came from. When pressed, she finally said she might release her tax returns before she becomes the nominee, but not before March 4th because she “a little busy right now”.
She did however plug her website and encourage people to donate to her.
FOREIGN POLICY
Senator Clinton did a fine job of generally answering a question about the successor of Russia’s current leader, Putin. When asked if she knew the name of the successor, she replied,
“Medve.. Medevev… Whatever”.
WORDS DON’T MATTER
Senator Clinton tells us words don’t matter all the time. Last night, she felt otherwise and took a long moment to claim Obama should use ‘reject’ rather than the word ‘denounce’ concerning Farrakhan’s praise of him.
Senator Obama quickly laid her wordplay to rest, saying “if the word ‘reject’ Senator Clinton feels is stronger than the word ”denounce’ , then I’m happy to concede the point, and I would reject and denounce Farrakhan’s endorsement.”
THE FIGHT..?
Senator Clinton wants us to know she is a fighter (she mentioned it 3 times). She even fought the moderators last night leading MSNBC host Brian Williams to plead for a commercial break.
WILLIAMS: And Senator, I need to reserve…
CLINTON: No, but I have — I just have…
WILLIAMS: I’m sorry, Senator.
CLINTON: No, wait a minute. I have to…
WILLIAMS: I’ve got to get us to a break.
CLINTON: The question was about invading.
WILLIAMS: Television doesn’t stop.
CLINTON: Invading Iraq.
WILLIAMS: Can you hold that thought until we come back from a break? We have limited commercial interruptions tonight, and we have to get to one of them now.
Lack of “presidential” decorum aside, some battles should not be waged.
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The point is, road-weary or not, we see the same old politics from Hillary Clinton that she is sure to continue as President.
Success in Washington is not about who yells the loudest. An unwillingness to release your tax returns now seems like a harbinger of things to come: continued secrecy. A minor slip of “whatever” about a foreign leader’s name is patently disrespectful. Shifting blame to Al Gore for the failure to deliver on a promise of creating jobs is some strange kind of scapegoating at best. And passionately telling Americans one thing is true, only until someone proves you know otherwise is called dishonesty.
That leaves us with the final question. Where exactly is the change?
