July 24, 2007
The CNN-YouTube Debate: What About Edwards?
We didn't give John Edwards very much ink last night (8 candidates vs. 1 blogger = no fair), but quite a few other political commentators were impressed by the former VP nominee. The Politico's Roger Simon was wowed by Edwards' fiery People vs. The Powerful responses, and named him the winner.
"Edwards needs to project strength, and he is on the road to doing that," Simon concludes.
The veteran journo did "deduct 3.5 points" over Edwards' "dumb" attack on Hillary Rodham Clinton's suit, saying it appeared "sexist and cheap."
Edwards did give forceful responses, particularly on his pet issue of poverty. He's been through the primary meat grinder before, and it shows. But thanks to their disgust with President Bush, Democratic voters (and the independents who now stand with them) seem to be looking beyond the primaries. Edwards' third-place slot means he doesn't have the luxury of taking aim at his possible general-election opponent, as Clinton and Rudy Giuliani do.
Still, he appears to be gaining ground in Iowa, and has a decent amount of cash to work with. He's in nowhere near as much trouble as his GOP third-place counterpart, John McCain. That's reason for the former North Carolina senator to hope.
Clinton has always been a centrist, despite what her detractors on the right say, and she ably straddled the middle ground on most issues. She copped to being a "progressive moderate" instead of a liberal, which is bound to enrage segments of the Democratic base. Does it matter? Those same base voters badly want their party to sweep out the last remnants of Bush's and Dick Cheney's stewardship.
Clinton also earned the most bipartisan praise for her performance. The senator from New York can count on National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez's vote -- provided all the GOP candidates drop out.
The former first lady's main argument for the nomination is her status as a known known in a field of unknown unknowns. Her husband's presidency and their past is a subject of intense scrutiny, but Americans believe their country has fallen into a very deep hole. That suggests voters will opt for experience and reliability to pull them out.
But it still won't be easy for Clinton. In an interview on MSNBC this afternoon, a Salon.com reporter expressed surprise that she appeared "human" last night. Is that a requirement for anyone else in either field -- proving their mortality?
Clinton's main rival for the nod, Barack Obama, didn't fare as well as he needed. That's according to Byron York, The Swamp, and, well, us. A snap SurveyUSA post-debate poll found viewers seemed to agree, and Obama is getting some unflattering post-debate press after losing a point to Clinton. Still, plenty of others thought Obama hit it out of the park.
The same robo-poll shows a surprisingly strong audience response to Joseph Biden's serious-yet-witty performance. His campaign is probably hoping to ride that momentum, but the Delaware senator needs airtime, and he didn't get much today. (Blame Lindsay Lohan?)
See Beltway Confidential, The Caucus, TPM Cafe and The Economist for more debate postmortems.
Photos: CNN.com
Posted at 7:00 PM
Posted to:
Barack Obama, Campaigns, Democrats, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards, Joseph Biden, WH 2008
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