Hillary-Obama debate

[Cairber]

Anyone watching? It's ridiculous....the questions so far:

-Bittergate
-Wright
-Bosnia
-Flag pins



And I can't help but think this is Hillary slanted since Barack is getting everything thrown at him.

[Jadeite]

I yelled "Shut the fuck up you fat whore!" at the TV when they aired that bitch asking about the pins. This isn't a debate, its a blatant attempt at character assassination.

[Vohu Manah]

No, but so far I am coming to the very same conclusion.

[Cairber]

A whole fucking hour before they bring up a real issue: Iraq withdrawl

[Qwerty 42]

How has Obama been handling the attempts?

[Masami von Weizegger]

I'm surprised they didn't drag out Bowling-gate. If anyone was seriously swayed by that shit of a first hour, which I would call a character assassination, except it naturally lacked anything substantial to hit Obama with, they deserve whatever shitty nomination or president they vote for.

[Cairber]

Very class act. Example:

Hillary gets asked if she wants to continue to talk about Wright or move on; she chose to continue to talk about Wright.

Obama, instead of harping on Bosnia, turned to issues and told us to stop harping on "manufactored issues" like Bosnia and Wright.

[Cairber]

I notice hillary got the first real issues question. At this point, I can't see that as coincidence.

[Vohu Manah]

Very class act. Example:

Hillary gets asked if she wants to continue to talk about Wright or move on; she chose to continue to talk about Wright.

Obama, instead of harping on Bosnia, turned to issues and told us to stop harping on "manufactored issues" like Bosnia and Wright.

Nothing Hillary does anymore surprises me and this just confirms once again why Obama is the better choice.

[Cairber]

Twice in a row Hillary gets the issues question first-- now taxes/economy.

So Obama gets flag pins, Wright, and Bittergate. Hillary gets Iraq and Economy.

[Turin]

Let them give Hillary the issues questions first... she mangles them anyway. He's crushing her.

[Guardsman Bass]

So you guys are already in the thick of it? It's just starting now; they did a tape delay here in Utah. I'm not particularly impressed, even with the first question: a stupid, drawn-out"ask if they will pledge to have the other as VP on the ticket" question.

Come on, guys, ask something interesting. At least Russert would occasionally ask some interesting hypotheticals that couldn't be simply be reduced down to a policy-format response, between other crap. Ask them about energy policy, or actually confront them about a problem with one of their plans on something.

[Adrian Laguna]

Twice in a row Hillary gets the issues question first-- now taxes/economy.

So Obama gets flag pins, Wright, and Bittergate. Hillary gets Iraq and Economy.

I think they are deliberately trying to benefit Clinton, not because they like her, but to drag things out even longer.

[Cairber]

I loved her line about "I have confidence it will all work out" yeah, that's specific policy right there. We should all believe her because she has a feeling it'll all work out

[Masami von Weizegger]

I loved her line about "I have confidence it will all work out" yeah, that's specific policy right there. We should all believe her because she has a feeling it'll all work out

At least she didn't play the sex card by labeling it "female intuition"?

I'm happy she's ballsing it up, I'm just worried that some slack jaws will fall for "It'll work out in the end". Never mind those that have already, their minds are made up.

[Gigaliel]

As I much as I enjoy the 'hard' questions, does anyone get annoyed how they harp on the single detail? "Can you guarantee not raising taxes on <$250,000 income inners?" "Pretty much." "That's not a yes or no!" *massive policy plan* "Yes or no!" I know politicians like not answering questions, but those were mostly relevant.

Also, as regards to capital gains tax cut resulting in increased revenue:

Click for chart.

So no, the reduction in the capital gains tax rate from 20% to 15% in 2003 did not result in an increase in revenue over the course of the business cycle. In 2000 receipts totaled $119 billion, which equals $143 million in 2007 dollars. In 2007, they totaled $122 billion. That's a 15% decline.

It's technically a blog, but it uses congressional sources so it seems adequate.

[Guardsman Bass]

My god, a stupid question was just asked by Stephanopolous:

"1)Do you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do, and
2)What will you do if elected, and this gets played over and over again?"

Even the Republican Primary Debates on Faux News never got that stupid.

[Guardsman Bass]

As I much as I enjoy the 'hard' questions, does anyone get annoyed how they harp on the single detail? "Can you guarantee not raising taxes on <$250,000 income inners?" "Pretty much." "That's not a yes or no!" *massive policy plan* "Yes or no!" I know politicians like not answering questions, but those were mostly relevant.

Also, as regards to capital gains tax cut resulting in increased revenue:

Click for chart.

So no, the reduction in the capital gains tax rate from 20% to 15% in 2003 did not result in an increase in revenue over the course of the business cycle. In 2000 receipts totaled $119 billion, which equals $143 million in 2007 dollars. In 2007, they totaled $122 billion. That's a 15% decline.

It's technically a blog, but it uses congressional sources so it seems adequate.

I'm not particularly fond of specific economic questions being asked like that, either, although if a candidate can answer it, it reflects positively on him/her. They're complicated and not easy to narrow down to a simple spiel in a 1 minute response time.

[Cairber]

The only positive for Hillary in this debate is that she def sounds more fluid..Obama pauses a lot, but I think this is due to him actually answering the questions in specifics and not giving sound bites.

[FSTargetDrone]

Is it inappropriate for me to wonder why George Stephanopoulos, who worked to get Bill Clinton elected and then worked in his administration, was chosen to be one of the questioners?? They should have got one of the local ABC affilitate reporters instead.

[Cairber]

That debate was a travesty. Even Ed rendell said it was lopsided in the first 40 min (more like first hour I think). The saddest part is now it seems like everyone news stations are interviewing are saying Hillary won.

Well, of course it's going to look like that. All she had to do was sit back and go with it as they hammered Obama on every contact he's ever had and his stupid flag pin.

[Tanasinn]

Looks like Hillary's corporate handlers and associates are trying to step it up a notch. Can't win by being good? Then stack the deck!

At this point, I think little more of Shillary than I do of the chimp.

[Tiriol]

That debate was a travesty. Even Ed rendell said it was lopsided in the first 40 min (more like first hour I think). The saddest part is now it seems like everyone news stations are interviewing are saying Hillary won.

Well, of course it's going to look like that. All she had to do was sit back and go with it as they hammered Obama on every contact he's ever had and his stupid flag pin.

That's what one of the Finnish daily newspapers, Iltalehti, reported here (link in Finnish, unfortunately, but the crust is that Obama supposedly stumbled badly in a television interview). Many of the foreign newspapers use US newspapers as sources of information, so such "news" get spread far and wide.

[Morilore]

That debate was a travesty. Even Ed rendell said it was lopsided in the first 40 min (more like first hour I think). The saddest part is now it seems like everyone news stations are interviewing are saying Hillary won.

Well, of course it's going to look like that. All she had to do was sit back and go with it as they hammered Obama on every contact he's ever had and his stupid flag pin.

Good God, the media was trying to coronate the Hilldebeast right from the start, and their persistent attempts to do so even when the people clearly prefer Obama is pissing me the fuck off, especially since I can't shake the feeling that there's an off-chance that they'll win. And even if they don't, there's a greater chance that the shit they're throwing at Obama will drag him down in the race against McCain, and that'd be even worse.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Stephanopoulos fielding questions? One hour of flag-pin humping? Corporate backing?

Why do they even pretend to be legitimate journalists?