by Jim Geraghty
I don=92t like Hillary Clinton. But I respect her as an adversary. And
every once in a while, when she demonstrates she has the guts to =93go
there=94 in front of a Democratic audience that want their debates to be
criticism-free lovefests, I=92m tempted to say, =93I like the cut of your
jib, Senator.=94 It=92s like watching a linebacker perfectly execute a
blitz and flatten a quarterback from the blind side. It=92s brutal, and
tough to watch when it=92s your guy being hit, but it=92s within the rules
and almost artistic when it=92s perfectly executed.
Tonight, she had her stumbles. Her answer on the Bosnia sniper tales
really didn=92t help her out that much; she needed to explain something
bewildering to the average Joe, which is remembering things that
didn=92t happen. She made a lame joke about not getting enough sleep,
but oddly, Obama didn=92t jump in by mentioning her =933 a.m.=94 ads.
But she tore into Obama on all of his weak spots. Relentlessly. For
the most part, she avoided looking nasty while she did it. She focused
on the =91cling=92 comment in the context of not understanding the role of
religion in people's lives. She repeated what Wright actually said the
Sunday after 9/11, and probably introduced Wright=92s blaming of America
to a lot of people who had only heard Wright=92s sermons through a media
filter. She twisted the knife when she noted that people don=92t choose
their families, but they choose their pastor. When Obama tried to
downplay his relation****p to William Ayers, she brought up the Woods
Foundation.
After about forty-five minutes, David Axelrod probably should have
thrown in the towel and stopped the fight.
Obama got a little better as the night wore on, but the damage was
done. He looked terrible tonight. He said he disowned Wright =96
contradicting his speech line about being no more able to disown
Wright than his own grandmother =97 then backed away and said he only
disowned his comments. When Hillary brought up Wright=92s 9/11 comments,
he merely lamented that some of his comments had been =93objectionable.=94
He never quite explained why he stopped wearing the American flag pin,
and he kept digging in deeper on William Ayers. He dismissed the
question, then described Ayers as an =93English professor.=94 He
completely downplayed Ayers=92 terrorist past, and said they didn=92t
exchange ideas =93on a regular basis.=94 Then he compared his relation****p
to Ayers to his relation****p with Senator Tom Coburn! Way to chase
away the last of the Obamacans, Senator.
Hillary closed by saying she=92s a fighter. She proved that tonight; if
I were on Team McCain, tonight might have convinced me to hope for a
showdown with Obama.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
UPDATE: During the night, I wondered if Democrats would conclude she
was too nasty and negative. But I don't think she ever came across as
shrill or sneering in her delivery, like when she did with the
"slumlord Rezko" line a few debates ago. But I suppose it's possible
that tonight's performance backfires, that Democrats see her as
tearing down their Obamessiah. But my first gut instinct is that she's
knocking him off his pedestal with all of this...
---------
-C-
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