Showdown In Austin - The Running Diary

So about three months ago I did a running diary of a Republican debate. This was when there was still eight candidates in it. It proved to be pretty hilarious and I suggested I might do the same for the Democratic side. Turns out some people asked that I do it so I give the people what they want.

Now for reasons I can’t really think of (probably just forgot) I hadn’t decided to do this until Thursday night.

There are only two candidates left: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Obama has won 11 straight primaries/caucuses and even Bill Clinton has said if Hillary doesn’t win both Texas and Ohio on March 4th she should withdraw from the campaign.

So, with that in mind I dusted off the laptop and got right to it. Here’s how it went down:

8:00pm - CNN....HD!!! And we’re off. Campbell Brown loves polka dots. I’m not gonna lie, she’s one of the hottest news women I’ve seen in a long time. Tremendous work outta her.

8:01pm - Univision’s Jorge Ramos is a little camera shy. Come on out big guy!

8:03pm - Here come the candidates. Big cheer for Hillary. Can’t tell if the applause that continues is for Barack or a continuation of Hillary.

8:07pm - Yay photo opps. with local media! The president of the University of Texas (which is hosting the event) is taking a long time with Clinton. Either he thinks she’s the best candidate or he really loves pant suits.

8:09pm - Ok, Obama won the coin toss so he defers to the 2nd half in the game of Opening Statements. Senator Clinton, pander away!

8:13pm - Alright Hillary, you said exactly what you had to. Status quo is fun. Texas is great, bla bla. Ok, Barack, how can you equal that?

8:15pm - Barack gets right to the economy while Hillary stares without blinking at him. “She’s pulling you in with her tractor beam!”

8:16pm - Man, first punch thrown by Barack about NAFTA sucking balls. Hillary tries to kill him with her smug stare. I think her cheeks are plastic. They’re freakish.

8:18pm - George Lopez sighting! America’s Mexican!

8:19pm - First question is from Jorge Ramos - would you meet with Raul Castro presuming he takes over Cuba? Clinton would meet with Castro if “Cuba was ready.” What a political answer.

8:21pm - Same question to Obama. Applause for Barack as he states that “we have to talk to our friends and enemies.” Essentially says the same thing but somehow he gets a better response than Hillary.

8:23pm - Campbell questions Obama and he is forced to correct her accusation. This would be a theme of the evening. Maybe CNN is annoyed that Clinton supporters think the media isn’t scrutinizing Obama enough. It’s hard to scrutinize someone who keeps winning.

8:24pm - Clinton takes credit for wanting to start relations with Iran first. She seems to be trying to state what she’s done. Which, ohbytheway, hasn’t worked at all this campaign.

8:25pm - Clinton realizes she’s just repeating what Obama just said so she uses the “Bush sucks” card. Big applause. When in doubt, bash on Bush. I wonder if people use that in other areas of life. A doctor botches a surgery and when explaining to the enraged family decides to attack Bush to deflect the real point.

8:26pm - Obama bounces back by saying the president can’t be arrogant and think he knows what’s best for America. That he needs to listen. The crowd applauds but shouldn’t that be a basic characteristic of a president? Kind of sad that it has to be said.

8:28pm - Obama says we need to repeal Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy. Crowd likes it. “Trade shouldn’t be viewed through Wall St. but by Main St.” Wow, Barack was gracious and would like Hillary to comment. He realized he was going long and told the moderators he wanted Hillary to be able to respond. That’s the kind of civility and maturity you don’t get from Clinton. At least in public.

8:31pm - Hillary: I agree with what Barack just said.

8:33pm - Hillary is starting to shout and get a little pissed. She’s full of piss and vinegar!

8:34pm - Campbell Brown tries to cut Hillary off as she plays the Bush Card again. Hillary panders to the University of Texas. When in doubt say nice things about those around you.

8:35pm - Hillary hates when kids go home to houses without parents because the INS has taken them away. This is a big bullet point on her immigration reform. She wants to reform Immigration within 100 days of he being in office. Noble point.

8:37pm - Obama says immigration reform bill he tried to pass got tossed around like a “political football.” “We are a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. Both should be reconciled.” Obama is on a mission to nail home every single detail of his Immigration Reform. Hmmm. Not so much from Hillary’s speech. She spoke more so in vagaries.

8:40pm - John King brings up the border fence issue. Controversy! Oo, I’m so giddy.

8:42pm - Hillary namedrops and calls Bush stupid. Way to walk on the edge! Hillary does make a good point on the border fence splitting a university in two. That is ridiculous. This fence thing is a tough issue.

8:43pm - Hillary contradicts herself by saying a fence isn’t necessary in a wide open space like Arizona’s desert and we should have a bunch of guards patrolling all that space. Uh, don’t we call those guys the “Minutemen”? They’re kind of batshit.

8:45pm - A nice closeup of Hillary nodding in agreement with Obama. She’s been losing the crowd and being shown smiling and agreeing with Barack on a controversial topic like this isn’t good for her national image. At least in how she’s trying to contrast herself from him.

8:46pm - Obama says we need to let children born to illegals who grew up in America stay and that we need to help them get an education and that they should not be punished for basically growing up as “proper” Americans. “We shouldn’t have two classes in America.” Clearly the very Hispanic crowd in Austin loves this.

8:48pm - Clinton says we should all be bilingual but English should be the common unified language. A fair statement that I think most would agree is the wisest compromise.

8:49pm - Obama says every student should be made to learn a second language. Barack makes a good point that the global landscape is getting smaller and everyone needs to understand everyone else and that includes learning other languages. ESL shouldn’t be the only class in schools. It goes both ways. Yet another instance in which he and Hillary share a viewpoint but he expands on it more so that the audience better understands it.

8:50pm - We hit our first commercial break just about 50 minutes in. The crowd seemed to be slightly in favor of Clinton but Obama has expanded upon a lot of Hillary’s cheered topics of discussion with applause. It’s probably an even crowd at this point.

8:54pm - John King pulling out the punches on Hillary saying she offers solutions vs. Barack’s speeches. He wants her to explain how she’s better qualified which is what she’s been implying.

8:55pm - She deflects the question by bashing Bush again. She goes on about her history and experience. I realize you’re both vying for an important job here, but a regular job interview type approach where you rattle off your experience isn’t going to get it done.

8:56pm - Barack counters by showing off his accomplishments. Crowd loves it when he mentions he helped the Walter Reed vets. For some reason he does what Hillary does and lists is resume but for some reason the crowd likes it more. I think it’s because he lists very specific things he’s done that more closely effect the people of Texas.

8:57pm - Question posed to Barack challenged his message of hope. Obama throws up the scoreboard to show his supporters aren’t dillusional. They know who they’re supporting and what he can bring to the table. Crowd loves it. Huge applause as Barack takes off the gloves. Long applause - probably the longest of the evening so far.

9:00pm - Obama has to defend his speeches on the implication that he plagarizes. Crowd loves his defense. All Hillary can do is smile. Obama pats himself on the back for his speeches. Crowd has a laugh. Barack starts talking about his specific plan to fix the tax code and making college cheaper and getting out of Iraq.

9:02pm - Hillary says Obama copied entire paragraphs of speeches. She tries to be clever by saying, “words that aren’t your own aren’t words you can count on - they’re words you can Xerox.” Barack interjects as if to say “that is uncalled for” and the crowd boos. Calls Barack “you” in a scolding way. This might start to get ugly. I think Hillary feels like it’s slipping away and is pulling out all the stops to try and stop the slide.

9:05pm - Barack talks about all the details of both health plans to correct the vaguery Hillary is producing. Crowd likes his take on healthcare reform. Barack gives credit to Hillary for trying to reform healthcare in 1993. This is a heated issue where they clearly disagree on how to get every American healthcare though their plans are 90% similar.

9:09pm - Hillary is pissed that she can’t retaliate because Campbell Brown sends it to commercial. Kudos to Barack to not even acknowledge the ridiculous claim that Barack stole parts of his speeches. Uh, both of you have speech writers. Get over it, lady.

9:13pm - Hillary ignores Jorge Ramos’s question about being ready to be president and responds to Barack’s healthcare talk. The moderators seem annoyed.

9:15pm - Obama gets to retort quickly. Explains why Hillary’s plan is wrong...again. Now both are just repeating what they’ve already said about their health plans.

9:16pm - Hillary almost jumps out of her seat to retort. She’s pissed.

9:17pm - Obama, annoyed that Hillary keeps insisting on this, says he’s not interested in leaving people out. He is forced to re-explain how his plan differs from Clinton’s but that if people are responsible they will not be in a bad situation as Hillary claims many people would definitely been in no matter what.

9:18pm - Jorge Ramos gets to re-ask his question about Hillary implying on the campaign trail that Barack is not ready to be president and that she is.

9:19pm - Hillary rattles off her resume about dealing with other countries. Does not address Obama. Just says how ready she is. What a p*ssy. Answer the question. If you can call him out on the road but not to his face then you have a problem. Strap one on, Hill.

9:20pm - Barack talks about using the military wisely and how he said no to the war in Iraq from day one where Clinton has not. That he has used presidential judgement. Crowd digs it.

9:23pm - John King: is Iraq better off due to the surge?

9:24pm - Hillary says logically having more troops will subdue violence but politically not much has happened. Says she wants to withdraw troops within 60 days of taking office(!). I don’t remember if I’ve heard that from her before but that is freakin’ quick. I highly doubt that’s feasible to do. Sounds more like a soundbyte than a practical application of judgement.

9:26pm - Obama agrees that the logic of having more troops in Iraq will deter violence but maintains the surge still was a bad idea because it was a strategic blunder. Barack says arguing John McCain on this front will be easy. Crowd applauds Barack wanting to get mental health benefits for veterans. Once again he agrees with Clinton but expands on the issue citing specifics. Hillary just isn’t doing that and the crowd loves Obama for it.

9:28pm - Well, it’s been 90 minutes and according to Campbell Brown, “we have a lot more left.” Interesting. Obama leads us into the break shitting on John McCain for agreeing with and wanting to continue Bush’s failed economic policy. Crowd really digs it.

9:31pm - John King wants to know where all his earmarks come go and accuses Obama of not disclosing this (he’s gotten $91 million from Congress for this, she’s gotten over $300 million, granted it’s Illinois vs. New York) [Earmarks are money designated for special projects across the country. What that district’s Senator and/or Congressman do with that money is sometimes unknown publicly.]

9:32pm - Obama says he’d gladly show everyone where the earmarks went. He wants full transparency.

9:34pm - Does John McCain have an advantage of not having pork-barrell spending [getting a ton of earmarks from Congress for your region and spending it friviously].

9:35pm - Hillary says no and makes a good point by saying he’s supported the tax cuts for the rich and poor military spending for Iraq. Claims she will get us back to fiscal responsibility.

9:36pm - Jorge quotes Nancy Pelosi: “It would be wrong for the superdelegates to not vote along with the popular vote when it comes to determining the Democratic nominee.” What does Hillary think?

9:37pm - Clinton says she’s not worried about it and that there will be a unified Dem. party and that they’ll win. She basically deflects the question knowing full well she’s been petitioning the superdelegates for the past 4 weeks to vote “however they feel”. This is in stark contrast to Obama and his supporters and organizations like moveon.org.

9:37pm - Barack says the will of the voters should be respected. What else is all this hard work and campaigning for, what was the point of the people making their voices heard? Crowd digs it.

9:38pm - Campbell: what was the moment that tested your judgement in a moment of crisis?

9:39pm - Barack says the American people deserve a president that respects them and their generosity. He focuses on a two-way street with government and its people - a very old-school and Constitutional philosophy that has been long since forgotten with the recent years/decades of corruption.

9:40pm - Hillary jokes about Bill and Monica as a “crisis.” The crowd softly chuckles at the tired joke. Uh oh, it sounds like Hillary is trying to force tears. Her voice is trembling a little bit. This is so fake. Says her crises are nothing compared to that of regular Americans, which is probably true. Crowd applauds. Hillary drops a “hope” in her rhetoric. Clinton appreciates that she is at this stage with Barack. Obama extends his hand to shake. A warm friendly ending! Yay, all fuzzy inside.

There you have it. The second to last Democratic debate and number 19 in total.

For the most part the debate centered around Hillary not wanting to force the issue too much and she ended up doing the same thing she’s been doing for four weeks (which hasn’t worked) in that she lists her accomplishments.

On the other side, since the New Hampshire debate which Hillary dominated, Barack has become the more presidential looking figure. He responds maturely, articulately, and always seems to say more. He’s got more substance even when he agrees with Clinton. This is huge because for the past month Hillary has been accusing Obama of not having any real experience and being all about rhetoric.

Well, he proved tonight (again, and on another national stage) that he has plenty of substance. When you elaborate on everything your opponent says, even when you agree with them, it sends a message to the people that you know what you’re talking about better than your opponent.

This has got to be a source of concern for Hillary. Throughout the debate you could tell that she felt the chokehold getting tighter as Obama won over the crowd on almost every issue. It was only at the very end when she seemingly opened up and became real while talking about veterans she met with months back that she gained points with the crowd. In this writer’s opinion, the trembling and the glassy eyes were not very sincere. When she teared up in New Hampshire, that looked real. Thursday night I felt she was forcing it.

No one can say that she is not a passionate person. But how is it possible that she could not be herself (which is passionate and connecting) all this time in between New Hampshire and Texas? She’s been a divisive Ice-Queen for the most part and now on two occasions she lets down the guard and is able to achieve the same connectivity that Barack gets every time he steps into a room. The problem for me is, this time didn’t seem as authentic. The way she spoke seemed like she was passionate about the situation (who doesn’t feel for our veterans coming home, some injured) but that she knew she had to overdue it a touch to score some late points in the debate.

It’s sad that’s it come to this for her. Her campaign has been run so poorly that she is forced into acting (albeit quite well judging by the crowd’s response) like she cares a little bit more than she does.

As for who won? Well, if you look at the whole debate Obama substantively got the better of her as he has been doing now for some time. But that emotional ending for Hillary probably made the debate seem like a wash to most voters. Unfortunately, with a statistical dead heat on our hands in Texas, a wash wasn’t going to be good enough for her. She needed to win the debate convincingly and needs to win both Texas and Ohio convincingly to stay in the race.

March 4th is going to be an interesting day in politics. Stay tuned.