Friday, February 22, 2008

Clinton: Change you can Xerox.

I commented yesterday on Hillary's bizarre attack on sound bites, which she made using a sound bite, and at last night's debate she did it again by labeling Obama's campaign, "Change you can Xerox". The audience booed when she said this.

I don't know who is advising her, but someone should have told her by now that this particular charge really isn't having the effect that she hoped it would. Indeed, as expected, it is only opening herself up to the charge of whether or not she has ever used anyone else's lines.



This really has become a dumb talking point now. However, what is apparent from reporting on the debate though is that, despite baiting Obama to take part in more debates, Clinton has failed to make any kind of killer blow to stop Obama's momentum.

Overall, the night did little to stop Obama's momentum, which has helped him pull even with Clinton in Texas polls after trailing her by double-digits only a few weeks ago, CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs said.

"Anyone looking for a knock-down, drag-out debate in Texas tonight was instead treated to a gentle waltz that only increased Obama's edge over Clinton," Ververs said. "The New York Senator did nothing to stop Obama's momentum and, in fact, allowed him to upstage her on both substance and style. Time is growing short for Clinton to regain her footing. This debate just kept those seconds rapidly moving forward. And the time is all on Obama's side."
And Clinton has stated that she would not sit down with incoming Cuban President Raul Castro until he implements political and economic reforms, which strikes me as simply dumb - whilst Obama has stated that he would sit down with the new president "without preconditions".

Clinton appears to me to be mimicking the disastrous Bush regime policy of demanding victory from any opponent before talks can even begin.

Unfortunately, for someone watching from here in the UK, it was not possible for me to watch the debate as it went out live, so I am reliant on what I can find on the net. Here, MSNBC debate whether or not Hillary landed a killer blow, and the consensus appears to be that she didn't.



She has been badgering Obama for a debate in the hope that he would stumble. It seems very clear that he did not.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

The audience booed when she said this.

Actually, part of the audience booed and part of the audience applauded. Had you watched it, you might have caught that.

Kel said...

Had you watched it, you might have caught that.

Are you seriously suggesting that I did not watch the video before I posted it? The video actually cuts away before there was any reaction, but the fact that she was booed was very widely reported. Even sites that favour Hillary said that she got booed.

However, your need to make cheap snide points continues unabated I notice.

daveawayfromhome said...

I listened to part of the debate on the radio, and while I prefer Obama (partially due to a preference for someone new in office, and partially because of Hillary's plan to force Americans to subsidize the Medical Insurance industry). But both were fine, and any "sniping" they did is rather blown out of proportion.
It doesnt really matter which gets the nomination, both will be a considerable improvement over our current "Decider" (and really, I mean that either of them will do fine; I wasnt damning them with faint praise).

Kel said...

Dave,

I couldn't agree more. The bar is set so low after seven years of Bush that either of them would be percieved by the outside world as a fantastic success simply for engaging with us again. The neo cons behaved as if the US was an empire, internatonal law was something they applied to others but willfully ignored as a "permission slip" when it applied to themselves.

It's impossible to imagine Hillary or Obama treating the world with such studied disdain. It's why I don't mind Obama's call for "change". Because the world wants change. We want a CHANGE from the unilateralism of the Bush years and HOPE that someone - either Hillary or Obama - will end the nightmare of the world's leading power disobeying international law and norms and engaging in practices considered to be torture since the days of the Spanish Inquisition.