ABOUT FIRST READ

First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC News Political Reporter



Obama gets upper hand on change?

Posted: Saturday, January 05, 2008 9:41 PM by Chuck Todd

From NBC's Chuck Todd
Clinton got her dig in on Obama (and it was a very fair hit) but the double-team defense from Obama, Edwards (and even Richardson) was potentially devastating for Clinton; it did her no favors. The salt in the wound? Obama got to get in the presidential-sounding last word and the fact Clinton wasn't able to get one more point was just... stunning. She needs another moment in this debate before it ends because she doesn't want that "change" exchange to be the one that gets replayed over and over again. 

MAIN PAGE

Email this EMAIL THIS

Comments

Well it wont happen with her current likability answer, first pouting (I thot we were supposed to forget about her being a woman) and now she is using the tired CHANGE tactic - she has borrowed that and it rings false
I saw a Luntz focus group. Disastrous for Clinton. Based on this one answer, she went from having half the room to no supporters! I mean, they didn't just not like her answer. She lost their votes, according to what they said.
Bad enough she turned into a girly girl, but with the laugh and her pout, no wonder everybody is changing their vote as of now.  Even I cringed and I can't stand the woman.  If you have focus group people looking at that and it gets broadcast all over the country, you have bigger problems then you dreamed of.
After Bush, anybody would be a great change!
Both Clinton and Obama are shamelessly stealing Sen. Edwards' message regarding facing down the Corporations that are destroying this country.

When this happens, just remember that Clinton and Obama did not arrive at these statements through any life experience or through any genuine desire to change the situation; they are simpl parroting the same words that they see are working for Edwards.

At the end of the day, I believe that Edwards can and will do what he says he will. Clinto and Obama are simply unable to do what they are saying they will -- they're to emanoured of the failoing political system/disaster in this country to truly try to change it.
Based on the debate, I think it's becoming clear what's happening: Obama, Edwards, and even Richardson sometimes, but especially the first two, are teaming up to defend each other from Clinton and give each other credibility, yes, but also to drive her towards anger. We saw that tonight. She got really, really close to losing her cool and going nuts. They're pushing for a Howard Dean moment from her... and I think that's a good thing.

Clinton is not what the new generation wants. The generation that is going to be ruling this country--the one that will inherit the country, is finally getting involved, and they want a new face in Obama. I think that's great. The more young people that get involved, the better.
Hillary Clinton had a good not, considering that in some instances she was triple teamed. I think she is in a good place with her back against the wall. She proves she is no shrinking violet, that she can give as much as she get.
she has to understand that she cannot depend on the marginalized Edwards, who wants to pretend that she doesn't exist and is trying to hitch his wagon to Obama's star.

Great line of the night? "Is experience a leper?" I miss Joe Biden.

Oh please. It was a nice change when Hil went lighthearted for once. I thought she was a robot before, but it was nice to see some jokes from her. So no, it wasn't so bad. I don't really think Barack ended very strongly though, even though I support him deeply.
What John Edwards says about 20 to 30 million jobs for the white-collar college grads is correct. The information comes from the Economic Policy Institute, and the data has been around for quite a while. Like Edwards has said before, "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear."
kaye's observation that Clinton rings false on the "change" credo, rings true. She IS borrowing the ideology of change from Obama after it propelled him to his win in Iowa. Edwards has also done this, although he is also an agent of change.
I'd like to see an Obama/Edwards ticket and when Edwards sided with Obama to attack Clinton I couldn't help thinking that Edwards was preparing for the possibility.
Change, change, change!  From what, to what?  Hilary has all the tools, Barack makes us feel good, but John Edwards will kick in the doors and throw the bums out...


SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the blog, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):

TRACKBACKS

Trackbacks are links to weblogs that reference this post. Like comments, trackbacks do not appear until approved by us. The trackback URL for this post is: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/trackback.aspx?PostID=551758

First Read e-mail alerts


Sign up for First Read alerts
The first place for key political news and analysis

Syndicate This Site

Add First Read to your news reader:
live.com xml
myyahoo msn
bloglines newsgator
google