The Buckeye brawl
Posted: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 9:17 AM by Domenico Montanaro
USA Today writes, “Aggressive cuts and thrusts over Iraq, health care and campaign tactics dominated the 20th and possibly final Democratic debate Tuesday as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama angled for advantage a week before a crucial set of primaries.”
VIDEO: MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann talks to a political panel about Sen. Hillary Clinton’s response about her Iraq war vote as something she wishes she could take back.
The New York Times: “Questions about which approach Mrs. Clinton would take to sway voters were quickly answered as she immediately confronted Mr. Obama, and she was relentless throughout the meeting. She insisted on responding to virtually every point that he made - often interrupting the debate moderators, Brian Williams and Tim Russert of NBC, as they tried to move on. At the same time, it was one of the most detailed and specific of all the debates, with both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama giving long explanations of their records and views.”
The Los Angeles Times leads with the pledge from both Dems that they could opt out of NAFTA.
The Boston Globe: "At times last night, Clinton's frustration at her position was evident. Not 20 minutes into the debate, she expressed exasperation at being asked first about the North American Free Trade Agreement, an especially volatile issue in Ohio over which the two Democrats have tangled."
The AP: "The tone was polite yet pointed, increasingly so as the 90-minute session wore on, a reflection of the stakes in a race in which Obama has won 11 straight primaries and caucuses and Clinton is in desperate need of a comeback."
The Washington Post: "The tone of the debate was generally civil but rarely relaxed."
Reuters saw Clinton's difficulty in pronouncing Putin's successor's name, Dmitry Medvedev, as a problem for the former First Lady. "In a campaign where the New York senator and former first lady has stressed she is ready to serve as president from the first day, as opposed to Obama, the scene was reminiscent of past campaign debates where foreign policy missteps have hurt presidential candidates."
VIDEO: MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews discuss who won the MSNBC Democratic debate.
Time: "The 90-minute affair … had most of the same features we have come to expect of the last round of Clinton-Obama debates: strong jabs, deep dives into health care policy, pointed arguments over the meaning of words-and another cordial, high road finish." More: "At times, Obama showed a lawyer's flair for conceding the small points that aren't worth arguing about. This pattern was most visible in an unexpected exchange over whether Obama has sufficiently distanced himself from Louis Farrakhan's expressions of support for his candidacy. After Obama had said he has long denounced Farrakhan's anti-semitic statements, Clinton said Obama had to do more and flat-out reject his support. Obama, sensing a tiny opening that Clinton had carved in his performance, asked whether there was much of a semantic difference between the words "reject" and "denounce," but then defused the situation by ceding the point to Clinton and agreeing to do both."
