The scene from the spin room
Posted: Thursday, April 17, 2008 9:02 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
2008, Democratic debates
NBC’s Lauren Appelbaum covers the take from Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod. “I think that this is the way the Clinton campaign thinks. They are running nothing but negative ads in Pennsylvania. And she came in and she was obviously aided by a series of questions for the first 50 minutes that were virtually all aimed at Senator Obama,” he said. “So it's easy to take the offensive when others are helping. Nonetheless, that was her strategy. She came in, she wanted to be negative. She was negative. They seem proud of that. That seems to characterize their campaign. I think most people though want something else in our politics.”
On whether the questions were unfair to Obama: “You know what, I think you show up for a debate. You answer the questions you are asked. I'm not here to whine about it. Everybody saw. It was an unusual debate. I've never seen anything quite like it. But I'm not going to complain about it.”
Did Obama have a good night? “I think he had a good night because he's a genuine honorable person trying to deal with the problems facing this country. He's not in there trying to rip someone else down. He's not in there trying to score political points. I think people will appreciate that. They want a change in our politics and they know they are not going to get it from the same old approach.”
Per NBC/NJ's Athena Jones, the Clinton camp was clearly pleased with her performance and were focusing on the handgun ban question to Obama -- and were passing out a copy of the survey he filled out while running for state senate showing his support for a handgun ban. Communications director Howard Wolfson said the Ayres Weather Underground issue had now been raised and would be something voters would now be asking about.
He also repeated that the Democrats would unify behind the eventual nominee. "Regardless of who the nominee is, there are huge stakes in the election and Democrats are going to do everything they can to unites behind our nominee and elect that person president," he said.
