POLITICS: TX DEMOCRATIC DEBATE RECAP

Friday, February 22, 2008

The last time Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama debated was before the Super Tuesday contests where both scored big in those races, splitting two dozen contests from coast to coast. However, Obama has enjoyed ten consecutive wins since Super Tuesday.

The last time the two debated, it was civil. This time, not so much.

After forty-five minutes of civility, things took a turn for the worse after Clinton stated “lifting whole passages from someone else’s speeches is not change you can believe in. It’s change you can Xerox.”

Obama responded to the plagiarism claim by saying that “the notion that [he] plagiarized from one of [his] national co-chairs, who gave [him] the line and encouraged [him] to use it, is silly.”

“If we don’t bring the country together, stop the endless bickering, actually focus on solutions and reduce that special interests that have dominated Washington … we will not get anything done,” Obama said.

For the most part, though, this debate only reiterates the similarities between the two, particularly on the issues of immigration reform, economic aid to struggling Americans and democracy in Cuba. They are not the only political dynamo duo being mentioned, though. A movement to draft Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has begun and she and Sen. John McCain are being mentioned as the Republican dream team.

Regarding the issue of the nomination coming down to superdelegates, Clinton responded:

“These are the rules that are followed, and you know, I think that it will sort itself out. I’m not worried about that. We will have a nominee, and we will have a unified Democratic Party, and we will go on to victory in November.”

Obama added:

Well, I think it is important, given how hard Senator Clinton and I have been working, that these primaries and caucuses count for something. And so my belief is that the will of the voters, expressed in this long election process, is what ultimately will determine who our next nominee is going to be. But understand what I think is most important to the voters, and that is that we have a government that is listening to them again. They feel as if they’ve been shut out.

Speaking of which, Color of Change, which exists to strengthen Black America’s political voice, has created a petition calling on Black Congressional leaders to use their “superdelegate” status to amplify the will of the voters.

Clinton faces an uphill battle since she’s endured loss after loss after loss (plus seven). Additionally, Obama raised much more money than Clinton (and McCain) last month.

According to CNN, even Bill Clinton admitted that his wife must win in Texas and Ohio. Those states, along with Rhode Island and Vermont, hold their primaries on March 4.