January 31, 2008
A Kodak Moment
HOLLYWOOD -- When it was over, he pulled her chair out for her. Then they hugged and whispered in each other's ears. They nodded and giggled quietly.
After several weeks of increasingly bitter rhetoric, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton pulled back, again, from the brink of all-out warfare and conducted the final face-off before Super Tuesday with a self-consciously cordial, even warm, tone. (This despite repeated, and at times glaring, efforts by CNN's Wolf Blitzer to start a fight).
They each appeared to take one for the team -- for the Dems' broader mission of taking back the WH.
Just yesterday in Denver, Obama launched a new line of attack, calling HRC a tired symbol of the past who would be vulnerable to GOP critiques in a general-election campaign. But tonight, he pulled back. "I was friends with Hillary Clinton before we started this campaign; I will be friends with Hillary Clinton after this campaign is over," he said.
Clinton resisted an obvious chance to lay out her line of attack on Obama's Iraq record. "We're having such a wonderful time," she said, only half jokingly. "The differences between Barack and I pale in comparison to the differences that we have with Republicans, and I want to say that first and foremost."
Whether it was the historic nature of tonight's debate that gave them pause is unclear. But each Dem seemed to be thinking to him/herself: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Clinton sees the polls that show her ahead and wanted tonight to stop the bloodletting that's occurred since the bitter SC campaign by appearing friendly and, yes, likable. Obama sees the polls showing him gaining on HRC in key states like CA, NJ and NY, and he thought it made more sense for him to rise above the bitterness, highlighting the more noble qualities of his campaign that appeal to voters.
Also worth noting: On most debate nights, our email inboxes are deluged with oppo research emails from each campaign. Tonight, we received almost none. From Dems, at least (thanks, Danny Diaz!).
Then again, both Dems are in this for the long haul. Shortly before the debate began, Obama's campaign announced that he raised more than $30M during 1/08. The message? Regardless of what happens on 2/5, he's in this race to the finish [JOHN MERCURIO].
Posted at 09:52 PM
Comments
I really have no idea what you're talking about when you write "Clinton resisted an obvious chance to lay out her line of attack on Obama's Iraq record". How could she attack Obama's perfectly consistent opposition to the war, when she was spending all her time trying to spin her vote for "The authorization of Military Action in Iraq" as a vote for diplomacy?
Rory | 02.01.08 01:06 AM
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