by 
I didn’t watch the Democratic Debate last night on CNN, but I did read a recap this morning, and it made me sad. Overt bitterness between candidates is nothing new, of course. But I feel angry with the Clintons for introducing the negative tone into the race, and I feel frustrated with Obama for failing to turn it to his advantage thus far.
If anything, Senator Clinton is benefiting from the nastiness at the moment, and not because Obama can’t dish it back. In fact, he’s quite good at this verbal sparring, but it’s unattractive on a candidate whose success is based on our willingness to engage in childlike hope about our country’s future. Meanwhile, it makes Clinton seem tenacious and smug. Maybe Joe Klein thinks that Bill is trying to sabotage her campaign, but right now it looks like tactical brilliance.
John Kerry just emailed all Obama supporters, comparing this recent smear tactic of Clinton’s to “swiftboating,” which I think is an apt metaphor. Hopefully this means that Obama’s able to turn this around to an advantage and pull out of the scrum…
I had attributed this low-blow politicking to the hard lessons learned by the Clintons in the 90’s. But when I saw Hillary smugly pondering Obama’s “frustration” in a post-debate press conference, she seemed shrewish and, well… a bit evil.
Frankly, I hope it sinks her.
by the by, good to see you blogging again
I watched the debate – not because I’ve grown less apathetic, but because I was a captive audience on a Jet Blue flight.
Clinton and Obama came off as silly and petty, all three dodged real issues through bland obfuscation and I resolved to continue to ignore the whole mess until the primaries are over. then I’ll either vote for a black man or a woman.
Apathy may be a fancy word for ignorance, but the candidates are not making it easy to get motivated. just saying.