Democratic Debate Liveblog/Open Thread
I’m going to open up our Liveblog/Open Thread a little early this time; give people an opportunity to jump on in, plug their websites if they have one before we actually get this show on the road.
You can read my preview here, and if you can watch the debate on tv on CNN, or if you’re like me and don’t have cable or can’t get to a television, you can join me in watching the debate on CNN.com. More about how we do the liveblogging below the fold.
It’s pretty simple. We welcome everyone to join us and chip in on the commentary. For this reason, we don’t do the liveblogging in the post body, like most people do, but in the comments section. So you’ll be joining us.
Just a few requests. If you have a website you want to plug, please either plug it before the debate starts, or you can email me (click the “contact us” link off to the right), and I’ll be sure to plug your blog tomorrow when I do my post debate analysis.
Next, please try and keep your language civil. The occasional bomb here or there is fine, but if you’re dropping them all over the place, you are not welcome here.
Finally, this is not the venue for your spam. If you’re trying to sell sex toys or Paris Hilton videos, do it elsewhere. In fact, if you’re trying to sell anything, please, go away. This is a conversation for those interested by the Democratic debate only.
Thanks, and I hope you’ll speak up and join us! I’ll be kicking in with comments shortly.
128 Responses to “Democratic Debate Liveblog/Open Thread”
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Blog Stuff
You know, I typically like to save a few things from the pre game analysis so I can talk about it here, and I’ve got three topics I’m going to broach as we wait for the debate to begin.
The first is that this is the first debate we’ve seen with Barack Obama as the undisputed frontrunner. I’m curious how this is going to affect all of the dynamics regarding this debate as opposed to just the performance of the candidates.
That’s to say, are the viewers/voters likely to start holding him to a higher standard?
The second thing to think about is that if you look at most people’s analysis of the debates, Obama has improved incrementally in every single debate, leading Andrew Sullivan to opine that Obama was at Hillary’s level in the last one. While he is known for not being as adept at debate performance as Hillary, is it possible that he may have out grown her at this point?
Finally, we’ve only seen Hillary come close to losing her composure once, in a debate back in September. The stakes are higher now, the questions likely to be tougher, and Obama’s not likely to give an inch tonight if he can manage it. What do you think the likelihood of her actually losing control tonight or Tuesday might be?
Ooh! And they’re also doing the mood monitoring on this one as well! It’s a very slick tool, and if you’re livestreaming the debates, I suggest you use it. I’ll definitely be watching it and using it in my in game analysis.
Also, while we wait, why not click on our sponsors? Give them a reason to keep throwing ads on our site. As I’m fond of saying, we’re capitalists too.
Hey, I won’t be leaving work for another hour and a half so good luck with this.
Clicking on the donate button wouldn’t hurt either.
I should be good Mike. I will say that it’s not looking good for me to cover next week’s debate, but we’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there.
Wow! I’m watching the pregame show, and you know, they had a hundred available seats, and Texas held an online lottery to see who would get those seats. 43,000 people entered! If this party can make it through the primaries without ripping itself apart, the nominee is going to take the General Election by storm.
Ugh… forgot about that. Obama is going into this debate with a head cold; that could affect his performance.
Now there’s some comments from folks who are writing in to CNN, and I got to tell ya, it’s funny that Obama supporters are called cultists; reading the sentiments from the Clinton supporters there’s just an awful lot of venom and dare I say, cultist behavior. Look for my blogroll call tomorrow, where I’m going to feature a blog that really gets at the heart of this stuff.
And here we go, I got my mood meter up, and the moderator (didn’t catch her name yet), is addressing the audience.
Pamela Brown is the moderator, Jorge Ramos and John King? on the panel. Sorry if I messed the names up, the crowd is ridiculous loud, and here we have the candidates.
Oops… the moderator is Campbell Brown, the rest of the names I got right…
heh…
real professional.
No real rules, just be reasonably brief and stay on point, opening statements now.
Hillary goes first, and she gets a little tiny bit of a bump dropping Barbara Jordan’s name, and another bump on the mood meter when she mentioned Ann Richards. For the most part, it’s a pander opening statement to the localities, nothing really new, and very similar to the opening statement to the last debate only adjusted for the region.
She talks about ending discrimination by health care companies, good bump, now it’s the veterans, and in her opening statement, she sounds decent and measured, but in her “lifetime of experience and proven results,” her mood meter dropped a bit.
obama’s turn.
His opening statement starts off slow, but his, “Washington is where good ideas go to die” and it gets a good response, and the mood meter is showing that response holding.
Clinton had good spikes, but Obama had a solid plateu, and here we go.
Ramos starts off and brinks up Castro’s resignition, and asks Clinton if she is willing to sit down with Raul Castro at least once to get a measure of the man.
She starts out dodging the question, and kind of dodges it in general but the gist is that Cuba has to move towards democracy and freedom first. Mood’s in the high sixties, a couple of pops in the low seventies.
WHOA! Her mood meter dropped significantly when pressed on meeting him and she said she would not unless she had evidence unless he first showed evidence. The mood meter doesn’t like it much.
He sounds terrible. He’s obviously sick.
Obama tempers his foreign diplomatic policy, and gets a huge pop when he talks about reminding people that you talk to the enemies.
He’s questioned about a 2003 position that Cuban policy was a failure backs it up, and his mood meter is dropping.
Clinton on the response.
You’re right Terry, he does.
Welcome aboard.
Clinton gets good response when she talks about opening up our diplomatic policies, but when she talks about not meeting with other heads of state doesn’t go over well.
Hillary Got a huge response from her Bush criticism.
Now we’re on to the economy.
This is crucial here, Obama goes first. How would obama be different than Clinton in managing the economy.
Here is his argument that he is the best choice for the Democratic party.
Stop giving tax breaks to companies shipping jobs over seas (huge pop), stop giving tax breaks to the wealthy (mood in the mid seventies), and he goes into solid detail on taxes. Trade deals, engage in trade, but do so with standards, and he’s cleaning up on this question. Even better, he’s dounding substantive in the face of all the criticism that he has no substance.
now he’s going to the green concept, and his line has stayed in the seventies through this question.
Now it’s time for the differentiation.
He does incredibly well with that answer.
Are they the only network that allows the clapping? It is annoying.
Clinton up, and she’s parroting Obama’s answer, still getting a good response. And here’s the difference, she has the sound bites ready, so what is the end result? I’ll be honest with ya, in these debates, she’s the one that sounds like she has the style, and he’s the one that sounds like he has substance.
I’m not sure, Terry. Actually, in earlier debates, CNN frowned upon clapping as well, but with just two candidates and a more open forum, it looks as though there’s less control on the applause.
“We need to end George Bush’s war on science” Big pop line.
new topic, immigration.
That’s a good question on immigration.
Would you consider stopping raids on undocumented immigrants?
Hillary kind of hedges, and gives a wishy washy answer, but then talks about babies being left alone… Kind of baffling.
brb
Mentioning babies is totally pandering
Obama.
“We are a nation of laws and we are a nation of immigrants, and we can reconcile those things”.
good pop line.
“Fix the legal immigration system”.
Another good line.
And this is the right answer for me, work with Mexico to create jobs on that side of the border. That’s key for me on this topic. And he does well.
He’s really doing well on this question. Talking about helping Mexico with their economy.
yeah it is… I’m sitting here like, “babies? WTF?”
Fence or no fence?
Wait, the question asker mentioned she voted for building a fence, but then she said she voted against it?
Did I just miss something?
Interesting how she is doing so much Bush bashing.
And then she blames the Bush administration.
follow up, “Do you think your vote was wrong?”
Smart fencing??? Oh boy.
She can’t do it… She can’t address her own record. And she’s blaming Bush again, and it’s not going over as well as it usually does when she gets into Bush bashing.
So that means no fence.
Obama up:
Generally agrees with Clinton.
“Deporting 12 million people is ridiculous”.
Pass the “Dream Act”. Wow… That got him the biggest and best response of the night. In the high 80’s
That was a great answer about letting the children of immigrants get an education.
A limit to bilingual nation?
Clinton, important to keep English our unifying language. Not making English the official language does not get received well. I do agree with her, though, that it shouldn’t be the official language.
Hey all! Got in a bit late but I’m here.
I think that binding the nation through a common language is important; I’m curious how Hillary and Obama expect to make English the unifying language for our country without making it the official language? I don’t mean that as snark, I’m genuinely interested in a method, because I feel it’s important.
Good point he makes about spanish speaking kids be able to get an education even if they don’t know english well.
obama gets good applause when he says that every student should learn a second language. And I really like his answer on how we should work on communicating across boundaries and borders.
OOOHH
and turns it on NCLB, and how NCLB has pushed out a lot of the foreign language learning, real good answer.
Hey D!
Well, to answer you question, you have to make it an education issue. It’s like getting your driver’s license, you have to be able to read English at a certain level, or else you’re simply not safe.
English should be the common language, but we are a nation of immigrants, and making it the official language sort of turns our backs on that.
We’re at our first break, and you know, the gloves have stayed on, the tone has remained civil. Hillary sounds the more practiced, but Obama sounds more cerebral thus far. He sounds like the college professor here, and Clinton sounds like the politician.
No blows have even been thrown though, let alone landed, and in the game we are looking at right now, that does not bode well for clinton.
And we’re back on.
Ah Kyle you spoke too soon
Question to Clinton: Are you saying your opponent is all hat and no cattle, and can you say that after the past forty five minutes?
And she goes STRAIGHT TO BUSH BASHING ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
SHE’S WORMING HER WAY OUT OF DISSING OBAMA ARE YOU KIDDING? “POSITIVE AND EXTREMELY CIVIL” WTF?!?!?!?!!?
Oh, why did she say that about the state senator from Texas. Not good.
Ok, that makes sense to me. I’d like to see some fleshing out from the candidates on that but I can see why it’s not top priority.
Hmmm, this is a good question for Hillary about the attacks she’s levelled lately. And she goes with the resume answer, which isn’t an answer at all.
I’m sorry, I’m throwing the bullshit flag on this one. I can’t even get into this…
And she brought up the Obama supporter who couldn’t name an obama accomplishment, and her mood meter dipped…
She got a nice respones with actions speaking louder than words, but the mood meter did not like her answer, and neither have I.
And in response Obama goes into the resume response, but right here, it’s totally appropriate, and the Walter Reed line just killed.
He’s killing her on this question. Absolutely killing her.
You just can’t answer that question better than he is answering it right now. Good lord, he just won this debate.
That was the biggest audience pop of the night.
Oh dear, now we get to the plagiarism issue.
AND HE KILLS THE PLAGIARISM QUESTION AS WELL!!!!
He nailed both of those, hard to see how someone could have come up with a better anwer than that.
What time is it?? Call it now
That was a great answer about his speeches and specifics.
He’s running away with it.
Look, it’s hard to describe, you have to be watching it, but he’s going head on with every challenge that he’s all style and no substance. And like I said, she’s done.
OOh…
SHE’s breaking.
Her mood meter is in the 40%
She’s shooting herself in the foot.
Did she really just cite Youtube?
She is going to go down to the 30’s on the audience meter…yikes.
This is a train wreck.
The time is in at 55:00 on.
Now she’s agreeing with President Bush…What??
Oh my goodness.
I didn’t think it would happen.
But it did… the audience is barely even clapping…
She got booed.
Her mood meter is stagnant.
She’s lost.
She lost the debate.
She took the bate.
And Obama’s raising a finger to get in on the debate, and I think we’re about to see how deep a hole she’s dug for herself.
citing YouTube does not sound good.
Damn this is killing me! I hope CNN replay’s this thing later for us West Coasties.
This jumped to Health Care, he’s not nailing her to the wall on all the negative politics, and that’s probably for the best.
That was great. Obama says he’s just going to address the issues she mentioned. Not the ridiculous “you lifted whole passages” statement.
She self destructed, Mike, absolutely self destructed. she has leant credance to all the calls that she is a negative campaigner.
Hey Michael, it’s available at cnn.com if you want to watch it live, that’s where I’m getting it.
wow.
He’s at work.
Trying to connect to the CNN.com Live thing but having issues. ARGH.
You know, I’ll be the first to admit that in past debates he has not done as well. But tonight, he is totally on point and really relaxed.
Okay, second break, and I have to admit to being a little taken aback and… well… a little speechless. If you go back a bit in the thread, you’ll see that I really couldn’t say a whole lot but gibberish, but that is because Hillary really did lose control, she really did go negative in a debate, and she really stepped her foot in it. The audience booed her, the mood meter dropped down to thirty, you can tell, people REALLY didn’t like her answer at that point.
she wanted these debates, and they really have not helped her at all.
Obama went even further in that, after defending himself on the plagiarism charge, refused to get in the mud with her and went right back to the issues.
This will dominate the coverage tomorrow, no doubt.
He wins this debate, no question.
CONNECTED!
I have about 20 minutes before I have to leave.
Here’s a gage on how well Obama is doing tonight. Taylor Marsh is saying that Clinton “needs to up her game. Obama is even with her.”
that translates to “He’s kicking her ass.”
And more boos for Clinton as she ducks the “ready on day one” charge, and goes back to answering health care. More light boos, and her mood meter is in the forties.
I like this real time reaction thing. Thanks Mr. Luntz.
Oh, she’s goig to kill herself.
Okay, Obama needs to pull out of this debate, he’s getting dragged down too.
Health care is important, but there ARE other issues.
I think she’s accomplished what she wanted to though, which is taking control of the conversation and ducking the question she was asked.
To Clinton: are you suggesting Obama is not ready to be commander in chief?
And she immediately goes to dodging the question and jumps straight into a resume question, but it’s the best response she has gotten so far since the meltdown.
She is not going to say why he isn’t ready to be commander. She’s just going to talk about herself…
and apparently current events.
Are you suggesting Senator Obama is not ready to be the Commander in Chief.
No answer.
Look I really question the fact that she claims her time as the First Lady as time in leadership. She was not elected, she did do quite a bit but it was not as a leader. If she can claim that time under her belt then she can not begrudge Obama his time as a State Senator.
Which is the best response she can give… dealing with the question after that meltdown earlier is only going to reinforce the negativity narrative tomorrow.
Obama on Foreign Policy, and he goes for the Iraq vote. He called Clinton wrong on judgement, and took a little dip there.
D is right, she just got spanked and if she deigns to go negative again, she may as well bow out tomorrow.
To Clinton: Look at Iraq now, the security situation is better. Is Iraq better now because of the surge?
Look at her baseline – sitting between 60 and 70. I am not seeing her dip at all. Granted I missed the “meltdown” but she has been received more positively than Obama since I started watching. He starts talking and he drops back down to 50.
Argh, I’m afraid I have to head out for a while… liveblog the crap out of this so I can see what happened when I get back online later tonight!
Here comes the rise, he needs his cadence!
And there’s little to say about her answer, pretty much stat answer on this from clinton; decently received.
And Obama does a good job on showing the difference between himself and Clinton in relation to McCain.
And then he brings it down to South America. And Obama just blows by Clinton for most of this answer, and is going after McCain directly. And he’s on a roll now, and his mood meter goes up to the seventies.
Got your back D.
I will be gone when you return, thanks for coming by D.
Obama’s going after McCain, Hillary is going after Bush, Obama is showing right now he’s ready to take on the presumptive Republican nominee, even hit McCain on his admission that he doesn’t understand the economy very well.
Well, final break, and I have to tell ya. Clinton’s kind of gotten back into it, delivered some good answers, but as Mike just said not long ago, Obama has also now found his cadence, which means he’s running on all four cylinders after the Hillary meltdown. He’s running away with this thing, and his last answer on debating McCain stayed in the 70’s on the mood meter.
Hillary is not going to like how this debate plays in the news tomorrow.
I don’t think it matters. He should not allow them to drag him into argument about whether he’s ready to be CIC because on it’s face it is a defensive argument and one that makes him argue from a position of weakness. I would respond that it is ridiculous on it’s face and move on.
Long break.
but it allowed him to show that he’s ready for McCain.
Transparency to Obama, the moderator said that Obama wouldn’t disclose 91 million in earmarks, and Obama says it’s not true, that he has disclosed, and that he’s even created a program that allows people to see where pork barrel spending going.
Ugh, I need to head home. Keep up the good work guys.
YE GAD! Clinton had 342 Million dollars.
Gotcha boss
Clinton’s answer, which is to McCain more specifically, and she brings up McCain’s support of Bush’s tax cuts, and she’s getting a good response here.
And here’s one of the things I think that the Clinton campaign has been slow on. She keeps attacking Bush, and it’s not working as well as it did at the beginning of the campaign.
Now she’s saying she’s the one that will get us back to fiscal responsibility.
Are they going to ask her about the website her campaign put up about delegates?
To Clinton: Regarding how the nominee is selected, and leans back and says, things will work themselves out.
Obama: He says that because he and Clinton have been working so hard, maybe the votes and caucuses should mean something.
“they want their government back, and that’s what I intend to provide them”.
No, Terry.
sorry.
the last question is, point to crisis and how are you going to manage, and it’s more of a meta question.
He could answer this better, it’s okay.
Hillary now, and I expect her to answer well.
Clinton gets a huge pop for saying she’s lived through some challenging moments in her life.
Oh dear, I feel patronized right about now.
If she tears up…
And Hillary ends in kind of a snoozer, but decently enough. Final thoughts terry?
I’m going to give my final thoughts here right now.
He wins. Hands down. She got caught reaching, and caught hard. Tomorrow, it’s going to be in the headlines, “Hillary Booed At Debate”. They did not like it, they saw the negativity, and it took her a long time to recover from that.
that’s going to be the moment, and it’s going to stick.
I really was pleased with how Obama did. I thought he had good points on immigration, education, Iraq, and held his own healthcare.
I was really surprised that she tried to make more of the Deval Patrick speech issue. And thought he handled that well.
It will be interesting to see what the pundits say on the after debate analysis.
All said, a win for Obama.
I’m going to go watch the talking heads now.
Thanks for having me
Alright, good night, I have to get out of here.
Thanks for joining me tonight Terry.
[...] in the first of two debates slated before the all important March 4th primaries. You can read the liveblogging event we had here (Big thanks to Terry and Dynamic for joining in!), and you can check out the debate transcript [...]
hi, this message chek for this forum, ya ya!
hi, this message chek for this forum, ya ya!
Hello my friends
