Edwards Going Up, Obama Going Down and Clinton Wavering

Last night’s Democratic candidate’s debate was the best one of the year! I think what happened last night will begin changing the dynamic of the entire race. Because there is so much to cover, I am only going to write about the leading candidates–Clinton, Edwards and Obama. I will cover them in their order of performance as I saw it

I thought Senator Edwards gave his best performance to date. His answers were, for the most part, sharp. On several occasions he challenged, in a respectful way, Senator Clinton and pointed out many of the ways in which they differ. Senator Edwards made it clear that he favors a complete withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq. While Senator Clinton and Senator Obama prefer leaving some combat troops in Iraq indefinitely to try and deal with terrorists.

When the candidates were discussing Senator Clinton’s vote to label the Iranian Republican Guard a terrorist organization Senator Edwards pointed out that while he and Senator Clinton both got the 2002 vote authorizing war in Iraq wrong they learned different things from the experience. Senator Edwards said that he would have never voted yes to label the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, because it was, in his opinion, the first step on the road to giving President Bush the authority to go to war with Iran.

When the debate focused on Health care, Senator Edwards explained that he introduced his health care plan months before anyone else. He also let voters know that Senator Clinton’s health care plan was very much like his. Again’ he distinguished himself from Clinton by mentioning his commitment to take health insurance away from members of Congress and the administration if legislation mandating universal health care is not passed six months into his first term.

When the discussion shifted to Social Security, Senator Edwards once again distinguished himself. When asked about raising the cap on payroll tax collection to make Social Security solvent for a few more decades, Senator Edwards threw out another original proposal. Senator Edwards wants to repeal the cap for those earning more than $200,000. While I favor making the payroll tax progressive, I think this is the best idea for making Social Security solvent that I have heard in a long time. Keeping the cap in place for middle class families will make it harder for the Republicans to charge Edwards with raising people’s taxes.

When Tim Russert asked Senator Edwards whether he regretted taking money from the hedge fund, Edwards’s answer was not very convincing. He said that he would not apologize for doing well and taking care of his family, and told Russert to look at his life’s work. He then described his modest upbringing and reminded Russert that he has been working for regular people his whole life. The truth is that taking large amounts of money from people with questionable business practices was not a smart thing for Edwards to do, and so far he has not figured out a good way to explain his actions.

For his part Senator Obama was, once again, pretty weak. He refuses to give the voters much of a reason to support him, if they are not already doing so. He just does not seem to be tough enough to take on Senator Clinton. If he will not challenge Senator Clinton I see no way that he could stand up to the Republicans. If he is going to stay viable he is going to have to turn it up a notch.

As you might have predicted, Senator Obama was asked about the racial problems in Jena, Louisiana. Tim Russert asked him if he thought he should have gone to Jena to join in the protests held last Friday. I think all of the candidates should have been asked that question, because I wish that all of them had the courage to stand up for those African American teenagers who are being discriminated against by our “justice” system, but Russert chose to ask only Obama. Obama’s answer was not very strong. He said that he shouldn’t have gone to Jena, because he was working in the Senate that day. His answer was further weakened by the fact that he was not present in the Senate today when important votes were taken.

When discussing health care, Senator Obama did get one good shot in on Senator Clinton. Responding to Clinton’s tired claim that when she tried to institute universal health care in the 90s she was alone Obama reminded her that she was alone because she closed many potential allies out of the process.

Senator Clinton was terrible. Of course, I always think she’s terrible, but this time her performance was so bad that I think it will actually hurt her in the polls.

The last question of the night asked the candidates whether they favored the Red Sox or Yankees. Trust me, this is relevant. At first Senator Clinton—in an attempt to satisfy her constituents in New York—said the Yankees. She even apologized to the people in New Hampshire where the debate was being held, because she assumed most of them were Red Sox fans. For a moment, it looked as if she might even get some points for her answer. But then Tim Russert, the debate’s moderator, asked her about the Chicago Cubs, because Senator Clinton is from Illinois. Believe it or not, Senator Clinton was actually flustered by such a stupid question. After some hesitation she said that if they played she would alternate. Nothing illustrates just how calculating and scripted Senator Clinton is. If she can’t give a direct answer to a stupid question about baseball teams without first testing the possible answers before a focus group, how can she make the tough decisions that a president must make?

While discussing the possibility of raising the cap on payroll taxes to make Social Security solvent Senator Clinton refused to give a direct answer. All she would say was that she wanted to balance the budget and appoint a commission to study the problem. That’s just what we need another Washington commission to look at solving a problem we already know how to solve, but which calculating politicians like Senator Clinton will not address without the cover of some kind of study.

When asked if she thought Israel would have the right to launch an attack against Iran if Israel believed that they were being threatened by a nuclear weapon from Iran, Senator Clinton refused to answer. She said that it would be irresponsible to deal in a hypothetical. I think the real reason she did not answer that question was that she did not want to give the Democratic base more evidence of her hawkish tendencies, and she didn’t want to say to pro Israel forces that her support was not complete. Senator Clinton has trouble with questions like that because there is no way to answer them without upsetting someone.

In closing, Senator Edwards clearly won the debate. He should get a bump in the polls from his performance and his willingness to challenge Senator Clinton. If Senator Obama does not come up with a new campaign strategy very soon Senator Edwards will soon pass him and become the anti Hillary. For her part, Senator Clinton may have lost a little bit from her picture of invincibility. For the first time she looked quite unpresidential if not out right dishonest. It will be interesting to see if she fights back against the moves of Senator Edwards.