Chicago Tribune: Debate puts Hillary Clinton's frustrations on display

[Scurrilous]

Dialogue covers health care, economy, NAFTA–and an 'SNL' skit

<snip>

"With the Democratic nomination likely in the balance, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had argued health care minutiae for 16 tense minutes on Tuesday when the moderators of their presidential debate finally pushed on to a second topic. The question was whether the North American Free Trade Agreement created jobs in the United States or killed them.

It was directed to Clinton.

"Well," she responded, her voice rising, "could I just point out that, in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time? And I don't mind. You know, I'll be happy to field them, but I do find it curious. And if anybody saw 'Saturday Night Live,' you know, maybe we should ask Barack if he's comfortable and needs another pillow."

On a night when she and Obama accused each other of distorting legislative records and clashed across the fine lines that divide them on policy, Clinton's complaint – and her reference to a comedy sketch that portrayed the national media as fawning over Obama — epitomized the frustrations of a candidate who has fallen from front-runner status to desperately needing a win in Ohio's March 4 primary."

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[jackson_dem]

1. Of course this ultra-rethug, pro-Obama rag will have an anti-Hillary slant

She is a good Democrat after all.

[Johnny__Motown]

4. Good democrat, flawed candidate. ..Isn't she from Chicago?

[jackson_dem]

6. The Tribune, the biggest rethug rag after the WSJ, has been endorsing Obama for years

Obama is from Chicago. Hillary used to live in a suburb of Chicago decades ago.

[Johnny__Motown]

9. If you say so, but attacking the messenger doesn't seem to do a lot for your position

[jackson_dem]

19. It is a fact

2000: the Tribune endorses Obama over Democrat Bobby Rush for the House
2004: the Tribune endorses Obama for senate
2006: the Tribune writes an editorial begging Obama to run for president
2008: the Tribune endorses Obama for president

This list doesn't even count his state legislative races.

When is the last time the Tribune has endorsed a Democrat in the general election? 1872. It is clearly a rethug rag to any rational observer. Then the question becomes whether it is the second most influential. Well, make a list of the most influential newspapers. After the WSJ which rethug rag is more influential than the Midwest's premier newspaper that is based in the nation's third largest city? Unless you think the NYT and Washington Post are rethug the answer is pretty clear.

[loveangelc]

10. lolllllll

[samdogmom]

15. Ummm Okay, But do you have eyes and ears?

What did you think? To me, Obama dominated. She looked petty, small, and useless. What can I say?

At least I'm not the Chicago Tribune!

[jackson_dem]

20. I didn't see the debate

All I have seen is a few clips on youtube. I do know the reviews here are that Obama dominated but the same thing is said after every debate ever since Edwards left. This is really Obamaunderground. We'll have to see how this plays in the real world. After their first post-Edwards debate Obama was deemed the winner by almost all of DU and the rest of the blogosphere but in the real world it was seen as a split.

[cali]

24. Actually, many Obama supporters called last night a draw

but made the point that a draw is a win for Obama at this point as he's in the lead and has the momentum.

[democrattotheend]

26. I thought Obama may have had a little bit of an edge

And I think she is generally the better debater. But last night she was inconsistent...strong at times but a little hostile. He kept his cool and demonstrated his composure.

My dad voted for Obama but does not live and breathe it the way my mom and I do. He told me that he watched the debate last night (it's the first one where he sat through the whole thing) and his impression was that Obama has the ability to keep cool under fire, and that says as much about his ability to handle a crisis as the number of years of experience he has. I thought it was an interesting perspective.

Obama got tripped up in a few places (I got the sense he wasn't prepared and she was only marginally prepared for the Russia question), but overall I thought he seemed really on his game and was a lot smoother than he has been in previous debates.

I also loved the line about how he wouldn't be there if it weren't for the Jews who played a role in the civil rights movement...very touching, and an excellent way to handle that question, IMO.

[samdogmom]

2. Good analysis!

Hillary fell flat...her "jokes" (if that's what they were supposed to be...pillow anyone?) were a debacle. She came across to me as desperate.

I'm sorry--but she's simply not PRESIDENTIAL.

(Okay, now you can flame me at will.)

[Kool Kitty]

3. If she doesn't mind fielding

the first questions, why did she make that statement? And the SNL reference, why bring it up at all? This just makes her sound petty, and I don't think she really is a petty person.

[writes3000]

7. She sounded absolutely insincere.

And that doesn't work for her.

"Nope, I don't mind. I don't mind at all. But I just have to say...."

You DO mind, Hillary. Own it. It's more authentic.

[earthlover]

31. I thought it was wierd....because she got the first question she was able to dominate 16 minutes

on the topic of her choice. Then she complained about getting to do that? (Remember, the first question was not specifically about health care...she was able to bring health care into it).

Hillary sounded like she was playing the victim. Not presidential at all

[Scurrilous]

5. Huff Post: Hillary's Ignominious Finale

<snip>

"All in all, it was a rather ignominious, belittling way to almost certainly close out the Clinton Era. Hillary would have done much better to spend the 90 minutes of Tuesday night's Ohio debate by repeatedly reading and re-reading her valedictory, closing remarks from last week's Texas match-up during which -- for a few shining moments -- a Good Hillary seemed to radiate with the grandeur of an honored First Lady and potential president of the United States.

But with her national poll numbers now slipping into a double digit lag behind Obama, with her last-ditch firewalls in Ohio and Texas rapidly crumbling, her political future quickly eroding, it was the Bad Hillary who dominated in what could very well be the final presidential debate of the season.

Thirty-five years of selfless public service, if we are to believe her campaign rhetoric, deserved more than this tin-pan finale. Clinton, in her best moments, is certainly capable of something more than a torrent of peevish, petty, picayune, and intellectually dishonest bickering and parsing.

Instead, Senator Clinton chose to remind us why she is losing the nomination that she was once so very sure would inevitably be hers. The smell of a loser permeated the entire low-energy event as Clinton tried to pick apart this or that phrase uttered one time or another by her rival.

Obama's been on a wild tear, continuing to surge and streak and -- to dip into the conventional wisdom -- it's hard to see anything that Clinton did Tuesday to stem his rising tide.

You'd think that Clinton could leave the national political stage with some larger, meaningful gesture. But, unfortunately, the only memorable line that she spoke tonight was a poorly constructed joke, surely written by a staffer.

It's taken me a decade and I'm still stumped trying to figure out what the meaning of "is" might really be. And yet Hillary tossed us the latest Clintonesque head-scratcher during the debate when she asked me -- and the millions watching -- to ponder the "difference between denouncing and rejecting."

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[Ichingcarpenter]

16. Wow, just Wow... I had to read the rest

It's taken me a decade and I'm still stumped trying to figure out
what the meaning of "is" might really be.

And yet Hillary tossed us the latest Clintonesque head-scratcher during the debate when she asked me -- and the millions watching -- to ponder

the difference between denouncing and rejecting."

Just like the WAR
RIGHT?

[Scurrilous]

17. Good catch!

:thumbsup:

[Window]

23. ..

[Asia Expat]

8. Deleted

Edit: Sorry, I was mistaken

[casus belli]

12. self delete - yes you were. n/t

[Asia Expat]

18. I actually thought he had been behind.

But it was the Tribune who fought for the release.

[WinkyDink]

11. I missed this, but what a stupid, whiney way to begin. She should have felt, yes, HONORED.

[MidwestTransplant]

13. The new owner of the Tribune says that Hillary and Obama are to blame for the weak economy.

[Major Hogwash]

14. If you think the people at SNL were hard on her last week, you ain't seen nothing yet!

The last thing - the very last thing - that Hillary should ever have bitched about was SNL!
It's a comedy program, for christ's sakes!

Hillary will never be asked to host SNL if she keeps on bitching about them!

[loveangelc]

21. she wasn't bitching about them. she was actually using them as a source...or something..

it was a bad moment.

[Yukari Yakumo]

22. The wheels are coming off the wagon

Hill is getting desperate, and it shows.
The writing is on the wall. She knows TX and OH are must wins. Whether or not she'll admit it is a different matter.

And SNL, forget that, everybody is going to eviscerate her this week for that comment.

Prediction: HRC needs Obama to come undone this week. However, it's become clear she's the one who's come undone. Obama takes TX by 10, OH will virtually be a 50/50 split.

[indimuse]

25. JUry selection begins March 2...bye bye Obama!

Senator's land deal followed campaign Font Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print James Bone and Dominic Kennedy | February 27, 2008
A BRITISH-IRAQI billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraising effort only weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times has revealed.

The money transfer raises thequestion of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain's wealthiest men, helped Senator Obama buy the mock Georgian mansion in Chicago where he lives.

A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama's bagman, Antoin "Tony" Rezko, on May 23, 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $US3.5 million.

Three weeks later, Senator Obama bought a house on Chicago's South Side, while Mr Rezko's wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.

Senator Obama says he never used Ms Rezko's still-empty lot, which could be accessed only through his property. But he admits he paid his gardener to mow the lawn.

Ms Rezko, whose husband was widely known to be under investigation at the time, sold a 3m strip of her property to Senator Obama seven months later.

Senator Obama says his involvement in the land deal was a "boneheaded mistake", and he paid $US150,000 to charity as a public atonement.

It is unclear how Ms Rezko could have afforded the deposit of$US125,000 and $US500,000 mortgage comprising the original $US625,000 purchase of the garden plot at 5050 South Greenwood Avenue. In a sworn statement a year later, Ms Rezko said she had a salary of $US37,000 and $US35,000 in assets. Ms Rezko, whose husband goes on trial on unrelated corruption charges in Chicago on March 3, refused to answer questions about the case when she spoke to The Times.

Mr Auchi's lawyer, asked whether the Fintrade Services loan was used to buy the land that became Senator Obama's garden, stated: "No, not as far as my client is aware."

Mr Auchi's links with Mr Rezko are a new political headache for Senator Obama.

His Democratioc rival, Hillary Clinton, has sought to make Mr Rezko - who has bankrolled Obama's political career since his first run for the Illinois state Senate in the mid-1990s - an election issue by calling him a "slum landlord" in a televised debate.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton told The Times: "The bottom line is Obama does not recall ever meeting him (Mr Auchi)."

The house-and-garden deal raises questions about whether Mr Rezko, a property developer and fast-food restaurateur, made it possible for the Obamas to buy a mansion they could otherwise not afford.

Ms Rezko paid the asking price for the garden but the Obamas bought the house for $US1.65million - $US300,000 less than the asking price.

Mr Rezko has since been indicted for allegedly scheming to pressure companies seeking business with the state of Illinois for contributions to the campaign of Governor Rod Blagojevich.

A prosecution document filed last month alleges that a "political candidate" - identified by the Chicago Sun-Times as Obama - received a $US10,000 campaign contribution from what is said to be a $US250,000 kickback in the corruption case.

Senator Obama insists he never used his office to do favours for Mr Rezko but admits that, as an Illinois state senator, he wrote letters to housing officials urging them to provide money in support of a proposed apartment building for elderly people that Mr Rezko wanted to build.

The spotlight fell on Mr Rezko's ties to Mr Auchi last month when the Chicago businessman was jailed for violating his bail terms by failing to declare a different $US3.5 million loan from the British billionaire, made in April last year.

Mr Auchi was convicted of corruption, given a suspended sentence and fined pound stg. 1.4 million in France in 2003 for his part in the Elf affair, described as the biggest political and corporate scandal in postwar Europe. He is appealing against the sentence.

Mr Auchi founded his Luxembourg-based General Mediterranean Holding in 1979, a year before he left Iraq.

Mr Auchi visited the US in 2004. Pictures show him meeting Obama ally Emil Jones, president of the Illinois state senate.

Mr Auchi and Senator Obama say they have no memory of meeting. But a source says the two may have had a brief encounter at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago. Mr Auchi's visit was being honoured with a dinner there attended by the governor, when Senator Obama dropped in.



BTW...where are Obama"s State Senate records...? He said ."could have been thrown out...I don't know"...look it up!

[Vinca]

29. If guilt was deemed by association, both Clintons would be in prison.

Was it 14 indictments re Whitewater?

[indimuse]

30. Obama's days have just begun...

White Water...? are you a RW'er? When this trial begins and the MSM etc..start to air pieces and accusations...IT'S OVER! Obama spot light of HOPE...will be dimmed by REAL questions about his past and "presents"... will be quite interesting..

[Doctor_J]

27. Chicago Tribune: We hate any and all Democrats, and will endorse

Satan himself in the GE if he has an (R) after his name.

The Trib is only a tiny bit more balanced than Fox News. Pay no attention.

- Jeff, an Edwards supporter who now favors Obama

[Adelante]

28. I didn't watch the debate, but I'm glad to see he said this

"I am absolutely clear that hope is not enough," Obama said. "But what I also believe is that the only way we are actually going to get this stuff done is, number one, mobilize and inspire the American people . . . There is nothing romantic or silly about that."