If all the debates were hosted by the same organization, Hillary

[chieftain]

might have had a legitimate example of media bias about which to complain. But each of the groups which sponsored them had their own rules. No one can seriously suggest that they collaborated in who should be given the first question.
That said, I do think Senator Clinton has been badly treated by some segments of the media. This should come as no surprise to her campaign, since the media aided and abetted the Republican coup attempt against her husband. But whining about the order of questioning and citing SNL was pathetic.
This was obviously a scripted jibe which had as much success as her xerox remark. Clinton really ought to fire whoever it is who keeps feeding her lines that earn boos. This is one of the worst run campaigns in recent history. I thought that before she sarcastically called for a pillow for Barack, but I was sure of it after the unfortunate comment.

[FrenchieCat]

1. !

[Deja Q]

3. What's that on Bill's face?

A dental dam?

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

4. He ate her liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti

slurpslurpslurpslurpslurp

:rofl:

[LisaM]

2. Are we voting for a candidate or a CAMPAIGN?

I'm tired of this. This reminds me so much of Gore. Everyone just ranted on about his campaign all the time, praised Bush for his campaign skills, blah blah blah.

[chieftain]

5. I'm voting for Barack Obama, the candidate. But

how a candidate manages her/his campaign is an indicator of many key attributes including organizational skills, selection of themes that can create political momentum for certain policies and ability to communicate those themes effectively. Obama has been masterful on all these while Hillary has been blah, blah blah.

[LisaM]

6. Yeah, and people say Bush was masterful at his 2000 campaign too

And that Gore flubbed it!

I think Gore was treated much more unfairly by the press while Bush got a pass, and I think that there is some of that with Obama/Clinton too.

[chieftain]

7. The media was brutal to Gore. And it was not just RWers

like Rush. The WaPo made up quotes. Mathews and Fineman sounded like junior high school kids sniping at Al and swooning over W's manly attire.
I assume there will be more of this thrown at Obama but I think he has 2 assets that Gore and Kerry did not have. The corporate news media will be at least somewhat leery of being perceived as racist so that may temper some of their worst anti-Democrat tendencies. I also believe that Obama's communication skills are far superior to either Gore, Kerry and Senator Clinton.

[LisaM]

8. I think Chris Matthews and his ilk have been brutal to Hillary

She really grinds them. They're constantly pushing her into defensive mode and then chiding her for reacting, or worse, "running a bad campaign". Well, if a boxer is pushed into the corner of the ring, she hits back. I don't believe Obama has been pushed into the corner of the ring yet. I think he's gotten the same pass Bush did - at least so far.

[chieftain]

9. Mathews has been terrible but he will say positive things

about Hillary from time to time. The guy that is unremittingly hostile to Senator Clinton is Russert. He doesn't bother to hide his animus toward her. He interrupts, plays gotcha with bogus information and generally gives journalism a bad name. I am hopeful that the next Democratic administration supplies ABC or CBS with the first team WH spokespeople and Timmy is consigned the Undersecretary for Researching the Value of the Metric System. Let him and GE die on the vine.

[cottonseed]

10. Too bad she doesn't play saxaphone.

She's got some experience with good media coverage. Hell, Obama is basically running the same campaign her and Bill did 15 years ago. If she can't figure out how to come out on top, even with that "experience", then she deserves her fate.

[chieftain]

11. You would have thought that with polls showing 70% of the

American people thinking that the country was on the wrong track, a theme emphasizing change would be a no-brainer.
It is astounding that the people from Hope who rode into the presidency in'92 on a message of change would have had a better feel of how to connect with a populace weary of war and scared for their jobs. But Clinton, Penn and Wolfson let the new guy capture the wave.

[cottonseed]

12. Exactamundo!

She has no one to blame but herself (and her campaign). When she first started this thing, riding 30 point leads over Obama and Edwards she sat there at the first debates and told the nation and world that they were all basically the same candidate. It should have come as no surprise then that people began to gravitate towards message.

[chieftain]

13. The essence of politics is to have a vision of where you want to

take the country, a message that can persuade people to join you and the communication skills necessary to enlist people in your quest. Until Obama, most of our candidates have been overly programmatic in presenting themselves to the American people. Polls show that a majority agrees with us on almost all policy issues. Our tendency is to stress those programs on the theory that people analyze issues and go with who they most often agree with. Voters' decision-making is much more nuanced than that. I am for Obama not only because he is a liberal on key issues but also because he has the ability to mobilize a majority of the polity behind those positions Democrats believe in.

[sandnsea]

14. If Obama had went first every time

they'd be saying it was a sexist unfair advantage and she never got a chance to show off her knowledge. This is the stupidest argument yet.

[chieftain]

15. Exactly