Mitch Perry
Good morning from the Motel 6 on Apalachee Parkway in Tallahassee.
OK, let’s get right into discussing Tuesday night’s Democratic rumble in Las Vegas.
Experience matters.
Although it’s been more than seven years since she last engaged in a presidential debate, Hillary Clinton did battle it out with Barack Obama, John Edwards, Joe Biden and several other Democrats more than two dozen times in 2007-2008, and that experience showed last night in the first Democratic debate of the season. Sure, there were some ups and downs, but Clinton was impressive.
Another thought: Debbie Wasserman Schultz was right – we probably only need five more of these debates this season. Though it’s become a huge story (“a distraction” DNC Chairwman Schultz said Tuesday about the criticism about the paucity of debates), is there anybody waking up this morning saying they need to see Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb five more times over the next few months? Okay, it’s not really about them, it’s about Clinton and Sanders.
It needs to be noted that with the exception of New Hampshire, Clinton is dominating this presidential race in the polls. Yes, Iowa is close. But in the rest of the nation, she’s leading, and leading big. And those leads won’t be affected by last night’s performance.
When asked about the allegations of flip-flopping on the issues, Clinton said she has been “very consistent over the course of my entire life. I do absorb new information. I do look at what’s happening in the world.”
She then added, “I’m a progressive, but I’m a progressive who likes to get things done,” a dig at those who think that she’s too centrist.
The biggest moment of the evening was when Bernie Sanders declined to criticize Clinton on the controversy about her private email server. Bernie was right: It wasn’t good politics for him to decline to challenge her on the issue. It showed that he’s a man with a message, and he thinks that message will transcend traditional party politics.
But will it? It seems like the issue’s off the table for him now.
Tuesday in this space I wrote that the debate was Martin O’Malley‘s big, and possibly, last, chance to break out of the 1 to 2 percent he’s polled all campaign season.
He had some strong moments, but there’s something that’s so “politician” about him when people loath politics as usual. I felt the same way the only other time I’ve seen him this year, when he spoke in July at the National Urban League annual meeting in Fort Lauderdale. The substance was good, the style? Not so great. And style does matter. Maybe not for Sanders and his supporters. But O’Malley will not be the anti-Hillary in this campaign that he and his supporters hoped.
The debate lacked the drama that the Republicans two debates have had. That’s partly because they don’t have a Donald Trump, but mostly because of the mystery in the GOP race: Does anybody know who’s going to be their nominee a year from now?
On the Democratic Party side, though, is there anyone really who doesn’t think Clinton won’t be, barring further scandals?
One last note: While CNN’s Anderson Cooper was on the top of his game, there was a big backlash on social media last night for the network to have a black man ask a question about Black Lives Matter and a Latino reporter ask about immigration. Weak, CNN.
In other news …
While watching last night’s debate, you undoubtedly saw Alan Grayson’s first television ad of the Senate campaign, where the firebrand representative basically takes credit for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy declining to run for Speaker of the House because Grayson filed an ethics complaint about the House’s Benghazi investigation.
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Guido Maniscalco is the latest lawmaker taking the “minimum wage challenge.” The Tampa City Councilman said he wants to bring more attention to the plight of those making barely more than $8 an hour.
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And as Ben Carson continues to hover near the front of the GOP presidential polls, critics from the left and the right are going after him. But a conservative blogger’s attempt to “out” the former pediatric neurosurgeon is pretty absurd.
