Lingering debate thoughts

By Creature

I don't want to beat last night's debate to death, but what the hell.

First, Hillary's close. As I said last night she managed to get the last word and close big... but not this big:

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson:“What we saw in the final moments in that debate is why Hillary Clinton is the next President of the United States. Her strength, her life experience, her compassion. She’s tested and ready. It was the moment she retook the reins of this race and showed women and men why she is the best choice.”

Huh. "Retook the reins"? "Next president"? Basically it was a rehash (not to mention a bit of plagiarism) of her New Hampshire moment. Which tells me her guru Mark Penn lost the message argument. He wants the commander-in-chief message up front, yet she ended by showing her human, and best, side. Some people (MSNBC?) also thought it was her concession moment. I say no. Again, it was her New Hampshire moment. And, only time will tell if it worked (again).

Next, superdelegates. I believe it was Chris Matthews' panel last night that said she threw in the superdelegate towel. No way. Now, she did not engage the issue, but she said "those are the rules." Which means she will use those rules to her advantage, and she will screw the will of the people (which is why those rules were put into play to begin with).

Finally, the "Change You Can Xerox" line. While, yes, it fell flat and got booed, it is the headline today. I wonder if in some backward way it will manage to slip into peoples mind and chip away at Obama's core message, his core authenticity.

OK, that's it. I think it's cat blogging for the rest of the day.

(Cross-posted at State of the Day.)