At a rally in Raleigh, NC today, Barack Obama said last night’s debate “was the rollout of the Republican campaign against me in November. It happened just a little bit early.” He says he’ll handle himself just fine against John McCain.
Sound Bite: “If the Republicans come at me, I will come right back at them. And I will come at them hard.”
“It does not get much more fun that these debates,” said Barack Obama today at a rally in Raleigh, NC, tongue firmly in cheek. “They are inspiring events.” Flashing a big smile, he went on to give Hillary Clinton the business: “Senator Clinton looked in her element. She was taking every opportunity to get a dig in there. That’s all right. That’s her right to, you know, twist the knife a little bit.”
Sound Bite: “It took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people. It took us 45 minutes.”
Asked about Minister Louis Farrakhan’s support of his candidacy, Barack Obama says he didn’t ask for it. He notes that he has denounced some of Farrakhan’s past remarks and that he has spoken out against anti-semitism on the part of African-Americans. There’s a great exchange between Clinton and Obama at the end of the clip on “rejecting” versus “denouncing.”
Barack Obama calls Hillary Clinton a flip-flopper on NAFTA in last night’s debate in Cleveland. He says as President, he’ll make “certain that every agreement that we sign has the labor standards, the environmental standards and the safety standards that are going to protect not just workers but consumers.”
Asked at last night’s debate if her campaign is responsible for distributing the Obama in turban and dress photo, Senator Clinton says no.
Sound Bite: “That’s not the kind behavior that I condone or expect from the people working in my campaign. But we have no evidence where it came from.”
In last night’s debate, the clip of Hillary Clinton mocking Barack Obama’s soaring rhetoric was played. Obama’s comment: “I thought Senator Clinton showed some good humor there. I wouldd give her points for delivery.”
During last night’s debate in Cleveland, Hillary Clinton complains that “In the last several debates, I seem to get the fiirst question all the time. And I don’t mind.” She then references a Saturday Night Live bit that spoofs the media’s infatuation with Obama. It seems to fall flat.
Sound Bite: “Maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow.”
Note the body language during Barack Obama’s closing statement at last night’s debate: When he refers to John McCain following George Bush’s failed economic policies, Obama points off stage, but when he talks about McCain and the Iraq war, he points and nods at Hillary Clinton, subconsciously, no doubt, suggesting that it is hers.
Even though there’s virtually no diifference between Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s positions on most issues, Senator Clinton likes to hammer on the technical policy distinctions between their health plans. As voters nod off, she plows on.
Last night’s Democratic debate at the University of Texas was pretty sedate except for a dustup over Barack Obama borrowing lines from a speech by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Obama minimizes the incident and says charges of “plagarism” are “silly.” Not so silly, says Hillary Clinton.
Sound Bite: “If your candidacy is going to be about words, then they should be your own words . . . Lifting whole passages from someone else’s speeches is not change you can beleive in, it’s change you can Xerox.”
Nothing makes Jackie Broyles happier than a Clinton losing an election. And after the South Carolina primary Jackie was so happy that he was actually singing Barack Obama’s praises: “He’s handsome. He’s a good speaker. Seems to be real smart. Yessir. I like that old Barack Obama.”
Dunlap is more concerned with how the former president is taking his wife’s defeat: “I’ll tell you where I wouldn’t want to be tonight Jackie, is in a 50-mile radius of Bill Clinton. He is mad and getting madder.”
