Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Live Blogging the MSNBC Debate

We'll try a first here tonight, some live blogging of the Democratic debate in Nevada.

Kucinich was out, then in, then out again. Race is the first issue, and all three candidates are giving gracious answers to defuse a week of relative nastiness. Obama has so far been most plain, saying sometimes their supporters "get overzealous" and "say things that I wouldn't." It's good, because there is no victory in race becoming a long-term issue for him.

For the record, here's a digest version of what I think about the whole discussion from the past week:

  • Most of the comments coming out of the Clinton campaign were not racist in any way, although some were tone deaf. Those by BET founder Robert Johnson were despicable, and Clinton should have clearly disavowed them.
  • It's quite a stretch to contend Obama pushed this issue. One can argue he should have moved more quickly to defuse it, but that seems to me far from clear.

No comments: