With the media in a minor frenzy over Hillary Clinton's debate performance Tuesday night, I'm questioning my own judgment. After all, I had initially declared Hillary's performance not so bad. We'll see how much average voters think about her "bad" moments, including that awkward exchange on drivers licenses for illegal immigrants and her obfuscation on her White House papers. But the media has clearly been longing to "correct" the Hillary bubble lest the race became a total dud. So now cometh the new CW, via Politico's Roger Simon:
But, in the past, Clinton could always depend on her opponents to lose these debates. All she had to do was stay above the fray to win.
Those days seem to be over.
All this is a hugely lucky break for Obama. Like many political reporters I saw the debate as a test of whether Obama could take his performance up a notch in some revelatory way. His failure to do so struck me as the most significant thing about the night and a de facto win for Hillary. But clearly that's not the storyline that emerged. So Obama lives to fight another day.
P.S. How ticked off must Hillary be at Chris Dodd? He's the one who really spotlighted her drivers license position.
[Image via OIH]
--Michael Crowley