Early Impressions of The Nevada Debate

Hillary Clinton appears to be winning in the early post-debate media coverage. John Edwards continued to try to attack Hillary Clinton but the real areas of substantial disagreement are not between John Edwards and Hillary Clinton, but are between John Edwards Present and John Edwards Past.

Obama didn’t get many blows at Clinton. He did stick with opposing a mandate in his heath care plan which might not be popular in Democratic circles but which will make his health care plan more palatable to the general electorate. Obama did miss a chance at questioning Clinton’s experience based upon her previous health care plan, which was as big a mistake as her vote in favor of the Iraq war. On the other hand, Obama’s characterization of everyone making over $97,000 as the “upper class” could reduce his support among independents and professionals.

Chuck Todd wrote, “Biden, again, had a good night. He keeps doing well at these debates; we’ll see if he can use this to propel himself in Iowa. Richardson, btw, had one of his better performances, possibly his best.” Mark Ambinder wrote:

Richardson had his best performance of all the previous debates. On mental health, on veterans’ health, on energy, on trade policy – he was clear, concise, natural-sounding, in command of his answers, and persuasive. Viewers leaned that he was a governor who solved problems, who wasn’t in Congress, who has clear differences with the rest of the field on a variety of issues, and who sounded reasonable. Where has this Bill Richardson been?

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