Feb 21, 2008

A Desperate Clinton Enters Debate Tonight

Coming off the 17-point Obama rout in Wisconsin, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama face off tonight in a high-stakes Democratic presidential debate in Austin at the University of Texas, broadcast live on CNN at 7:00 pm central time.

A guy, seeing my Obama button yesterday, asked me at an elevator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison hospital if the race were "over now".

Yeah, I think so, I said.

The reason is that Wisconsin showed that Hillary's appeal is broken. And Hillary's only option now, going negative on Obama (even more than she did in Wisconsin), fits perfectly into the existing matrix (justified or not) that Hillary is a humorless, self-important, mean-spirited woman more interested in her own welfare than the peoples'.

All Obama has to do tonight is:

- Remain poised

- Focus on the future and security of the American people

- Hit the trade issue, over and over

- Keep to his change and hope message

- And as Hillary attempts to sow doubts about Obama by saying (implausibly) that Obama is confused and inexperienced; Obama should say:

Hillary, I’ve been a community organizer, a civil rights attorney, a state senator, and a US senator, and what I know is: Insider-DC politics and divisiveness does not and never has worked. The American people know fully well what the last seven years have wrought. If I wanted more of the same DC-dominated exploits that are threatening our families and our children’s future, I’d support my cousin, Dick Cheney. Its time for unity, coming together for America now! And I’ll take Main Street over K-Street and Wall Street any day, and twice on Sundays.

As for those Hillary allies who believe Hillary the policy wonk will put Obama to shame in a one-on-one debate: Watch how Obama, the former president of the Harvard Law Review, handles policy questions and his past accomplishments' questions better than his surrogates.

If Hillary seems at all desperate or committed to negative remarks about Obama, it’s Miller time for Obama, or whatever people in Chicago drink.

I predicted a nine point win in Wisconsin. I predict a solid Obama win tonight.

CNN/Opinion Research Corporation has the candidates in a statistical dead heat in Texas; after tonight, watch Hillary fade fast.

Oh, and Hillary: Don’t laugh, ‘cause you really do sound like Vincent Price when you do.

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