What A Difference A Night Makes

Last night was a good night to be an American and an even better night to be a Democrat.

If you watched Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton take the stage at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, you could be forgiven a little catch in your throat as history unfolded. We've seen presidential debates that included an African-American and a woman. But this was the first time an African-American and a woman were the only participants in such a debate. We were rewarded with a spirited, but cordial discussion that brought out the best in the two candidates.

In stark contrast to the Republican's churlish affair on Wednesday, the Democratic hopefuls impersonated adults and focused on the issues. They were aided, for the most part, by Wolf Blitzer--though he lapsed badly toward the end of the debate and was called on it by the celebrity audience.

Here's how I saw it go down.

Obama started things off with an opening statement that praised John Edwards and offered an olive branch to Hillary. "I was friends with Hillary Clinton before this campaign...and I'll be friends after..." But he quickly summarized the big ideas of his campaign without pulling any punches: how do we move "past the divisions that have prevented us from solving... problems", it's the "past versus the future" and how do "we bring the country together". http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/31/videos.dems.debate/index.html

Hillary's opening statement also praised Edwards and then leaned on a central part of her stump speech, that the next president will be confronted "with a whole stack of problems". She recited a litany of issues, which, I have to admit, reminded me a bit of the old Reagan charge that Dems always view America through a prism of negativity. Nevertheless, she summarized her candidacy by plainly stating that she was the problem solver ready to tackle those issues. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/01/31/sot.debate.clinton.open.cnn

A question about policy differences quickly led to a debate on health care. Obama was forced to explain why he did not favor mandates. He was cogent and so were his ideas to make healthcare affordable. He also stirred the audience with a bold idea to broadcast negotiations with the medical and insurance industries on C-Span. But Hillary's plan to open Congressional health options to all Americans clearly resonated with the audience. And her total mastery of the subject gave her the advantage on this one.(I am including video link courtesy of CNN which shows the "people meter"--a real time response to everything that's said. It's fascinating. Check it out.)http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/01/31/sot.people.meter.healthcare.cnn

Paying for healthcare, which both candidates said would be possible in part by repealing the Bush tax cuts on earners making more than $250,000, led to a question about how each of them would counter the Republican charge that they were just "tax and spend" Democrats. Obama came up with a solid salvo: "I don't think the Republicans are in a great position to talk about fiscal responsibility..." http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/01/31/sot.debate.healthcare.clinton.obama.cnn
He then ripped into McCain, highlighting McCain's change of heart on the Bush tax cuts (first he voted against them, now he's for them) with another great line, "I guess the straight talk express lost some of it's wheels." Clinton concluded the segment with a strong point that repealing the tax cuts would simply restore tax levels to pre-Bush, gleefully adding, "a time when most Americans did really well".

Things got a little dicey on immigration. When a viewer question via email(courtesy of an online poll conducted by Politico.com) asked about the employment impact of illegal immigrants on African-Americans, Obama would not take the race bate. He stated that all workers were feeling the negative effects of an "economy out of balance". He conspicuously avoided letting the discussion move into an "us versus them" mode (to improve his Latino numbers, no doubt). Hillary was more forthright (knowing her numbers with Latinos are high), saying the country needed comprehensive immigration reform. Both candidates talked about their plans for reform. The famous drivers license issue came up (should illegals be allowed to get them). While Obama did remind everyone of Hillary's tortured flipflop on the issue, he did so to point out the complexity and difficulty of the issue. She countered strongly that he couldn't answer the question two weeks later at a debate, either. I called it a draw, but this will be the one really tough issue for the Dems in the fall. Check out the people meter on this one.http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/01/31/sot.people.meter.immigration.cnnhttp://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/01/31/sot.debate.immigration.clinton.cnn

I'm going to go to a series of home run moments.

The first was the tag team job Obama and Clinton did responding to a viewer question about Mitt Romney's CEO type leadership. A viewer wrote via email that he thought the government was like a company and since neither candidate had run a company (like Romney) why did they think they were qualified to be CEO of the nation. Clinton countered by saying that the government wasn't a company, it was a not-for-profit trust, designed to service the people. Then she said that George Bush had run as a CEO type leader and look where that got us. Obama applied the coup de grace by saying that Romney hadn't recieved a very good "return on his investment" so far in the campaign, and that his management style compared very favorably to Romney's in that regard. (This is the confidence that comes with having raised $32 million in January.) It was such a stunning riposte by both candidates that the moderator dropped the issue entirely. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/01/31/sot.debate.clinton.obama.romney.cnn
Hillary hit a high hard pitch out of the park in this next moment. She was asked how she could call herself an agent of change when she was continuing the Bush, Clinton legacies. After some routine explanations of being judged on the merits, she concluded with, "It took a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush and it may take another to clean up after the second Bush." It brought the house down and left Obama on the outside looking in, especially when the debate went to a commercial break. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/01/31/sot.debate.clinton.cleanup.cnn

Obama hit an inside the park homer with this one. On a question about progress in Iraq, he made the salient point that we started with "intolerable levels of violence", which then spiked to "horrendous" levels of violence and now, as a result of the surge, we're back down to "intolerable" levels of violence. Cast in that reality, he said, that's not real progress. No video on this, but it was a valid reality check.

Finally, there was one major development in this debate. I thought Hillary held a slight edge throughout the debate until the discussion on Iraq. When she was pressed on her vote to authorize military force in Iraq, her explanation devolved into a rationalization that made everyone scratch their heads. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/01/31/sot.debate.clinton.cleanup.cnn
And because it was at the end of the debate, it left a lingering impression.

There were other good moments and interesting questions but in the end this debate did what a good debate should do: It delineated policy differences and it defined the political approaches of each candidate. If you want a pragmatic problem solver, who's not afraid to mix it up with adversaries, Hillary's your girl. If you want an inspirational leader who brings people together to "reach higher", than Barack's your man.

There may not have been a clear winner but maybe that's why on this night Democrats, and all Americans, could smile.

Here's a full transcript of the debate in case you missed it. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/31/dem.debate.transcript/index.html

So who won? Let me know. Or discuss anything else you want. Click on "comments" below and be advised: you don't have to sign up with a google account; continue to scroll down and click on the nickname or anonymous button.