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advwomen
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Posted: Thu Aug 23rd, 2007 04:17 am |
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Experts: Debates have helped Hillary pad lead
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's brain trust spent the days before her April 26 debate debut prepping her on policy, role playing her rivals during practice sessions and fretting.
"We were worried," said a Clinton associate who favored limiting the number of debates to protect the former first lady. Some members of Clinton's team didn't think she could match the loquacious Sen. Barack Obama at the podium. Others, such as Clinton's longtime adviser Mandy Grunwald, didn't know how she would hold up as the main target in an eight-candidate melee. Adding to the anxiety were polls showing Obama within 5 percentage points nationally. "I don't think it was clear how it would all go until they were on the stage together," Grunwald said. "You didn't know what the alchemy between the candidates would be, how she would fare as a front-runner."
So it came as a great relief when Clinton emerged as the consensus winner during that first debate in Orangeburg, S.C., and has increased her lead to as much as 20 percentage points after seven debates and forums. Now, it's Obama who wants to limit the number of future debates to the five sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee. A major Clinton misstep could wipe away her gains, and Obama seems to be gaining confidence, but Clinton's staff now views the format as a showcase for her steady style of leadership at a time when competence is cool in American politics.
"I don't think anyone could anticipate how well she's done, the extent to which the debates have had on the rise in the polls," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said.
No candidate has benefitted as much from primary debates since Ronald Reagan in 1980, said Northeastern University Professor Alan Schroeder, a debate expert. "Clinton has been a big surprise," he said. "She was very reluctant to engage in these debates, but they have played favorably into her hand against expectations. She has had more gravitas than other people on the stage and she seems completely unrattled."
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