 |
| Author | Post |
|---|
advwomen
Administrator
| Joined: | Fri Jul 20th, 2007 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 155 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: |  |
|
Posted: Fri Sep 21st, 2007 05:50 pm |
|
Friday, September 21, 2007
Obama hurts himself by skipping Iowa debate
There wasn't a big winner of Thursday night's debate among the Democratic presidential candidates, but there was a clear loser - Barack Obama.
The Illinois senator skipped the 90-minute event in Davenport. That left the stage to his five leading rivals - John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden. We've seen front-runners blow off debates when they didn't want to risk becoming a target for their opponents, or elevate the stature of those foes, or risk mistakes.
But most polls show Obama is in a close race with Clinton and Edwards in Iowa. On top of that, this wasn't just an Iowa debate. It was a prime-time event broadcast around the country by public television stations. And it was sponsored by AARP, the largest advocacy group for senior citizens. Since the average age of a caucusgoer in Iowa is something over 50, it wasn't as if Obama was stiffing some obscure party constituency group.
(So Obama sat this one out -- probably knowing he's better at public speaking than answering tough policy questions and being compared with more experienced opponebts.)
- Clinton turned in another solid performance. She is doing well in most of these debates because she shows command of the issues and doesn't fall into political traps that could hurt her chances. Edwards showed again he has clearly thought through the big issues facing the country.
David Yepsen, Des Moines Register, September 21, 2007
|
Current time is 07:15 pm | |
|
|
|
|
