Craig Crawford
Trail Mix
Congressional Quarterly
February 1, 2008
Sorely disappointed talking heads like me had no choice but to deploy harsh words for the debate on Thursday between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. We called it “substantive” and “cordial.”
In other words, where was the "business time" in this one-on-one Democratic debate, that stimulating moment when bitter and desperate combatants snarl like mangy dogs and call each other lobbyist patsies and corporate sell-outs? Oh, I forgot -- John Edwards dropped out.
Sadly, the remaining hopefuls did not meet media expectations for a face-slapping, sharp-stick-in-the-eye bloodletting. Why do they think we call these things face-offs? Without a freak show we cannot justify millions of dollars spent on television broadcasts that barely compete with bee-keeping specials on RFD-TV (soon to be showing marathon cattle auctions on Comcast Cable).
But no, Obama and Clinton had to go and talk about dumb stuff like health care when they could have spent a least a few minutes wandering around the stage snubbing each other the way they did at the State of the Union address on Monday night. Now there was American politics at its best – the sort of intricately subtle and yet pointedly meaningful snubbing ritual that makes this country the envy of the underdeveloped world. ... ( more )
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