Click. Click. Click, Senator Hillary Clinton and
Senator Barack
Obama took center stage at the Kodak Theatre in
Los Angeles last night, to
participate in the final debate before Super Tuesday, that all important
contest that might determine the Democratic nominee for
President of the
United States.
Surrounded by a
cast of characters, Annie Hall, James Bond, and George Costanza to name a
few, the two contestants for the nomination were working off a new script.
Gone With the Wind was the contentious The War Between the Roses
script; this was the bright and cheery The Donna Reed Show. Hillary
as Donna had lost the 50’s-style strand-of-pearls and replaced them by a
hipper turquoise set of beads, but this was Donna at her best.
Hillary/Donna,
that all-knowing, practical, humorous, problem-solving, and, yes sometimes
gamine character gave an almost Emmy Award-winning performance, but for
one tortuous misstep – when she didn’t get the script just right when
confronted on her vote to authorize the
Iraq War.
Although the fault of her continued circuitous answer lies with the
candidate, it was not with the performance. Simply, Senator Clinton needs
a new script from which to play off. For reasons difficult to understand,
Hillary Clinton’s agents can’t seem to help her wend her way out of the
weeds of her vote to authorize the war.
Can we have
another take please?
It is obvious that
Mrs. Clinton, the first woman contender for the nomination doesn’t want
to appear weak on national defense, but really, isn’t that view too
1950’s? In the twenty-first century, militarism is so out-of-fashion and
honesty is so in.
Take Senator Clinton’s opponent, Barack Obama’s straight-talk on his
drug-use. He admitted doing drugs but defused the obvious problem it could
be for a presidential contender by apologizing for his “youthful
indiscretion” upfront. End of story.
Mrs. Clinton, rewrite needed here.
About Senator
Clinton’s contender, Senator Barack Obama, and his polite performance that
seemed to align the freshman Senator more with Donna Reed’s earnest, young
son, Jeff, than with her professional pediatrician doctor husband, Alex.
Senator Obama is an intelligent man, to be sure, but he sometimes comes
off as precocious rather than seasoned, and seems diminutive when sitting
next to the calm, centered, self-assured, and sometimes even regal Senator
Clinton.
In past
performances, Senator Obama often appeared petulant if not downright
peevish. He had moments of frustration during the debate last night as
well, but only hinted at that disdainful part of his personality.
Like a child, the freshman Senator seems needful of having the last word
in every argument and has a finger-wagging issue much like Mrs. Clinton’s
husband, the former President Bill Clinton. Senator Obama wags his to get
the moderator’s attention, only emphasizing the fact that his opponent is
saying something he finds the need to defend.
Cut!
Issue by issue,
from healthcare to immigration the two contenders battled it out and issue
by issue, save Mrs. Clinton’s Iraq problem, the former first lady bested
Senator Obama.
Mr. Obama,
looking to take advantage of Senator Clinton's Iraq vote, has begun
tossing out a new line. In a play against Mrs. Clinton’s old line, “It’s
not enough to be ready on day one,” Senator Obama quoted Mrs. Clinton,
then went on, “You also have to be right.” But save Mrs. Clinton’s Iraq
vote, last night the Senator proved herself right on every other issue.
When at the end of
the debate Senator Obama held the chair for the rising Senator Clinton, a
gesture that seemed inappropriate in this setting, it appeared more
as if Senator Obama had acceded to the commanding Senator Clinton in his own mind rather
than a polite gesture it might have been meant to be.
It was, as they say, a genuine Kodak moment.
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