By Wlady Pleszczynski on 4.17.08 @ 10:08AM
Phil: Compared to Obama, Hillary was frighteningly good. He was
dead on his feet; down the stretch I half-expected he'd be checking
his watch. He had nothing new to state, and increasingly he gave
off the vibe that he wanted to be anywhere else but there. Even he
seems tired of his old bromides, but in his empty suit he had
nothing new to offer. He appeared exasperated. Hillary, meanwhile,
was having the time of her life, showing off at every opportunity,
the smartest girl in the class, scoring points with teacher, with
great satisfaction, giving off not a hint that most everyone
assumes her days are numbered. The interesting thing is that all
the post-debate intensity has involved Barackudas rallying to
defend their little darling; Hillary seems to have no devoted
followers.
Charlie Gibson's supply-side conversion notwithstanding, this
was not a good night for big media. Gotcha question after gotcha
question is not going to cut it, particularly since there was so
much else to discuss that ABC's guys never bothered to address: for
starters, Jimmy Carter's visit to Hamas and Pope Benedict's mission
to America. And who does Gibson think he is? In the odd set his
throne was clearly a head or two higher than Stephanopoulos's, who
was seated off to the side, almost at his knee level. And such
self-importance when he read off his questions, as if the debate
were about him and it was his show and he was Bill O'Reilly. I can
fully understand why any Obama backer would be irate at having
their hero patronized by this popinjay.