Legal Commentary

Why The Dems' Matt Santos Night Was Good For Hillary

By Big Tent Democrat

By Big Tent Democrat

The last season of the West Wing featured the fictional Democratic Presidential candidate Matt Santos giving a rousing speech that ended with him saying "I'm proud to be a member of the Democratic Party." Last night was a Matt Santos night for Democrats. The Presidential debate produced an "I'm proud to be a member of the Democratic Party" night.

Barack Obama produced his finest debate performance of this campaign. He was engaging, funny, personable, knowledgeable, hard on Republicans and specific on issues. I am not sure what he could have done better. If political debates were like debating society debates, he might even have scored a win last night.

But political debates are NOT debating society debates. They come with existing narratives and stories. Going into the debate the stories were about the Clinton campaign's negativity, Ted Kennedy's endorsement and Obama's mo. The story coming out was how well both candidates did, how capable our candidates are and how well they both represent the Democratic Party. Sounds like a fairly neutral storyline no? But consider WHAT IT WAS before. When both Clinton and Obama are perceived as historic, even inspiring, candidates, Obama has lost some of his edge. If people are writing that the debate reminded them that they actually LIKE Hillary as opposed to the campaign of the last weeks, then this was a good night for Hillary Clinton.

Obama scored some good points regarding his debating skills and on Iraq. But Hillary significantly improved her likeability quotient. In politics generally, but especially in this race, I think it is clear that Hillary's advance last night is the more significant one. A good night for both. A more productive night for Hillary Clinton.

The fundamentals of the campaign remain the same. But Hillary cut through a lot of the chaff tonight. In essence, she got to speak to the American People unfiltered by Media bias, and as often happens, the Media paints an ogre and then the public sees a wonderfully decent, brilliant person and ends up wondering what the Media is talking about.

Josh Marshall writes that Obama won because his debate expectations were lower. I think that misses the real point - HILLARY's expectations as a PERSON were much lower. And she easily exceeded them.

And in a POLITICAL debate, that is the more significant calculus.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 01, 2008 (boomark / email).