Thursday night’s Democratic debate in Austin, Texas, began cordially and grew increasingly tense, but Sen. Hillary Clinton did not land any crushing blows against her rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who has won the last 11 contests.
The debate, which was sponsored by CNN, Univision and the Texas Democratic Party, provided the first face-to-face matchup between the two candidates since Super Tuesday.
With 193 Democratic delegates at stake, Texas is the largest prize of the March 4 primary contests. Clinton, who trails Obama in projected delegate counts, needs to do well in the state in order to remain a strong contender in the race for the nomination. Obama’s narrow national lead in the polls, combined with Clinton’s slight polling advantage in Ohio and Texas — she leads him by 10 percentage points in Ohio and only 2 in Texas, according to recent polling averages — made Thursday night’s debate a crucial opportunity for Clinton to shore up more Texan support.
“She’s somewhat boxed in: play nice and let the Obamomentum continue, or sharpen the attacks and risk a backlash,” said unaffiliated Democratic strategist Dan Newman, according to the Associated Press.
The most contentious moments of the debate were toward the end, when the New York senator got in a few digs about charges that Obama plagiarized words from his friend and campaign supporter, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
“Lifting whole passages from someone else’s speeches is not change you can believe in, it’s change you can Xerox,” Clinton said, eliciting a mixture of boos and applause from the audience. She reiterated her message that her opponent is more style than substance.
“Obama softly spoke over her, saying, ‘Oh, but that’s not what happened there,’ yet eventually chose not to engage, saying he wanted to reply only to her criticism on the issues,” The New York Times reported.
“Clinton was occasionally aggressive, but not enough to shake up the dynamic that has her nearly tied in polls in the crucial March 4 primary states of Ohio and Texas,” Slate reported.
Obama tried to sustain a positive tone during the debate, but “he accused Mrs. Clinton of suggesting that his supporters were ‘delusional’ or ‘being duped’ by his themes of hope and unity,” the Times reported.
“[But] I think they perceive the reality of what’s going on in Washington very clearly,” Obama added. “What they see is that if we don’t bring the country together, stop the endless bickering, actually focus on solutions and reduce the special interests that have dominated Washington, then we will not get anything done.”
Clinton’s most poignant moment came at the end of the debate, when the candidates were asked to talk about a time in their lives when they felt personally challenged.
“As everybody knows, I’ve been through some crises in my life,” she said, in an assumed reference to husband President Bill Clinton’s high-profile affair with a White House intern.
“It resonated immediately. Then, smartly, Clinton pivoted to stories of the suffering of Iraq war veterans, and admitted that her trials were nothing compared to their pain,” Newsweek’s Andrew Romano wrote.
Clinton also reached out to shake Obama’s hand at the end of her final comments, saying she was “honored” to be in such a forum with him.
“Reaching over to shake her rival’s hand, Clinton said she was “honored” to be on the stage with him, in what sounded almost like an acknowledgment of his growing strength as a candidate,” the Washington Post reported.
“Whatever happens, we’re going to be fine,” she said, according to the Post’s account. “You know, we have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope that we’ll be able to say the same thing about the American people, and that’s what this election should be about.”
Clinton and Obama have agreed to another debate in Ohio before the March 4 primary contests.
Email This
Vote 2008 Subscriptions 
