The Errant Æsthete

Out of the NY Times Opinionator: After Tuesday night’s debate, the folks at The Corner, National Review’s staff blog, have come down with a case of Obama Fever — meaning, the prospect of Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential nominee is making them feel a little sick to the stomach. {Some astute readers comments as well}

The EA has taken the liberty of reprinting this post from Slate following the democratic presidential debate on Tuesday. Written by an interested voter, the writer is refreshingly honest and balanced in pointing out how perceptions distort and appearances always matter.

Give the Lady a Break

I’m afraid to even say that in this crowd, but I’m just trying to be fair. I mostly read the transcript of the debate, because I got home too late to watch it. And from the transcript, one gets a whole different impression. For one thing, you don’t get the full force of her pettiness when you don’t see it delivered from her pinched mouth. For another, she is just much more impressive, intellectually. Time and time again, she comes up with a smart and, more importantly, specific response that seals the argument, like the line: “It would be as though Franklin Roosevelt said let’s make Social Security voluntary.” That is a perfect and pithy summary of what her plan does, and it kills his complaint. And in this case, it was Obama who whined no fair and appealed to the moderator: “Brian, I’m getting fillibustered here.” Whereas usually he just resorts to generalities, or refers to his days as a community organizer, or some version of the hope riff.

It’s hard not to like him more than her. When I’m watching him, I’m thinking about his first book, and some of his great lines, and his wife, and all the things I like about him. When I’m watching her, I’m thinking of Bill’s Jesse Jackson line, and her incredibly tedious books, and that embarrassing “Hillary” jazz-hands video. Unlike her, Obama seems constitutionally incapable of losing his cool. But he does not win these debates. On nearly any subject—health care, Iran, Korea—she’s more impressive. So, I guess what I’m saying is I wish people would admit they prefer him just because they prefer him, and not give him points he didn’t earn.