When Barack Obama suggested Thursday that he doesn’t see any point in having another debate with Hillary Clinton, few were surprised, given his poor performance in Philly. It is even less surprising when viewed in the larger context of Obama’s campaign.
When Obama complains that “it took us 45 minutes before we even started talking — until we started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people,” he is spinning. As noted yesterday, character matters to a large bloc of American voters. It matters to Nash McCabe, who asked the flag pin question:
But to understand why Obama rubs McCabe wrong is to go beyond the question of what a flag pin has to do with patriotism  it’s not really about the flag pin, she said in a telephone interview Thursday  and consider McCabe’s life. It’s no Hawaiian prep school and Ivy League story, unlike Obama’s. It’s a slice of working-class Pennsylvania, the core of Hillary Clinton’s support there.
***
On paper, her stances make her as likely to support Obama as Clinton.
But she sees a difference between the two. In Clinton, she sees someone who has struggled for years, just like her, and has earned the right to be president. In Obama, she sees someone who rose like a rocket, always has a smooth explanation for everything  whether it’s about his former preacher or the flag pin  and who makes it all look too easy.
McCabe may overestimate how easy Obama had it growing up, but Obama is not a known quantity nationally. Moreover, he has never had a tough campaign, as his main rivals in his Senate primary and general election imploded, both due to divorce-related scandals.
Debate-dodging will only reinforce the image people like McCabe have of Obama, because it is suggestive of his general attitude regarding character questions. Obama prefers to stonewall the press, demand written questions, and even to walk out of a press conference when he does not like the questions being asked.ÂÂ
Walking out of a nationally-televised debate was not a realistic option for Obama. Thus, he had to finally address character questions outside the context of a speech, and was unable to completely control the content.  His performance in that setting was not good. Based on Obama’s campaign to date, it should not surprise anyone if he tries to minimize his exposure to potentially challenging questions, especially those regarding character.
(h/t Memeorandum.)
Update: This morning, Clinton suggested to a local TV newscast that Sen. Barack Obama’s complaints about his questioning at the event displayed a “walk away” mentality “when the going gets tough.”
They just don’t like the sprezzatura, Karl.
So he doesn’t want to talk to his enemies? This is very confuzzling.
And recalling that his winning strategy for his state Senate race was to have his opponents knocked off the ballot…no, he has never had to duke it out.
He’s very cowardly. You know who else is cowardly a lot I think? Drug users. Baracky showed from a young age that he was sort of big on avoiding conflict. Now it’s just the narcotic of hope that he clings to instead of his pot and his cocaine. There are programs what can help.
And recalling that his winning strategy for his state Senate race was to have his opponents knocked off the ballot…no, he has never had to duke it out.
Hmmmm….when his opponent’s divorce papers were unsealed and the information inside used against them, did Obama ever decry that kind of ‘gotcha’ politics? Did he implore his supporters not to use Ryan’s personal relationship problems against him? Did he stand up for someone else?
This is what happens when you don’t have a strong male role model. It’s very sad and a lot you end up bowling like a girl.
I knew girls like this in high school. Girlie might tell you to your face she loves your new outfit, but when other people start talking about how fat you look in those pants, girlie giggles along. Then she brags about how she never talks about people behind their backs.
Karl – Great observation, it was like deja vu on a bigger scale to that press conference where he wanlked out – “I already answered 8 questions”.
as his main rivals in his Senate primary and general election imploded, both due to divorce-related scandals.
Ryan had his divorce documents leaked to the media. But Barkacky is new and different and he would have never done that.
Which reminds me, did anyone else catch where he tried to say that he had never done something, and Gibson pointed out that his campaign was doing it. Essentially, Baracky was trying to distance himself from his own campaign. I found that ironic. Hill also got in a good zing about “bitter”.
Hillary is going to kill him with this. That the callow youth doesn’t have the stamina to go the distance, that he backs down from challenges. This is the next 3 a.m. phone call ad. “What Does America Need? A President that can’t handle a little tribulation? One who can’t answer a simple question asked by a journalist? One that runs screaming like a little girl as soon as the skies turn dark? Or a President with nerves of steel, with the icy-cold control not to have strangled Bill ten times over, who can make the tough decisions that have unleashed Carvilles on her critics, who has sicced the awful forces of the IRS on the enemies of progress?
Vote Experience, Vote Cold Ambition, Vote The Heart of Fury.”
Seriously – she is going to pounce on this admission of weakness and beat him like he owes her money. She can smell the fear and the desperation; just a little longer, a little more stalking, wear the prey out.
Are you watching Excitable Andrew? Don’t blink, don’t move. You will not want to miss the last lingering minute of this campaign, the last debate the last post-mortem of the last primary and then the light skirmishing all the way to Denver. Watch transfixed by the awful majesty of this campaign, watch Dr. Dean go mad. Do not touch that dial.
that press conference where he wanlked out
Portmanteau of “walked” and “wanked”?
Heh.
Mikey,
Right you are; see the update.
You forgot THIGHS OF STEEL!!! For the submission holds…
And she can rightly claim that she’s been through the political wringer and had the VRWC march up and down her back for years. She’s already telling him to grow a pair.
‘feets, bravo to #6. Wise and pithy.
I watched that clip, Karl. She just buried him. Plus she looks energized and almost gleefull.
This is going to be a race between the hopey/changey/hypnotized people insisting that their candidate was sideswiped by “nonsense” and those whose eyes are clearing and are now wondering if this guy isn’t really a girlie man.
We already know that he doesn’t have THIGHS OF STEEL!!!!!
Just take a walk, Barack,
You won’t see me follow you back home . . .
Obama is crying about debating; why?
Yes, it does have away of moving him below the rest! A good speaker when it is written and he is prepared,but NOT when he has to answer the questions without help from speech writers!!!
What will he do if he becomes president? We (America) will be the ones CRYING!!!
Dan,
BO is definitely Left Banke; a Pretty Ballerina, if you will.
Karl – it was such a gimme that she had to take it. Anyone would take that admission of weakness and exploit it. The fact that Sen. Obama made that admission of weakness emphasizes his callowness and reinforces the idea that he is not experienced enough for the job.
To be blunt, sen. Obama just nuked his own rear areas.
#13 BJ – I prefer ‘Iron Ankles’; but the correction holds in spirit.
How can he say the “bitter” statements aren’t what matter to real voters?
It began as an answer to a question at a small gathering of real voters. The words are entirely of his creation; he felt they were important enough to say when a real SF voter asked him a question.
It isn’t as if someone said, “Why are rural PA voters bitter?” and he reluctantly answered. As far as I know, he didn’t tell the SF gathering that real voters don’t care about that stuff.
Obama: Unprompted, I made a statement that voters cling to religion and free trade because they are bitter. But it’s a distraction to talk about it!
Mikey: ANKLES OF IRON!!!
We need to see some polling after this weekend when the debate review has run its course. If he’s still surging in PA and Indiana then we’ll know that the hypnotized are swallowing whole the “politics of the past” spin. That would be sad beacuse critical thinking will have been beaten to death once and for all.
What I think will be interesting is that Sen. Clinton will be able to hammer him on being soft, wimpy even, over this, and due to the Dems identity politics rules, he will not be able to hammer back on this one. She looked to have a newfound energy yesterday.
(On the other hand, anything that can bring this farking interminable parade of pointless soundbite-laden faux-debates to an end can’t be entirely bad.)
#14 Pablo – he can’t grow a pair, Michelle has them.
Can you imagine what the conversation would sound like if Michelle and Hillary got stuck in an elevator? Who would survive? Michelle’s younger and quicker, but Hillary’s got the experience and the weight advantage.
[…] At the debate in Philadelphia, Obama neither enlightened us nor dispelled any lingering doubts on this issue. I’ll be kind to Obama on this score. So, let’s just say, that when the topic of patriotism came up during Wednesday night’s debate, he didn’t exactly hit it out of the park… When asked to defend the charge that some questioned his patriotism, Obama’s response was measured, circumspect, equivocal, confusing and somewhat unorthodox. It reminded me of the moment at a previous debate when he was asked about whether he accepted the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan. The sentiments and posture he expressed were similar. In both instances, he was clearly uncomfortable answering the question. It very well may be that Obama thinks the matter is trivial, unimportant and/or not worthy of explanation or elucidation. […]
BJ, those thighs still bear the imprint of Janet Reno’s thighs, like the forearms of a Shaolin priest. Ears of Titanium!!!!
I give up. Should be “Janet Reno’s thighs”.
/slinks back into his cyber-cubicle
ARGGGHHHH! “Janet Renos EARS“.
/prairie-dogging now
the HTML god, bergenbuilder. He is angry at you. :-D
Thank you for reinforcing that vision, bergerbilder. I hope I can gain back the strength to crawl from under my desk.
I’ll take age and treachery over youth and enthusiasm.
bergerbilder – The idea of Hillary’s ears being anywhere near Janet Reno’s thighs, or Janet Reno’s ears being anywhere near Hillary’s thighs is a mental image that copious amounts of bleach and hydrocholoric acid will not be able to eat away. I curse you, and denounce you.
I’ll bet Michelle weighs more than Hillary. According to WikiAnswers, MO is 6’0, 175.
More importantly than that, MayBe, she’s angry!
But not bitter.
Michelle by TKO in the third.
Now Michelle against Bubba…..?
Cause we all know that Hillary can so kick Barack’s ass.
MayBee and BJ – M’chelle could take Baracky, Hill, and Bill, all at the same time.
Baracky didn’t say he’d talk with his enemies, he said he’d talk with Chavez, Kim, Ahmonnajihad…The Other that America has unjustly marginalized. He’ll save his seething wrath for his real enemies.
M’chelle has to outweigh Baracky by quite a bit I’d guess. But we knew that.
I must admit, all this talk of “THIGHS OF STEEL!!!” has aroused me.
M’Chelle, Baracky, Hill & Bill in the menage a quatro from hell.
You know who else is cowardly a lot I think? Drug users.
Gotta call bullshit on that one, ‘feets. I dosed up one weekend then found out I had to take a girlfriend to her job at the mall. Negotiating a mall on Saturday while tripping balls is not for the faint of heart.
I gotta go with BJ on this one. Once when I had eaten a fair quantity of magical mushrooms, I got dressed up in a hockey goalie uniform (mask, stick and all), wandered out into the street, and began jousting oncoming traffic in a snowstorm. Foolish, perhaps. Cowardly, no way. It takes nerves of steel to to stand your ground against an oncoming GMC Jimmy armed only with a hockey stick.
It’s still an escapist activity. I read a brochure.
Yeah, it depends on the drugs.
It’s still an escapist activity.
Yep, but sometimes the plan is to escape the mundane. One of the reasons drugs get a bad rap is users who lack the proper training and moral fiber to handle the adventure.
Baracky is a cowardly little git. Work with me, people.
Baracky is a cowardly little git. Work with me, people.
With that statement, you will get no disagreement from me.
That part, yeah.
I’m pretty sure it’s Michelle that gets tasked with spider killing duty at the Obama house. Hillary should make an ad.
Baracky is a cowardly little git. Work with me, people.
Well yeah, he quit doing drugs, didn’t he? Quitters never win, you know.
It would be fun to see Hillary and Barrack in a steel cage deathmatch, like in Thunderdome. Sort of a winner take all solution to the Democratic nomination. “Two go in. one comes out.”
Typo? Shouldn’t that be “none” instead of “one”…?
Me and my wishful thinking.
“In this cor-nah is Hillary ‘Iron Ankles’ Clinton! An experienced manip-ulatah with the fi-ahs of hell burning in her gut! In the oth-ah cor-nah is Barack ‘Kid Butterfly’ O-bama! A shifty community organ-izah with the pow-ah of MSM love in his jaw! Only one can suh-vive this brutal combat! Will it be cold ex-perience or youth-ful idealism! Let the slaugh-tah begin!”
Man, the Dems would rake in a fortune on pay-per-view for that.
Kinda makes me wish “Celebrity Deathmatch” weren’t just claymation.
BO sucks at one on one conversation and I think it’s because he is a liar and a coward.
He shines when he’s pontificating to a crowd, where there is no risk of being caught with those “tough questions”….It scares me that these dolts are following him like zombies….