Did Last Night Hurt Obama For November?

by Steve Soto

AP photo after an event that may have doomed Obama for November

I was out at a community meeting last night and did not watch the debate. I can't say that I would have anyway, as I have tired of the brick-throwing while McCain consolidates his base and gains traction with independents and "Reagan Democrats." But the accounts by some in the media indicate that Obama did not have a good night responding to the pressure from ABC's moderators and Clinton's full court press, while Clinton according to these same accounts came across well, especially in the second half of the debate.

The problem is that none of this matters now. By allowing Obama to catch and pass her in the delegate counts and letting him have a run of umimpeded successes, and then resorting to a demolition derby approach to deny him the nomination, Clinton cannot win this nomination on her own merits. However, after last night's performance by Obama, it is also very possible that Obama cannot win it either. I will be unpopular with both camps here, but the Democrats are now left with two damaged candidates, running against a guy who has an open playing field for the next several months to solidify support and build a narrative with the help of a fawning media.

We can complain all we want about the behavior of ABC News last night and their aggressive and petty questioning of Obama, just like Clinton supporters similarly complained about how NBC had their knives out for Hillary in an earlier debate, but Obama did not have a good night playing defense. Hillary cannot really capitalize on this because it is too late and too few contests remain for her to turn it around, and if she wins Pennsylvania by a small amount or worse yet loses the contest, her time is up. But one of the three big networks carried a debate last night in which the Democratic front-runner may have hurt his chances in the fall, against a guy who doesn't have those problems and who now runs slightly ahead of him in some polls, even before last night, without voters caring right now about his actual stance on the issues.

Our work is definitely cut out for us.