thoughts on the debate tonight

Before I forget, I really can't stand Tim Russert as a debate moderator. When he asked the question tonight about the Russian election coming up this weekend, Senator Clinton gave a very detailed answer about the strategic situation in Russia, about the failings of President Bush's Russia policy, and the challenges going forward. But she didn't use his name, and, as it turns out, she did know his name but fumbled the pronounciation.

It would be one thing if a candidate fumbled all over the place - say, for example, the way Mike Huckabee answers any foreign policy question - and then you could follow up with, do you at least know the guy's name. But Clinton demonstrated even to this Obama guy that she knew exactly what was going on in Russia, what our strategic interests were, and what the challenges were. Knowing the guy's name is certainly secondary to knowing the strategic situation. But Russert presses on and looks like a high school debate nerd. He is so out of touch. It was depressing.

But that is a minor point.

I am a biased observer, certainly (precinct captain for Obama who has spent at least a couple of hours per day the last couple of weeks working with the campaign), but this struck me as his best performance in the primary season. I thought Obama nailed the difference in their war records perfectly in simple terms. Clinton has tried to downplay the importance of Obama's argument in 2002 by saying that since he has arrived in the Senate, they have voted the same way on every major issue regarding the war. Obama argued that once a bus is in the ditch, trying to get out of the ditch limits your options. At least he didn't vote to drive the bus into the ditch in the first place.

I thought he also did a wonderful job on handling the Farrakhan discussion. Senator Clinton made a tactical mistake in getting into that discussion. When Obama left his answer the first time, I thought he might not have gone quite far enough to separate himself from Farrakhan. It was clear he disagreed with the sentiment - and his speech this weekend that made both Marty Peretz and Matt Yglesias happy when they vary widely in their views make me think that he won't have lingering Israel problems - and yet he had to walk a fine line. When she popped in, he was able to make her response sound like a fight over silly semantics. It turned what could have been nervy in the spin to a clear win for him.

The bottom line is that this was a clear win for Obama. He looked presidential, and there was nothing that happened tonight that changed the dynamic of the race, which is set to be over in seven days time. Obama will win Texas.