Will there be a backlash? (To ABC debate)

[IndianaGreen]

Will there be a backlash?

That, I think, is the only question* that matters now, in terms of Tuesday's result in Pennsylvania. Will the Keystone State's Democratic voters -- remember, these are Democrats, not general-election voters -- rebel against the negativity, the "gotcha"-ism, the endless drumbeat of cynical word-twisting and opportunistic gaffe-pouncing, that has become the central operating principle of the Clinton campaign, and vote instead for the man whose message of "hope" and "change" and a "new kind of politics" so inspired voters in the early stages of this nomination contest? If there's ever a moment for that message to gain new traction, it would be now.

The conventional wisdom holds, and the polling suggests, that undecided voters will break for Hillary, as they did in New Hampshire, and in various big Super Tuesday states, and in Texas and Ohio. But in the last week, Hillary's campaign has gone almost entirely negative, and her inner attack dog been unmasked as never before. Pennsylvanians, remember, have rarely if ever been the center of the political universe like this before -- they're not used to being New Hampshire on steroids -- and the negativity must be absolutely overwhelming at this point. I imagine a lot of voters are getting awfully tired of it all.

If I'm right, tonight's debate, while superficially helpful to Hillary (Sullivan calls it Obama's "worst performance yet on national television," and I don't disagree), may actually have damaged her -- precisely because it seemed, in some ways, almost like an extension of the last week of her campaign. It wasn't really a "debate" so much as an endless series of "gotcha" moments, an ongoing riff on "electability" and side-issues and distractions. The lefty blogosphere is in an uproar; Ed Rendell is mad as hell; commenters on ABC's site are livid. But what will Pennsylvania's voters think? And if they were turned off the debate, will that turn them on to Obama's message, and turn them off to Clinton's transparent Rovianism? I think it just might.

http://blog.brendanloy.com/2008/04/will-there-be-a.html

[anonymous171]

1. If Obama can spin this right, as "old politics" vs "new politics" then he can pull something off.

[uponit7771]

2. Hopefully, the mods performance is the reason many Americans aren't interested in politics in this..

...country and it turns people off.

[patrice]

3. Obama helped himself with the distraction message. Also I think superdelegates

saw/heard more of what was going on than the rest of us and Obama did well under pressure.

[RiverStone]

4. Relax, the people have already decided

On who won tonight:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5540760

Also see MSNBC link in above thread.

Don't listen to the pundits. Yea, ABC's "debate" was ridiculous - but the people already see through it. Obama still wins by a 3 to 1 margin. :)

[MadBadger]

5. There is already a huge online backlash.

[DJ13]

6. What did Rendell say?

[thewiseguy]

8. He was disappointed with the questions asked

[backscatter712]

7. Fuck, yeah!

Start broadcasting the truth all over the Internet.

The old media ways are dying - they keep getting pwned by ordinary folks blogging.

ABC will pay for this stunt. I guarantee it.