Fifty-some minutes in, and there’s blood on the mat already. How long until Obama supporters complain that former Clinton aide George Stephanopolous is biased against their guy?
I’m loving this debate. It’s all new stuff; we haven’t heard the millionth version of, “my health care plan is universal and your plan isn’t.”
UPDATE: *sigh* Well, it couldn’t be all fun back-and-forth. Now we’re into “I’ll get the troops out of Iraq, and my opponent won’t.”
Charlie Gibson asked the crowd to not applaud, and they’ve largely complied, except for one of Obama’s comments a moment ago. It was an odd comment, I’ll have to go back and check it; it didn’t seem like a natural applause line.
Both candidates are speaking and pausing like they’re expecting applause, and they’re not getting it. One more factor that has both a little off their game tonight.
Obama says he’ll do “whatever is required” to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons… including talking to them. Touts carrots and sticks.
Obama mentions the Iranians funding Hamas as part of their bad behavior. He opened a window of opportunity for her; will she take it?
Hillary, remembering what the original question was, says that if Iran attacked Israel, it would warrant a “massive retaliatory response” from the United States. But she too wants “diplomatic contact” with Iran.
She notes that Ahmedinijad recently said that he’s not sure about 9/11, and that he’s not sure anyone actually died. She doesn’t quite slam Obama for saying he would meet with Mahmoud, but maybe it doesn’t need to be so overt.
She also blames Bush a lot, but that’s pretty much a given at a Democratic debate.