Why Hillary Clinton Was the Winner of the Democratic Debate
by Arianna Huffington for The Huffington Post
Last night on CNN, I said that Hillary Clinton was the winner of the Democratic debate.
This morning, during a Creative Coalition-sponsored panel at the Radisson Hotel in New Hampshire, Lawrence O'Donnell, who was moderating, asked me if, after a good night's sleep, I wanted to "revise and extend" my remarks.
No, I don't want to revise my remarks. I want to extend them.
Hillary Clinton won because she arrived at the debate as the front-runner -- with a widening lead in national polls -- and left the debate with her position solidified. Her success was due in part to what she did during the debate, and in part to what Barack Obama failed to do.
She came across as more comfortable in her own skin, and more natural and less programmed than in the past. And she exhibited an effortless charm that those close to her often rave about but that the public rarely sees. She even scored two of the biggest laughs of the night with her zinger about Dick Cheney's diplomatic skills, and her use of Barry Goldwater's "shoot straight" line about gays in the military.
She was particularly effective in achieving her campaign's foremost objective: blurring the differences between her and her opponents on Iraq. "The differences among us are minor," she said of her fellow candidates. "The differences between us and the Republicans are major. And I don't want anybody in America to be confused."
This successful blurring of differences was made possible by Obama's failure to challenge Clinton's statements about the war -- something that he could have easily done since the contradictions in her positions were front and center in the news yesterday, in a cover story in the New York Times Magazine. He could have raised substantive points, undermining her claims without in any way tarnishing his "new kind of politics" patina.
For instance, he could have questioned Hillary's claim that when she voted to authorize the war, she was actually voting to strengthen Bush's hand so he could pursue diplomacy, by pointing out that she had voted against an amendment put forth by Carl Levin that would have required Bush to exhaust all diplomatic approaches before invading Iraq. And he could have pressed the question of why Clinton had voted to authorize the war without reading the full National Intelligence Estimate. Doing so would have been no different in tone than his counterpunch comment that John Edwards had been "four and a half years late on leadership" on Iraq -- which was Obama's debate high point...[READ MORE]
Did you catch the debates? Are you in line with Arianna on this topic? Let us know your thoughts.
MUSIC
Cool new iPod ad featuring Mi Swing Es Tropical by Nickodemus & Quantic featuring Tempo. Makes me want a margarita.
Featured Artist: Shapes and Sizes
As I've mentioned, probably ad nauseam, I'll be heading down to Madison this weekend to catch The National with Shapes and Sizes and Talkdemonic at the High Noon Saloon. Since I don't know much about Shapes and Sizes or Talkdemonic, I figured this was as good of time as any to learn.
First up: Shapes and Sizes. According to their website,
Shapes and Sizes inhabit a world in which humanity is stratified into three possible classifications; kindergarteners who don’t wear brand names, Dads who look like wild, forest dwelling warlocks, and undergrads who sometimes laugh aloud when alone in the school computer lab. If you don’t fit into one of these categories, we’re willing to bet you’re lying.
Few people live and breathe categorization, save for biologists and librarians, but it is essential to our understanding of the world. For instance, gypsy moths belong to order Lepidoptera, and orca whales belong to phylum Mammalia. On the shelf, Stephen King should come after Kafka, provided he hasn’t already been thrown in the free bin. In their day-to-day life, Shapes and Sizes enjoy order, neatness, and organization as much as any celibate dormouse librarian. Caila sings and keyboards and her closet is arranged according to season, with hand embroidered labels indicating name and phone number should any article of clothing temporarily disappear. Rory sings, guitars, and washes his hair on Tuesdays and Saturdays. He knows that if he does not maintain a rigorous personal hygiene schedule his art will suffer. John drums and, just as his rhythm is something to be counted on, so are his homemade chocolate chip cookies, which contain precisely nineteen semi-sweet morsels apiece. This ensures that there is no single superior or inferior baked good. Nathan sings and basses and in his kitchen (which he shares with Caila), inside his frigid fridge’s produce compartments, he has trained the fruit not to mix with the vegetables, for it might cause unnecessary confusion...[READ MORE]
Shapes and Sizes - Island's Gone Bad
Shapes and Sizes - "Wilderness"
Shapes and Sizes - "Alone/Alive"
Shapes and Sizes - "Head Movin?"
We'll preview the other band on the docket, Talkdemonic, in the next post.
Featured Artist: Grace Potter and The Nocturnals
Potter and the Nocturnals grew from the roots of rock & roll in what some might call the old-fashioned way; For the first two years, Potter and the band teamed up with friends to run their “Ragged Company” label from her dad’s old sign shop, handling everything from CD graphics to booking the tours. In 2005 they joined forces with indie911 founder Justin Goldberg after reading his music industry book suggesting new artists should tour instead of look for record deals. The group turned down their first label offer and chose instead to sign on with booking agent Hank Sacks, now with Monterey Peninsula Artists, and began playing a countless number of music festivals and opening slots until gradually building great word of mouth.
Their sound? They’re a neoclassic rock & roll band possessing bona fide chops, a natural sense of dynamics and a palate containing all the useful colors, and these qualities allow them to stretch out onstage, to riveting effect. Perhaps their greatest asset is the ability to transcend genres, never content to settle into one predefined sound. GPN were once the up-and-coming darlings of the modern jazz and blues scene, receiving incessant comparisons to Norah Jones and Lucinda Williams. Yet their magnetic live shows and dedication to the road earned the band a warm welcoming from the jam-band community, leading to two nominations at the 2006 Jammy’s. At the same time, This is Somewhere is a testament to the band’s true roots – pure rock music. The influence of predecessors The Band, The Rolling Stones, and Little Feat is clear. Still, GPN’s raw passion and uncompromising politics more directly evoke the memory of the great Neil Young & Crazy Horse, whose Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere served as one of the inspirations for the album title...[READ MORE]
Potter, who channels the deep soul-full bluesy tones of Lucinda Williams, Bonnie Riatt, is pure pleasure - the vocal image of a Friday night blues rock concert down at the lake waterfront.
Grace Potter and The Nocturnals will be dropping by The University of Wisconsin on June 14th for a free show. Or if you'd prefer, you can head down to Milwaukee to catch them at Shank Hall the next night.
Grace Potter at the Boston Music Awards
Grace Potter Website
FORD PIER GOES "ORGAN FARMING"
Ford Pier has been busy busting down doors at recording studios across the country. Between shows with the Rheostatics, including their last waltz at Massey Hall, the scissor-kicking, contralto-singing Ford has managed to record not one - but two albums. He brings out his new set of tunes in full-fledged-farming-fashion for his six song EP, "Organ Farming", ready for release next week.
Organ Farming is the first of a one-two punch in the Ford Pier catalog, as he is poised to release his full length follow up this fall. Meanwhile, the EP boasts a mini petri-dish of blazing horns, punk-thrash beats, pop melodies, classical training filtered through intelli-rock lyrics that makes one potent shake of loud, meaty, satisfying songs.
While Ford plays most everything on the album himself, members of the Ron Sexsmith Band, Fembots and the Weakerthans fill in the gaps. Recorded from October 2006 to April 2007 at The Gas Station, XM Radio, Rogue Studios, and Shoeboxoffice Poison by Don Kerr, Steve Major, Jameson Elliott, and Michael Phillip Wojewoda.
Six Shooter proudly releases 'Organ Farming' June 5, 2007.
Ford Pier - "Angels on Horseback"