I'm not really ready to get behind any of the Democratic candidates. I see a few good things from most of them, and all of them have the advantage of not being GWB or any of the other GOP candidates.
From what I saw of the last debate, Hillary won it. But not on substance. She won it on framing. Barack did a good job too, and got a lot of face time, but he was following a script. I think it is a good lesson for the other candidates on why Hillary is so effective a politician. On the other hand, I find it disturbing for several reasons.
Let me explain in more detail.
While John Edwards and Barack Obama came out swinging, they didn't manage to connect with the audience the way that Hillary did. The reason she was able to do that was the way that she framed everything she talked about. She didn't let herself get pinned down on details by others. What the others ended up talking about were meta-details of what she did and did not talk about. And when she did go into details about her ideas, it was on her terms, not in response to others.
This was also good for her in that even when she wasn't talking, other were talking about her. The old advertising adage about there being no such thing as bad press come to mind. People weren't comparing details about Dodd's Healthcare plan, whether they liked it or not.
So, here are the things I find disturbing about all of this. In all the meta-discussion whether or not Hillary answered the question about illegal immigrant drivers licenses or healthcare or getting out of Iraq, the actual discussion of the issues was pretty well passed over. I would prefer real debate of the real issues, without this kind of side-stepping. We need real openness in government, and this kind of framing is too much like what Karl Rove did for years. We don't needs that. It makes it harder for the Democratic candidates to show how they are different from the GOP candidates. And given the recent polls showing how low approval is for Congress, I think the Democrats really need to do a better job there.
The other issue with the framing I saw is that Hillary at one point talked about her Senate term in the past tense. I wish I had the transcripts so I could find it. She was talking about it if she was already done with her Senate term and ready to write a memoir. It is as if she thinks she has this election wrapped up already. It is an effective framing technic, and subtly puts the others on the defensive.
She needs to remember that the election isn't for almost a year and a lot can happen. And most important, if she is elected, she will work for us. All of us. That is the framing that we need to work to set for this election.