In debates, I find Hillary plays it like she's in the interview portion of the Miss America Pageant. She speaks in this job interview style that sounds very canned/inauthentic. Barack is more natural, and I'd like to see him take advantage of this by going meta or keeping it real when Hillary launches one of her so-obviously-prepared attack lines:
More after the jump....
One attack line from last night's debate that stands out to me is the following:
"There are differences between our records and our accomplishments. I have to confess, I was somewhat amused, the other night, when, on one of the TV shows, one of Senator Obama's supporters was asked to name one accomplishment of Senator Obama, and he couldn't."
Does this even sound natural? Did she really "have to confess" right there? Was she really "somewhat amused" by that incident. No doubt the disciplined Senator from New York practiced that line over and over in her debate prep; it shows.
Here's what I think would be a very effective response:
Just now Senator Clinton alluded to an interview one of my supporters had on one of the political programs the other night. For those of you who are not political junkies, what happened is this. Kirk Watson, former mayor of this very city, became flustered on national TV when asked a quiz show like question, "quick! name one of Barack Obama's legislative accomplishments." The question was out of the blue and atypical for that format.
But what I find more interesting than my supporter's nervousness and brain freeze is Senator Clinton's decision to bring it up here, during this debate. Given that we have cosponsored X bills together, that I have passed Y number of laws, authored Z amendments,and that I have 15 years of elective legislative experience, I'm fairly certain she knows I have legislative accomplishments. And so, you have to ask yourself, why mention it at all? I can't help but conclude that she is attempting to lift herself up by diminishing my accomplishments. But I don't think those kinds of political games lift anyone up, and I think the American people want better than that from their politics." For those honestly interested about my experience and record, please do visit <url>.
I'm not a writer, obviously, and the same thing could be said perhaps more eloquently and/or succinctly. Nonetheless, I think it really torpedoes her weak attempt to add to the "empty suit" meme her campaign and supporters are pushing so hard.