S&S

Style and Substance.

I'm trying to take a positive view of last nights meeting between Clinton and Obama, but I'm having a bit of a hard time doing it.

What appears to have happened is two parallel performances: a focused and confident Clinton doing very well against a defensive and weak Obama, with audiences complaining afterward that little attention had been paid to substantial issues on the part of the two program hosts. All the sides involved in the performance were outshone by those watching -- Clinton, for pandering and playing old-style politics; Obama, for failing to grasp how effective such pandering can be, and not pushing the conversation to substantial issues; and the moderators, for choosing to focus on fluff rather than substance.

From the Washington Post blog:

*The choice between the candidates crystallized tonight. It is not, fundamentally, a choice about issues or even ideology -- it is a choice about approach. Obama is an idealist, using nearly every question to appeal to the better angels in people; Obama sees the world as he wants it to be and believes he can make it. Clinton, on the other hand, is an unapologetic pragmatist; she has been through the wringer that is national politics before and knows how to play the game."

Clearly, Clinton wins this round. Don't much like saying that.