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Here are my thoughts on YearlyKos and the presidential festivities.
Most of these thoughts are about Hillary, but I'll start with a more general observation: I thought that being in front of this audience made Edwards, Dodd, and Richardson come alive in a way that I haven't seen yet in the debates/forums. My view is that Richardson, while doing many other things well in the campaign so far, has really sucked in the debates up until Saturday. Dodd and Edwards have been better, Edwards even having some good individual moments of challenge to the two frontrunners, but have been pretty dull overall. All 3 of them, though, seemed to be really relaxed and energetic. They all built off the crowd's energy, and did a good job in pushing their message in a way that got a great response.
Because the YK audience was so passionate, engaged and well-informed, it really gave those candidates a chance to let their hair down and show off their stuff. With the frontrunners, things were decidedly more mixed. Oddly enough, I have almost no memory of what Barack said during the forum. He had pretty much the same demeanor, rhetorical style and language that he has had at every other debate, so he didn't stand out at all to me. I guess he wins points on consistency, but I think he was too careful, and lost a chance to connect and bond with the audience emotionally.
There's been a lot of talk about Hillary since Saturday including Matt's recent post here. I like Hillary better than Matt does, as has been discussed on OpenLeft.com before, but I think Matt's political analysis is right: I think she did hurt herself politically with the lobbyist answer, and Edwards and Obama will, if they are smart, use that against her from here on out.
Here's my view of her at YK, and it's mixed: I thought her education answer was way too long, and I think she seized on a safe question because she was very nervous about the crowd and what kinds of questions she would get. It was a mistake. I think the "ask Al Gore about media consolidation thing" wasn't great either, although she said some good things about needing more competition in the media space, and about net neutrality. But overall, not a good answer. She answered the FISA question in a solid, straightforward way, and she was honest and direct to the 5-part question. Some of what she said I agreed with and some I didn't, but she gets points with me for straight answers. The education answer was the only one where she went on for 10 minutes.
In the debate, I thought she froze on the lobbyist money question, and gave a completely defensive answer, and I wish she had been more honest about it. For her sake, I wish she had pushed back instead of being defensive, something to the effect of: "You know what, I am influenced by the people who give me money, just like every politician is. That's why I'll make public financing a priority. And I take money from lobbyists in D.C.- both from corporate lobbyists and from lobbyists representing unions and other progressive causes. But I would argue that if a business executive raises $250,000 for John or Barack, that business executive will have a lot of influence over them, too, and the fact that they're not a registered lobbyist in D.C. doesn't make their influence any less, so let's cut the crap and work together for public financing." An answer like that would have been pretty cool, but we didn't get it, and her defensiveness didn't help her.
I think politicians should always get some credit for engaging with audiences they know will be tough on them, and I was glad she came. If she hadn't come, most progressive bloggers would have attacked her hard for that, but many folks are attacking her hard anyway, so she still gets points from me for doing the right thing and showing up. The people who don't like Hillary still don't like her, but her outreach and engagement should be applauded.
It was a fun afternoon, and I think we have a lively race on our hands, one that the progressive movement is clearly making a difference on. The dynamic from here will be fascinating.
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