First Door on the Left

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are debating right now in Ohio. I have it streaming live on MSNBC.com.

Senator Clinton did not do herself any favors right out of the gate…

The first 16 minutes were spent on health care. We’ve moved on to NAFTA.

So far, I think I’d have to give the advantage to Senator Obama. He’s playing the role of front-runner and it suits him well. Senator Clinton appears to know that this is likely her last chance. Her desperation is showing. She’s definitely showing her argumentative side. This is not the “nice” Hillary Clinton we saw in Austin last Thursday evening.

Tim Russert is boring.

Commercial break. We’ve been debating Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan (Pahkeestahn?) for the past several minutes. I still don’t understand why Mrs. Clinton just cannot admit that she made a mistake when she voted to give George W. Bush the authority to use military force in Iraq. If she sincerely believes that it was not a mistake, then I agree with Mr. Obama that she does not have the judgment needed to be president.

Obama is now talking about public financing. He will, if he is the nominee, sit down with Senator McCain and be sure that we have a system that is fair for both sides. Why? An equal playing field has never been a priority of the Republican party. I fail to understand how the failure of the Republican party to adequately fund their nominee should be a problem for the Democrats. They have never voluntarily forfeited an advantage. Nor should we.

Please, Senator Obama, the response is “Tim, we are not having this election to select a Pastor in Chief. We are looking for a President and a Commander in Chief.”

Another commercial. Please, somebody, find some way to get religion out of politics and politics out of religion. They do not belong in the same bed.

It’s over. I don’t think Hillary Clinton delivered the knock-out blow that she needed to deliver tonight. She definitely calmed herself down during the second half, but for the first half of this debate she came off too much as the (please pardon the expression) Wicked Witch of the West. Senator Obama was able to effectively parry every punch she threw. In his summation, he stated that he believes he is the better candidate to unite the country. I don’t think there is much argument on that point.

As for the debate itself, the questions were stupid and the moderators (particularly Tim Russert) boring and ineffective.

I hope this was it. I hope it’s over. We’ve had twenty debates now. That’s enough.

An interesting outlook from The Houston Chronicle…

In Democratic primary, expect a GOP turnout

BASTROP — At John’s barber and styling shop in the historic downtown of this conservative community southeast of Austin, politics is clearly in the air these days.

What has particularly struck stylist Pete Campos is how many of his Republican customers are talking about voting for Barack Obama in the March 4 Democratic presidential primary, motivated more, he surmised, by a strong dislike of Hillary Clinton than a strong attachment to Obama.

“I think Hillary scares some people,” said Campos, an independent who is leaning toward voting for the Illinois senator.

According to polling, as well as anecdotal evidence, an unusually large number of Republicans and independents may cast their votes in the Democratic contest next week, a prospect that could tip the outcome of what polls show is now a tight race. Such defections could also affect the many local and state legislative primaries around the state.[..]

Daron Shaw, a political science professor at University of Texas, said surveys he conducted in two state legislative districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area revealed that almost a quarter of voters with a history of voting in GOP primaries planned on participating in the Democratic primary.

Shaw, who conducts exit polls for Fox News, said that while some Republicans are voting in the Democratic primary largely for strategic reasons, he said others may be tired of GOP control of government and are drawn to a fresh face and ideas.

Another factor contributing to the crossover voting is a lackluster GOP presidential contest. Front-runner John McCain is expected to win the nomination, no matter how well rivals Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul do in the Lone Star State.

With the Arizona senator in command of the GOP race, some Republicans are motivated to cast a protest vote against Clinton.[..]

Even though polls show that Clinton would be a weaker candidate against McCain than would Obama, experts say Republicans, who have long expressed a visceral distaste for Bill and Hillary Clinton, want to prevent her from being on the ballot in November.

“The argument I’ve seen is, ‘Let’s get rid of Clinton once and for all,’ ” said Ralph Bordie, who conducts the IVR Poll in Texas.

Bordie’s latest statewide poll released last week found that 15 percent of Texas Republicans who said they will support the GOP nominee in November plan nonetheless on voting for Obama next week.

Debi McLoughlin, a 52-year-old Department of Public Safety worker who was waiting while her daughter had her hair cut, said she usually supports Republicans. But she is likely to declare herself a Democrat so she can choose Obama.

“A vote for Obama is a vote against Hillary,” said McLoughlin. She may also vote for Obama again in the general election because she thinks the 71-year-old McCain is too old.

It is no secret that conservatives despise Bill and Hillary Clinton. It would not surprise me to learn that a lot of Republicans in Texas are voting for Senator Obama in the Democratic primary with the goal of ensuring Senator Clinton’s defeat.

As of close of business yesterday, 131,876 voters in Texas had voted early in the Republican primary. 419,192 voters had voted early in the Democratic primary. That is quite a disparity in this supposedly “red” state. (source)

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain held a rally in Cincinnati, Ohio this morning. His campaign enlisted the services of local radio personality Bill Cunningham to “warm up” the crowd. Here is part of what Mr. Cunningham had to say, followed by Mr. McCain’s apology (click the play button)…

Something tells me that Bill Cunningham will not be invited to many more McCain campaign rallies.

(More here and here.)

P.S. This has absolutely nothing to do with anything, but did you know that Senator McCain’s full name is John Sidney McCain III? I am sure he didn’t choose the name Sidney any more than Senator Obama chose the name Hussein. (Hussein, by the way, was Barack Obama’s father’s middle name.)