Garling Gauge

Clinton Vs. Obama: Ohio Democratic Debate Firsts 2/26/08

If Clinton wants to win she needs to be B-L-U-N-T

And so it’s come to this. With everyone but Hillary Clinton’s mother conceding that Barack Obama is going to be the Democratic presidential nominee, Clinton appears to have one final Hail Mary in her play book. Tonight is her last shot to convince the American electorate that she would not only be a better president, Command in Chief, and challenger to Senator John McCain, but also more enticing than the charismatic Obama.

If Clinton wants to make some headway, she needs to be extremely blunt. She needs to lay out all the reasons why she is the stronger candidate, including her perceived weaknesses, why those are erroneous, and emphasize Obama’s weaknesses in the general election.

In addition, now is her time to make a huge play, if she plans on making one at all. If Clinton wants to change the debate, she should commit tonight, during the debate, to ask Obama to be her Vice President as a way to unify the party. If she doesn’t make a dramatic leap and shake up the conversation, it’s likely she isn’t going anywhere.

So who will end up first? Let’s find out with more debate firsts!

Debate Firsts

First candidate on stage: Senator Hillary Clinton
First word of the debate: “Good”
First question goes to: Clinton
First website mentioned: Drudge Report
First attack by Clinton on Obama: Misinformation
First attack by Obama on Clinton: Her health care plan is mandatory
First candidate to interrupt the moderator: Clinton
First candidate to mention the upcoming primary states: Obama
First to say the insurance companies would be happy to have a health care mandate: Obama
First candidate to interrupt the moderator after Clinton: Clinton
First candidate to interrupt the other candidate: Obama
First candidate to address the other candidate by their first name: Obama
First candidate to interrupt the moderator after Clinton interrupted the moderators twice in a row: Clinton
First person to get a chuckle from the audience: Moderator Brian Williams
First person to suggest it is ‘curious’ that she repeatedly gets the first question at the debates: Clinton
First person to mention Saturday Night Live: Clinton
First person to suggest Obama might want another pillow: Clinton
First to get booed: Clinton
First to mention steel workers: Obama
First candidate to suggest the other candidate has shifted positions: Obama
First candidate to count on his fingers: Obama
First candidate to say moderator Tim Russert doesn’t have her full record: Clinton (um, Tim usually knows his stuff)
First to say the other candidate’s answer is ‘just right’: Obama on Clinton’s take on NAFTA
First to say ‘ameliorate’: Clinton
First to say America doesn’t need a moat: Obama
First to say ‘as President of the United States’: Obama
First to say ‘flames’: Obama
First to mention al-Qaeda: Obama
First to mention Republican front runner, Senator John McCain: Obama
First obvious issue to attack Obama that Clinton doesn’t milk for all its worth: Obama as Command in Chief
First to hold his hands like he’s praying: Obama
First to say “if he is, as he appears to be, the nominee”: Clinton’s valedictory?
First to make me giggle each time he says ‘Pakistan’ because he pronounces it funny: Obama (listen to an alternative pronunciation here)
First candidate to interrupt the moderator after Clinton interrupted the moderators three times in a row: Clinton
First candidate to obviously be interrupted more than the other: Clinton (sexism?)
First to suggest Obama hasn’t held oversight hearings as he should have: Clinton
First to mention snowstorms: Williams
Break

First to say that Clinton’s mocking words of Obama’s rhetoric in the following video “sounds good”: Obama

http://garlinggauge.com/videos/hillarymock.flv

Clinton says ’she was having fun’ during this moment on the campaign trail

First to say she’s a fighter: Clinton
First to list cities in Ohio: Clinton
First to say some citizens are invisible: Clinton (link to her video about this subject)
First to say that hope is not enough: Obama
First to mention ‘magic wands’: Obama
First to ask Obama why he won’t keep his word on public financing: Russert
First to say his average campaign donation is $109: Obama
First to mention her own campaign website: Clinton
First to say she hardly has time to sleep: Clinton
First to say “I can’t say to someone that they can’t think that I’m a good guy”: Obama on Farrakhan’s endorsement
First to mention Hell: Russert
First to say he is a friend of the Jewish community: Obama
First to mention Martin Luther King Jr.: Obama
First to get an applause for ‘rejecting and denouncing’ Farrakhan’s when pressed: Obama
Break

First to stutter: Williams
First to mention pudding: Obama
First to suggest the Bush administration has an ‘incoherent policy toward Russia’: Clinton
First to say the ‘Clinton administration deserves a lot of credit’ in its policies towards Kosovo: Obama
First to say this election should be about the future: Clinton
First to mention Darfur: Clinton
Clinton’s first admitted mistake: She would like to take her vote back on supporting the Iraq war
Obama’s first admitted mistake: He should have stood up against Congress against interfering in the Terri Schiavo case
First to say he is proud to be in a campaign with Clinton: Obama
First to say Clinton would be a better president than John McCain: Obama
First to say she would do everything she can to win: Clinton
First to say she is running to be the first woman president: Obama (…okay, just kidding)
First to make a baseball reference: Clinton
End debate
First to stand after the debate: Obama
Post Debate - First to compare Clinton to a marlin: Chris Matthews