Justin Webb's America

The Baracklash

• Justin Webb
• 22 Feb 08, 10:18 PM GMT

I wonder whether most readers will find something depressing about the Baracklash (I hereby copyright this word) we see in the US and British press, with even the Germans joining in.

Gerry Baker et al make perfectly well-argued cases and it is not that I am in love with Obama (see previous entries), but consumers of journalism often complain about the see-saw effect of building up figures and then doing them down; something unconducive, they claim, to proper consideration of their underlying virtues. So, Hillary Clinton was inevitable before she was toast etc, etc...

Having said that, the effect is caused by the perfectly legitimate desire to take sceptical aim at something that is flying - and before it flies, frankly, who cares?

Meanwhile, thank goodness the children of the future - much addressed by Mitt Romney, I seem to remember - have been given a voice.

• Permalink
• Comments

On plagiarism and humanity

• Justin Webb
• 22 Feb 08, 03:25 AM GMT

Two key moments in this debate: one a win for Obama and the other for Clinton. On the plagiarism line (did he steal lines from Governor Deval Patrick) he sent her packing: "The notion that I plagiarised from one of my national co-chairs who gave me the line and I used it, is silly." Her line - "Change you can Xerox" - sounded cheap. It would have worked well in the old style British House of Commons when everyone had had a couple of stiff drinks, but bombed in Austin. I saw Jeff Toobin of CNN say she appeared to regret the line even as she made it and surely he was right.

But she ended strongly: a story about seeing people who had truly suffered and a moral about how nothing she has suffered in politics could compare turned into a rather moving little acknowledgement of how well off she was and he was as well. In a sense, the words did not matter - it was the humanity that counted. I am honoured to be here with Barack Obama, she said, and she appeared to mean it. "We will both be all right," and, she added: "I just hope we will be able to say the same about the American people." It was not an attack; it was much more effective - it was an effort to give pause, to provoke thought, to slow the rush to Obama and turn it around.

Having said that, I remember reporting after the first debate, back in whenever it was, that Mrs Clinton walked it, head and shoulders above the others.

For a detailed take see the Associated Press.

And for an odd little side-effect of the Obama surge I liked this.

I have just had an email from the Obama camp claiming - in effect - that that Hillary strong ending was itself plagiarised from John Edwards! Did she ask his permission?

UPDATE: I liked this piece - written before the debate but even more relevant after it, particularly the last line.

• Permalink
• Comments