Philadelphia won’t be the City of Brotherly Love tomorrow night when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama debate for the first time in seven weeks. That last debate was a long time ago, some seven weeks, before Jeremiah Wright and before Obama called small town folk “bitter.”
This scenario holds a frightening prospect for Obama who is the favorite for the nomination but hasn’t put it away yet. Typically front-runners want to run out the clock. Plus, the debate will be televised on network television, which will lead to higher ratings than events on cable. “This debate could garner the most viewers of any of the debates — there have been more than 20 during the past year — according to a Northeastern University associate professor and expert on presidential debates, Alan Schroeder. Unlike most debates in this interminable election, which have been relegated to the backwaters of cable, tomorrow night’s discussion will be on network television, ABC, during prime time.”
Read my New York Sun column here.
Tags: ABC, Barack Obama, Debate, Democratic, Hillary Clinton
April 16, 2008 at 1:43 am
Preview of Wed night’s debate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C50gj5CDrU