by WonkoSteve

So who lost the Demo debate last night? Some say it was CNN. The Wonkosphere thinks they morphed it into a football game, and snuck extra players onto the field.

The football analogy is pretty hard to resist. Or maybe a WWF match is better. Or a mix of the two? I’m attending a conference in Chicago, and thanks to the latest innovation in elevator-tainment I saw snippets of the CNN pre-game hype throughout the day. “Democratic Smackdown in Vegas” blared the frame graphic at the bottom of the screen. “Can Hillary make a comeback?” Or will she fall victim to sleeper-hold-play administered by the Buster Barack and Evil Edwards tag team?

Horseface over at the Campaign Spot thought the setup was kind of over-the-top:

Each candidate gets their own separate introduction and entrance to the stage. This is good, this will eat up several minutes of time instead of answering questions for this two-hour marathon.

…especially the pre-game coverage, leading him to assess a delay-of-game penalty on CNN:

Interesting - they go to Gloria Borger and John King to give analysis before they begin. Odd. Those who tuned in exactly at 8 p.m. probably are wondering why the pre-game show is still going on. Delayed start, once everybody at CNN is allowed to do their introductions. Blitzer promises fewer bells and buzzers. Campbell Brown asks the first question at 8:09 by my watch.

Cut to Guido over at the Caesar’s sports book. The line is Omaba by five. But wait–Barack can’t hear the count because of the rowdy Hillary fans. This could be a game-changer.

The refs were bought-off too, rants the Political Animal. Scarecrow concurs:

From the opening question, it seemed CNN had planned the evening as an opportunity to take down Hillary Clinton, with anti-Clinton talking points assumed as proven facts and then embedded in questions. Campbell Brown opened by asking Clinton why she “stumbled” so badly in the last debate, and that was followed by a question to Obama that was premised on why Clinton is so triangulating. Then we had questions on the Bill’s “boys” and the “gender card” and the obligatory Lou Dobbs demogoguery on drivers’ licenses for immigrants. That was followed by John Roberts, whose questions — “what about the awful teachers’ unions?” and “Isn’t Petraeus swell?” — illustrated why he’s known as a blatant Republican shill. Was that really “the best team on television?”

Even the color-man was in on it, says Miss Laura over at the DKos

Carville is surprised that the “fireworks” were in the first 12 minutes. (MAYBE IT’S BECAUSE THE EARLY QUESTIONS WERE DESIGNED TO INVITE ATTACKS, JACKASS.)

But Hillary avoided the sack, and executed a coordinated passing and rushing attack that the defense was helpless to stop. Don’t go away. Well be right back after this word from Levitra…

…OK sports fans, that’s all from Fabulous Las Vegas! Don’t forget to tune in December 10th for our matchup in sunny Southern California when Obama and Edwards slug it out in the City of Angels for a wild-card slot.

UPDATE:  Check this thread on Marc Ambinder.  365 comments and counting.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 16th, 2007 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Media, Debates, Horse race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.