Final Debate: Same Old, Same Old

Last night’s debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was the third and final one on one debate and her last chance to state her case. After watching this race closely it boggles my mind that despite having Bill Clinton and an army of high paid consultants on her side Senator Clinton has been unable to come up with a winning strategy.

Firstly, there was no substantial difference in her approach last night. Secondly, Senator Clinton seems to take a stay the course strategy, quite surprisingly. Senator Obama on the other hand seems to be growing in strength and stature with each debate.

Why Bicker over Health Care

Most voters are not aware of the details and in most cases aren’t even interested in them. So to bicker over whose plan covers what is a meaningless argument. It is completely ridiculous for Senator Clinton to continue to focus on this when there are plenty of experts to beat the details to death and argue over them. At last night’s debate she continued making a huge deal about the differences in the health care plans.

Why Claim to be the Candidate of “Change”

The concept of “change” has been completely co-opted by Obama and co. There is absolutely no point in fighting over the fact that she can bring about better change without a convincing rational. Thankfully, she mentioned it only in passing.

35+ Years of Experience

The focus here appears to have been more on her experience and less on Senator Obama’s lack thereof, with the result that the 35 years has become an issue of debate in itself! Unfortunately, this is probably Senator Obama’s only weakness at this stage of the race. However, he does a fine job of covering for it by legitimately claiming to have good judgment (war in Iraq being an example).

Attacking Senator Obama’s lack of experience does create a tricky situation. She could be jeopardizing her parties’ candidate by driving home this point, where he to become the ultimate nominee. At last night’s debate she chose not to attack him openly for lack of experience instead highlighted hers. She deserves credit for taking the high road here, but the truth is that she can’t hope to win the nomination without taking this issue head-on.

Cribbing Doesn’t Help

Senator Clinton raised the issue last night that the press was giving Senator Obama a free ride (a fairly valid claim. Putin’s hand-picked successor question being an example). “Cribbing” of this nature is best left to surrogates and smacks of desperation when coming from the candidate herself. Again, a a failure of her strategy team.

Please, No More Debates!

Lastly, these debates should stop. Hopefully there are no more. Senator Clinton has no new strategy in place, making these debates dull and boring to say the least. It gives the voters no new insights and is a complete waste of air time.