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• Thursday, January 31, 2008 11:05 PM

  Obama clearly came out on top

  Obama held forth with confidence, and he used far fewer words to get there. Hillary, by contrast, spent more time speaking, almost as if to command more attention by virtue of the fact that there were no rules. On many occasions it seemed she was just rambling along waiting for an applause line to pop out of her mouth, or trying to wear down the audience to prevent them from asking future difficult question (such as, "Why did you vote to authorize the war in Iraq?").

  Hillary could not satisfactorily answer that question. She danced around it, over it, beside it, based Bush, etc. She never really answered the question. Obama saw an opening and said something akin to, "You can have a president who has a lot of experience on day one, but what you really need is a president who is right from day one." This was one of Obama's biggest lines of the evening -- yet the article failed to mention it.

  Obama sat silently for much of the debate, holding his head up, scribbling in his notepad, and letting Hillary have center stage. But as soon as she wound down, he held up one finger, got his words in, and made a solid point about whatever the issue was. He came out on top of every exchange. Hillary was spinning her wheels, and Hillary was lawyering bigtime. Hillary actually used the term, "at the end of the day," a pet peeve of mine, and used several other laywer turns of phrase. She speaks confidently, but her words are pandering, aimed toward what she thinks an audience want to hear. Obama's words are aimed toward what his principles are, and he keeps his principles high.

  I am not an Obama-ite, I am a keen observer. I didn't always dig Obama -- he has earned my respect. I am convinced he is the best candidate by far. I know this is sappy, but Obama's performance during the debates has at time brought a tear to my eye. Obama has a natural political gift that has real magic to it. Hillary is a life-long student of that gift who, while incredibly smart and skillful, has never really nailed it.

  Hillary Clinton is the Salieri to Obama's Mozart. If Hillary wins this race it will be all of our loss.

  —Xrandadu Hutman Read Xrandadu Hutman's other letters
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