Ohio Debate Coverage - Part 1

Health Insurance
-Clinton's coming out swinging on this one, however, her punches seems to be missing. Obama's had solid responses, some nuanced enough to probably cause confusion amongst viewers. This is probably a good thing for him
-Clinton will not let this issue go. She clearly thinks that it's her bread and butter. This is starting to get heated.

NAFTA
-Wow, Hillary's really looking erratic. She finds it suspicious that she's always asked the first question? Isn't this something that can be discussed with the moderators beforehand? She looks desperate and anxious. And she's talking forever.
-Obama is much more calm and collected. He takes minor swipes at Clinton, but it doesn't come off as vicious.
-Tim Russert points out that Clinton has indeed contradicted herself.
-Clinton says that she'll "renegotiate" NAFTA, not pull out. And she turns to attack Obama. This is the nastiest I've ever seen her. She's firm but shaky.
-Obama agrees with Clinton and says that we'll renegotiate.
-Obama is clearly looking to outline policy issues, as opposed to battling Hillary.

Jobs
-Clinton says that she'll create 5M new jobs, yet she's lost jobs as Senator of NY. She attributes this to Bush's presidency, which looks like a cop out. Her take on jobs does reveal her encyclopedic factual knowledge.
-Obama doesn't get a question. It seems that he's only asked to speak when he needs to defend himself.

Foreign Policy
-I always get a kick out of Obama's pronunciation of Pakistan.
-Clinton on the attack again. She minimizes Obama's speech against the war in 2002 saying that, "he didn't have to vote." In other words, she's admitting that politics play into her votes. Not good.
-Clinton claims that Obama threatened to bomb Pakistan. Nice, he'll get to say it again. She is dominating the conversation.
-Once again, Obama has to defend himself. Obama comes back strong on Iraq. Obama's now striking hard on her vote on Iraq. Obama defends Pakistan issue by saying that he'd go after Al Qaeda in Pakistan, not bomb the country. Very solid few minutes for Obama.

Iraq
-They agree on pulling out of Iraq. It's increasingly clear that they agree on 99/100 issues. Almost all arguments are over semantics. And here goes Hillary on the attack again regarding Obama's foreign policy experience. Hillary looks to rumble again but she's cut off.

...Commercial...

I'm now going to watch all of Part 2 without simultaneous coverage. I'll post in a bit.

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