LCG Election Monitor Blog

Hillary Clinton lost last night’s debate (and perhaps the nomination).  That much was clear when, 25 minutes into the debate, she passed on a golden opportunity to differentiate herself from Obama on the economy.  If there are no qualitative, issue-based differences between the two candidates (and perhaps there aren’t) then this becomes purely a personality campaign.  And as our post yesterday noted she has already lost that contest.  A few things to note:

1. The polls in both Texas and Ohio appear to be closing.  In Ohio, Hillary has a 6-8 point lead (it was 10-15 points last week) and Texas is now too close to call. 
2. Obama is not a terrific debater.  Sure, he has some good moments but at other times he’s fairly stiff.  He is far better at delivering speeches.
3. Last night reinforced something that’s been obvious for much of this campaign…Clinton is not effective in attack mode.  It hasn’t worked in her paid advertising and it didn’t work in the debates.  She was grasping at straws with weak comparatives in  her ads and in the debates she’s just come off as shrill.

Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic Primary, Hillary Clinton, New Polling Data //