Presidential
This morning, I watched the CNN/Sojourners forum on faith and politics featuring John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. That kind of thing is not my cup of tea, but it was interesting. I think, a little to my surprise, that Hillary Clinton did really well in this venue. John Edwards was as at home in this kind of environment as Bill Clinton would have been. Talking about faith and its role in his life comes easy to him. Barack Obama came off as stiff and too cerebral. I don’t mean too thoughtful. Clinton and Edwards were both thoughtful in their responses. Obama had moments where it was easy for him to talk about that, but a lot of the time it seemed as if he didn’t really know what he thought about things and was trying to come up with the right answer.
I also watched the Republican debate from New Hampshire tonight. John McCain gave his best performance to date. I think he had the elusive quality of seeming presidential for the first time in this campaign. Some of that comes from the fact that he doesn’t seem to be pandering as hard to the primary voters. Mitt Romney continues to be the most impressive candidate on their side. I don’t agree with him on anything that I can think of, but he really comes off as smart and well polished. I need to find some polling data on how he’s doing in the south. I’m having a hard time believing he’ll do well in South Carolina, but if he does well enough in Iowa and New Hampshire, it won’t matter. The primary calendar is so accelerated this time that one slip in South Carolina may not hurt him. Mike Huckabee also continues to do damn well in the debate format. If presidential candidates came into the race without already having been handicapped by the media, Huckabee would be a top tier candidate and Rudy Giuliani wouldn’t be.
