Obama and Clinton inspire

The Democratic Presidential candidates have had an interesting first televisual outing. Obama and Clinton did well as the expense of Edwards, the reports say.

Christopher Dodd has an interesting graphic on his web site, which shows who talked for how long during the debate. He calls it the Talk Clock. Obama was ahead in the talk stakes at 16 minutes, closely followed by Clinton on 14 minutes and 26 seconds.

Barack Obama has written an inspirational piece in the Foreign Affairs magazine, printed today in the Guardian, entitled: "The best chance for Iraq is to bring American troops home".

Hillary gets thumbs-down from left blogsophere

The Politico reports that Hillary Clinton is getting her frostiest reception from left-wing bloggers:

As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, her biggest opposition may not come from primary rivals or Republican challengers, but rather from the leftist blog community that often views her as a political punching bag.

Instead of being embraced by liberal blogs as the first serious woman presidential contender, Clinton has been labeled an ‘opportunist,’ the candidate more interested in getting elected than in standing on principle.

Hillary borrows the John Kerry Joke book

In Iowa, Hillary Clinton tried to make a joke about her experience in dealing with 'evil and bad men' which would help her as president.

She seems to be learning comedic skills from John Kerry.

Oh dear.

Has Hillary Clinton lost it?

Roger Simon at Politico reports that Hillary Clinton ducked a question about Iraq at an Iowa face-to-face meeting with voters. She didn't mention Iraq once, but mentioned ethanol twice:

In her first face-to-face meeting with voters since announcing for president, Hillary Clinton was asked about Iraq and ducked the question. A man, who identified himself as a Gulf War vet, asked the New York senator at a town meeting in a high school gym here Saturday if the surge of new troops to Iraq “was going to be enough?”Instead of answering, Hillary (as she is officially called by her campaign) said, “Thanks so much for your service” and then talked about how she visits military hospitals and believes America needs to provide good medical care for its veterans.In the one-hour town meeting, Hillary did not mention Iraq a single time. She mentioned ethanol twice.

Has she lost the plot? Like McCain recently, has she miscalculated the US public's anger over Iraq?

However, Hillary, despite her recent jettisoning of her surname, is, after all, a Clinton. So, this must all be part of some very clever strategy which is incapable of being understood by an average idiot like myself.

Hillary declares - Democrat campaign boss hides under desk

Hillary Clinton has formally announced that she is running for US President. Her web site only mentions her first name, fascinatingly.

Barack Obama has already taken the first step to join the race.

So we now have the scenario that Democrat campaign guru, Rahm Emanuel, feared when he said:

I think that I am going to hide under this desk if both of them ran.

Apparently he now says he is taking his pen and paper down under the desk with him.