Obama fires back on experience issue at Iowa debate

Source: Chicago Tribune

By Rick Pearson | Tribune political reporter

DES MOINES - The Democratic presidential contenders used their Iowa debate Sunday to buttress their call for change in the nation's leadership, questioning Sen. Barack Obama's experience and arguing over how best to leave Iraq.

"To prepare for this debate, I rode in the bumper cars at the State Fair," said Obama, the Illinois senator, defending himself after rivals' criticism of his foreign policy declarations and his vow to take nuclear weapons off the table.

The 90-minute debate was held at Drake University and broadcast on ABC's "This Week." Outside the debate hall, the atmosphere was vastly different from a similar forum held among Republicans two weeks ago, as hundreds of supporters of the Democratic contenders were chanting and holding candidates' signs.

With opinion polls indicating Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina are bunched at the top in America's first caucus state, Sunday's nationally broadcast debate provided the eight contenders an opportunity to launch into the more intensive phase of the Iowa campaign.


Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-debate_for_webaug20,1,2934568.story

Crappy questions today (including is Obama ready--puleeze Georgie), and all of the TV framing about a two person race. Edwards did very well with this soundbite:

" ...the differences between all of us are very small compared to the differences between us and the Republican candidates, who the best I can tell are George Bush on steroids."

It will be interesting how this plays out since Obama is not going to any other debates unless they are DNC official ones.

The corporate media will let Republicans get away with not having experience. Inexperienced Republicans just spout a bunch of drivel about "appointing good people" and "good advisers", and the corporate media lets them get away with that.

That's not going to cut it for a Democrat who will have to either be very experienced, or demonstrate a superior mastery of foreign policy issues, leaving no doubt in anyone's mind.

That may not be fair, but that is the way things are.

No worse than Brian Williams or Wolf Blitzer but still awful.