The Debate & The Fallout

See this Talking Points Memo mash-up of the best of the debate:

Obama's (justified) response at a rally in North Carolina the next day:


And... Hillary complains about Obama's complaining. However, Jake Tapper points out the utter hypocrisy of such complaints about complaints:

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, said of Obama, "I know he spent all day yesterday complaining about the hard questions he was asked. Being asked tough questions in a debate is nothing like the pressures you face inside the White House. In fact, when the going gets tough, you just can’t walk away because we’re going to have some very tough decisions that we have to make. I think we need a president who can take whatever comes your way. ...When the going gets tough you can’t run away."

Thursday, former President Bill Clinton said, "When I watched that debate last night, I got kinda tickled when the other guy's – after the [debate], her opponents', oh, the people working were saying, 'Oh this is so negative, why are they doing this.' Well they've been beatin' up on her for 15 months. I didn't hear her whining when he said she was untruthful in Iowa."

If you haven't heard whining from your wife or from the Clinton campaign, Mr. President, then with all due respect, you haven't been paying attention.

The Clintons and the Clinton campaign have been complaining about the media and tough questions and the like for months. It's one of their talking points, for the love of Pete.

Want evidence?

After a November debate when Clinton -- then the clear frontrunner -- was attacked by the many other Democrats on stage, the Clinton campaign even put together a youtube video complaining of the "Politics of Pile-on."

And at the Cleveland debate seven weeks ago, Clinton complained that she always got the first question, and about the media coverage in general.


Bill Clinton has whined about the media coverage so much and often it would be difficult to list every example. In a February interview with WMAL radio in Washington DC, the former president griped that "the political press has avowedly played a role in this election. I've never seen this before...they’ve been active participants in this election, and you know what the objective studies done."