Reply #100: Obama was dismissive and condescending

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The initial question to Clinton made me cringe -- it was unnecessarily cruel and humiliating. The way she handled it seemed about as good as could be done, and even this Edwards supporter felt a lot of empathy for her. Obama's faint praise looked like he was piling on. I immediately thought he had just lost the votes of many women while making Clinton appear more vulnerable and "human", reminding me of when Lazio "invaded" her space during a debate.

I don't understand why Obama chose to say anything -- in the previous hour, it had been Clinton who had faulted a couple of times along the empathy line. Obama has made a few similar comments in the other debates, which to me seem tinged with sarcasm, a put-down, maybe a little "humor". I can't know what he intended, but the result is that he loses a bit on the "nice" scale.

BTW I noticed that when CNN was showing all this on Blitzer, they edited out Obama's comment.

None of these candidates should attempt unscripted humor in a debate; they aren't very good at it. Each of their spouses is much better. I wish they were better at this because several of the Repub candidates are much better at this and use it to their advantage to connect with voters.