side of the party and, you know that, may or may not be good for any individual candidate on that stage. but it s good for democrats, good for liberals, good overall night. the new york times which, of course, is the nation s paper of record that has really interesting relationship to this race because the new york times is obviously mostly liberal on their op-ed page. they have this specific thing about this race. in the news pages, the new york times has its knifes out for hillary clinton more so than any other mainstream media outlet in the country. so there are very interesting outlet to watch at times like this when democratic politics are popping live. and even with that inclination to look for the worst in hillary clinton in every instance and to advance every negative story line they can get their hands on
to the world, if you re going to have a night like that, the only thing you might also wish for in that great circumstance would be that everybody happened to be looking at you when you had that great moment. when you have that great night. and last night it turns out everybody was looking. if you re looking for a historical comparison of a previous presidential campaign, you can t look at 2012. that was the incumbent democratic president running for re-election. there is no comparison there for this year. the last contest we can compare to this year s election was the blockbuster democratic primary in 2007 and 2008 between hillary clinton and barack obama and lots of other compelling democrats besides. that s the point of comparison. that s the historically compelling recent democratic presidential primary. so for comparison s sake, at this point in that stunning race in 2007-2008, there were a lot
win and then ultimately how he won the presidency and ended up being really important part of how he approached governing as well once he got into office. even when he was in the transition period as president-elect, he was reaching out to republicans for advice. when conservative senator joe lieberman bailed on the democratic party and instead endorsed john mccain against barack obama, president-elect barack obama told democrats in the senate to not retaliate against joe lieberman. to let that slide. when republicans started calling the new president name and lining up against everything did he in the first year in office, president obama did go to the republican retreat to try to reason with them. he took direct questions and talked things through with them for an hour and a half on their turf. he tried and tried and tried and he tried because he really sincerely believed that republicans would work with him. and could work with him to do constructive things for the country if he jus
first democratic presidential debate. now, the aforementioned lincoln chafy and jim webb, neither of them had a great night at the debate. although lincoln chafy i think is getting more shade thrown at him for his performance last night than he ought. to but even with lincoln chafy and jim webb having the kind of very quiet night, you might have expected, the big picture of what really happened last night is that three, i guess, main caned candidates on the stage had good nights. 6 it was a great ad for the democratic party. the nation magazine goes further today. joan walsh writing, who run the democratic debate? progressives hands down. she said not only did the democratic party put its best face forward but it turns out best face forward for the democratic party is the liberal
you want to know who else had a great night? this guy who now more americans than ever can confidently say is a man named martin o malley. last night s first democratic presidential debate was his chance to basically introduce himself to a much larger swath of the american people than could have recognized him before last night. but he did that interduction. it happened in very positive terms. there s no such thing as a complaint about martin o malley s performance last night in that debate. and most importantly for him, i think it s pretty clear that his performance made him seem more like a bernie sanders and hillary clinton caliber candidate than the kind of guy who ought to be relegated to some republican style kids table with lincoln chafy and jim webb. so martin o malley last night had a very good night at the