{"id":2453,"date":"2007-10-31T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-31T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/guv-defends-clinton-others-attack-her-at-debate\/"},"modified":"2007-10-31T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-31T19:30:00","slug":"guv-defends-clinton-others-attack-her-at-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/guv-defends-clinton-others-attack-her-at-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Guv defends Clinton, others attack her at debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> stood alone during Tuesday\u2019s Democratic presidential candidate debate as Hillary Clinton\u2019s<\/a> only defender from the constant attacks of other candidates, and it came back to bite him at the end. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That\u2019s because Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> made a huge mistake at the conclusion of the debate that gave credibility to the tenacious attacks of Barack Obama<\/a>, John Edwards<\/a> and Chris Dodd<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The three \u2013 and Obama and Edwards in particular \u2013 spent most of the debate criticizing Clinton<\/st1:city> as a Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> insider, someone who won\u2019t bring the change she promises and someone who has been spewing doubletalk throughout the campaign. Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> spent the night attempt to deflect the criticism and, at least for awhile, was successful.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But the turn began near the end of the debate, when she was asked about Social Security. Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has said repeatedly in public that she would not favor lifting the cap on the tax that kicks in at an income of $97,500. But she was overheard by an Associated Press reporter recently telling a citizen after a public appearance something different.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Attacked on that issue and asked about her differing answers, Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> failed to explain he contradictory statements. That\u2019s when the mud began sticking.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Her face was covered in mud after a question at the end of the debate about a proposal by New York<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s governor to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver\u2019s licenses. Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> defended the plan at first, explaining her prior statement that it \u201cmakes a lot of sense.\u201d During a resulting exchange in which Dodd said criticized her for supporting the plan, she said \u201cI did not say that it should be done but I certainly recognize why Governor Spitzer is trying to do it.\u201d She then went on to defend the plan again.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Asked again whether she supports the plan, Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said the question was a \u201cgotcha\u201d question. She then said she didn\u2019t think the plan was \u201cthe best thing to do\u201d but is necessary because of Congress\u2019 failure to pass immigration reform.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dodd, Edwards and Obama all called her out on it what was, at best, a confusing answer, with Edwards saying she gave different answers to the same question in two minutes. Suddenly, the tone of the entire night \u2013 that Clinton<\/st1:city> is a Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> insider who speaks in doubletalk \u2013 stuck. The other candidates, the debate moderators and the audience (and me \u2013 I had to rewatch it twice) were confused about what Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> had actually said, even though they had just heard it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Earlier in the debate, Richardson<\/st1:city> had said the attacks against Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> were inappropriate.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m hearing is this holier-than-thou attitude against Sen. Clinton,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 We need to be positive in this campaign. Yes, we need to point out our differences, and I have big differences with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:city> said he disagrees with Clinton<\/st1:city> \u201con a majority of issues,\u201d but the debate should be about the issues, not on whether Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is trustworthy.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Edwards jumped on Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI completely disagree with what Bill said. \u2026 This is about whether we believe the system works,\u201d he said, adding that the election is about ending special-interest control of Washington<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Just like that, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> looked like the good ol\u2019 boy and Edwards looked like the defender of the people. When Clinton<\/st1:city> later blew her defense, she left herself and Richardson looking like the Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> insiders in whom the vast majority of the nation\u2019s citizens don\u2019t approve.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:city> was asked about it in a post-debate interview and had to admit that Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s answer on driver\u2019s licenses was \u201cconfusing.\u201d But he still defended her and said the others shouldn\u2019t attack her character.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That was about the only part of Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s debate performance that was even noteworthy. And his defense of Clinton<\/st1:city> has national pundits once again speculating that Richardson<\/st1:city> is out for the vice presidential slot or, perhaps, the Clintons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 help with a U.S. Senate run.<\/p>\n

\n

The headline for this article has been changed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Richardson stood alone during Tuesday\u2019s Democratic presidential candidate debate as Hillary Clinton\u2019s only defender from the constant attacks of other candidates, and it came back to bite him at the end. That\u2019s because Clinton made a huge mistake at the conclusion of the debate that gave credibility to the tenacious attacks of Barack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}