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Best Moment: Obama's answer on change, and the power of rhetoric and inspiration.Worst Moment: Hillary Clinton saying, well, here's the transcript:
Can we just have a sort of a reality break for a minute? Because I think that it is important to make some kind of an assessment of these statements.You know, Senator Edwards did work and get the patient bill of rights through the Senate -- it never got through the House. One of the reasons that Natalie may well have died is because there isn't a patient's bill of rights. We don't have a patient's bill of rights.Natalie's parents, in a pre-planned event, are doing a rally with John Edwards tomorrow. I assume Clinton didn't mean to suggest that Edwards' lack of legislative acumen resulted in the girl's death -- Clinton didn't pass her health care plan, either, and that would've been far more effective than a set of privacy guarantees in guaranteeing a girl a liver transplant -- but it's hard for me to figure out exactly what she did mean to say. And with Natalie's parents on the campaign trail tomorrow, it's going to come up.Update: Some folks want me to post up the next few lines of the Clinton/Edwards exchange, so here they are:
MR. EDWARDS: Because George Bush -- George Bush killed it.SEN. CLINTON: Well, that's right, he killed it. So we've got to have a plan and a real push to get it through.Right. So Hillary was arguing that Edwards failed to pass the bill he named as an accomplishment, and that a girl, in theory, died because of it, or in part because of it. This seems like a low blow, albeit one I'm willing to believe Hillary didn't mean to make (heat of the moment, etc). The actual impediment to change that Clinton identifies -- George W. Bush in the White House - would obviously not exist in an Edwards or Clinton administration. Edwards' efforts were fully sufficient to pass the bill through a Democratic White House. What legislation did Hillary, or any other Democrat, pass over Bush's veto?Additionally, the PBR probably wouldn't have saved Natalie. It would've created an exhaustive appeals process for individuals who felt wronged by their HMOs. However, in Natalie's case, public pressure overturned the HMO's decision quicker than an appeal would've. Sadly, it wasn't quickly enough. But to argue that we need a reality check because Edwards couldn't overwhelm a presidential veto seems odd, and to invoke Natalie seemed like a real low blow. The more effective attack would be that the PBR was a minor, small-bore bill, and Edwards, for all his talk of universal health care in this campaign, didn't prominently attach himself to any such legislation in his Senate career. The PBR was more popular than it was potent.That said, I didn't call Clinton a demon because of it. I just think it was the low moment of the night.
