Obama/Hillary Both Did Well In Austin, Tx Debate

I was off work tonight, so I had a chance to watch the entire democratic debate on CNN between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. I was expecting to see a bunch of fireworks from the Clinton side because she has lost the last eleven election primaries. However, with the exception of a couple of jabs at Obama's change message – tonight's debate seemed more like a love in rather than a debate among political rivals. My personal take on tonight's Austin, Texas debate was that Hillary Clinton is settling herself into the real possibility that she is going to lose to Obama and Barack Obama is starting to realize that he really could win the nomination.

Judging by tonight's Texas crowd they were in no mood to have either candidate take pot shots at the other. After one rude comment from Hillary Clinton, the audience at this University of Texas debate booed Senator Clinton and she never traveled down that road again. I also got the feeling from tonight's Texas democratic audience that they like both of these candidates pretty much equally and down deep inside they would like to see them run together against GOP candidate John McCain in November. More than likely an Obama/Clinton general election ticket is not in the cards, but in a strange sort of way I think both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama personally like each other as individuals and fellow politicians.

Tonight's CNN debate from UT Austin probably did not change any minds. More than likely, people that supported Barack Obama going into tonight's debate are still supporting him and the same is true for Hillary Clinton supporters. However, unlike the big hurt feelings of conservatives on the GOP side that are still angry at John McCain, Democrats seems to be equally united in their support of either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. This has certainly been an unusual year when it comes to presidential politics.

On the Republican side, John McCain has pretty much sailed toward the GOP nomination without earning key conservative support for his nomination victory. However, on the democratic side of the race – both Obama and Clinton are loved by almost everyone in the base which includes people that originally supported John Edwards. President Bush has done a wonderful job at uniting Democrats against the GOP in 2008. While conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh did come to the defense of John McCain when he was ravaged by a tabloid natured story in the New York Times today, Limbaugh is still against John McCain getting the GOP nomination and only stood up for McCain because of his long distrust and dislike of the New York Times newspaper.

Read more about 2008 Elections:

Obama Defeats Hillary Then McCain In November
Congressman Chet Edwards Endorses Obama For President
Michigan/Florida Caucus Likely To Seat Delegates
Will Superdelegates Decide The Democratic Nomination?
Voters Want Change, Not Experience In 2008