Inside and Out: Everyone Has a Spin
Everyone has a spin on the debate.
Next week’s Democratic primary in Pennsylvania is being heralded as the Superbowl of the election season, and spectators gathered outside Wednesday’s debate echoed the feeling of a do-or-die home game.
Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama drew hundreds of sign-clad supporters outside Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, while more than 600 credentialed media representing about 150 news organizations set up on the second floor of the impressive building.
Across the street behind a wooden barracade, Clinton supporters chanted “Hillary, Hillary, Hillary” over Obama’s crowd’s “Yes we can!” while anti-abortionists shouted over megaphones around the corner.
Upstairs in the filing center where reporters watched the debate and produced their stories, there were 124 tables, two dozen television monitors, and at least a dozen coffee urns. YouTube-bred “Obama Girl,” sporting gold-spiked black pumps, was there to interview the media, and a couple of youngsters with Scholastic Kids stayed up past their bedtime to mingle in the chaotic Spin Room post-debate.
About 50 cameras were set up in the Spin Room, the designated space for spokespeople from both sides of the campaign to emerge and claim victory. Immediately after the ABC debate ended 90 minutes of Obama playing defense while Hillary assumed the role of a spectator more than anything else, the Spin Room filled with reporters, photographers, and camera crews.
Shouldering through scrums and shuffling through the crowds, reporters shoved their microphones and tape recorders into any window of free space.
So who won the debate? Depends on whom you ask.
“Obama was clearly having a very difficult time and spent most of the debate on his heels,” said Howard Wolfson, communications director for the Clinton campaign. “His answers just weren’t that strong.”
Mandy Grunwald, one of Clinton’s key media consultants, shared Wolfson’s enthusiasm and said, “I think she used this opportunity very well. I think Obama was asked pointed questions for the first time, and I think he was very tentative in his responses.”
Gen. Wesley Clark, a longtime Clinton supporter who flirted with his own presidential run this year, chimed in with his positive response to her performance. “I think she’d make a great president and she showed tonight that she can answer the tough questions.”
Tracking down an Obama spinner proved a more daunting task. Twenty minutes after Clinton sent out more than a dozen spokespeople, Obama’s camp sent out just a few surrogates to the Spin Room floor. In their eyes, Obama was the clear winner.
“Even though he had the kitchen sink thrown at him, he did very well,” said Rep. Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.). “He managed to cut through the crap and the distractions. I think he was straight with his answers and I think he won.”
The Obama cheerleading continued as Democratic political consultant David Axelrod spouted his view on the debate. “Obama clearly did very well tonight,” adding later, “I’m not here to whine about the unusual fact that 55 minutes went by before he got his first substantive question.”
As the room cleared and reporters left to file their stories, one of the debate’s main characters emerged in the dwindling filing center upstairs.
George Stephanopoulos, who moderated the debate with Charlie Gibson, said he was “surprised by how directly Senator Clinton answered the question of whether Obama could beat McCain.”
The co-moderators caught flack immediately after the debate for focusing on recent campaign gaffes rather than the issues that matter most to Pennsylvanians and voters across the country.