TV: The candidates quick take

This morning Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama appeared on rival networks for the full hour. The loser?

Barack Obama. Appearing on NBC's Meet The Press for the full hour, Barack was desperate to escape the elitist tag that has so dogged him and did little to acomplish that miracle. Instead he stammered and paused and uh-uh-uhed his way through every question, selecting poorly for every word choice.

Worst of all, the one-on-one format that can be seen as intimate failed as Barack preened and posed, jutting his head at various angles in attempt to find the most flattering close up.

The performance was off.

Especially when he continued to explain away his ability to win big states and other problems by repeatedly claiming he was the "underdog." You can't assume that the nomination is owned by you -- as he did throughout the interview -- and also call yourself the underdog. The contrast is jarring and unbelievable.

The contrast benifitted Hillary who appeared, for the hour, on ABC's This Week, answered questions posed by George Stephanopoulos. And questions posed by the audience present. And the questions posed via satellite.

In other words, while Barack was locked in the gas bag bunker, Hillary was mixing it up with the people and looking very of the people. (George noted that both Barack and John McCain had a standing invitation to appear on This Week in the same format.) Some questions were warm, some were pointed and Hillary showed grace and leadership throughout. It was a winning format, true, but it was also the difference between a candidate who was prepared and one who stumbled throughout.

Barack mainly talked about . . . well himself.

When all you have to sell is your increasingly tired personality, you come off like Ann Turkel alternately trying to convince the people that Humanoids From The Deep was a work of art and that your bathing suits really will allow people to darken without tan lines.

It was really that pathetic.

Hillary was taking questions on farming, diplomacy, Iran, Barack and much more. She wasn't static, she was standing up, moving around. "We're not going to have permanent bases in Iraq," said Hillary in response to what would happen if, post-withdrawal, Iran attacked Iraq, "we're not going to keep our military in Iraq because of some contingent of what may or may not happen."
She also noted that the US leaving would allow Iraq to return to a nationalist identity. She also stressed that she wanted people to hear what she was saying because "I want you to hold me accountable . . . because we need to rebuild" that aspect of government after seven years of the Bully Boy.

Barack's best hope is that no one was watching.

Fortunately for him, Tim Russert wasn't paying attention. On the lengthy comments about Jeremiah Wright, Barack listed that Wright married Michelle and him, he baptized their daughters, he . . . Basically everything but wiped Barack's ass. (At least as far as we know.) But in that droning response as well as a clip Tim played, one thing was obviously not stated: "He baptized me." Tim would go on to ask Barack why he didn't leave the church and Barack would talk about the wonderful things that the church was doing. But left unasked was: "Were you baptized?"

To be clear, if he wasn't baptized, he can't leave the church. If he wasn't baptized, he may have attended the church, but he was never a member. The chuch he belongs to require baptism. Two Fridays ago, Bill Moyers -- always one to go nutty -- claimed in a voice over that Wright baptized Barack and that's the first time that claim's been made.

In his books, Barack makes no mention of it. In his repeated comments, he makes no comments publicly. Now maybe it flew over Tim's head because he knows people can change their church membership (in most cases) without a baptism. You can do that. If you're baptized at Little Trinity and get tired of it and want to switch over to Trinity Main, you can transfer your membership.

But Barack wasn't baptized as a child. He was raised a non-believer. Jeremiah Wright -- whom he insisted to Tim was not his spiritual mentor -- brought Barack to the church. Barack was an adult. Now he can attend without being a member, he can toss coins in the collection plate without being a member. Certainly, Michelle Obama is a member of the church.

But is Barack unable to "leave" the church because he was actually never a member?

Considering how many times he's stated in speeches and debates that "I am a Christian," it is an issue. If he's telling people he's a Christian and citing his church as proof, it matters whether or not he's actually a member and to be member he'd have to be baptized.

Should it turn out that he's not been baptized, that would certainly lead to questions of how he's claimed he's a Christian when the faith he's citing, the church he claims as his own, requires that a person be baptized at least once in their life.

We don't blame Tim for being bored, we'd heard all the stories before as well. That's the problem with having only one person ask the questions: things get missed and topics get avoided. Barack told Tim, "When you're running for president, your life's an open book." So open it up, Barack.