Texans were excited over last Thursday’s presidential debate between Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama. The Texas debate, the second-most watched debate in cable news history, was held at the University of Texas at Austin.
In a university auditorium in the heart of Texas, the two rivals agreed they differ on many domestic and foreign topics, like healthcare, immigration and foreign policy issues such as how to reengage with Cuba since Fidel Castro stepped down a few days ago.
The harshest part of the debate happened when Clinton accused Obama of plagiarism. She drew boos from the Democratic debate audience when she ridiculed him as the candidate of “change you can xerox.”
Obama dismissed the charge and then turned the boos to applause when he countered, “What we shouldn’t be spending time doing is tearing each other down. We should be spending time lifting the country up.”
The exchange marked an unusually pointed moment in an otherwise civil encounter in the days before the March 4 primaries in Texas and Ohio.
Some of Clinton’s supporters, including husband and former president Bill Clinton, say she must win to sustain her campaign for the White House.
The former first lady has lost 11 straight primaries and caucuses and trails her rival in convention delegates.
The last time Obama and Clinton debated was in California, at theend of January.
Since Super Tuesday, the two candidates have been neck and neck in many of the primaries. Clinton is still lingering around and staying close in the delegate count due the proportional distribution of the highly-valued delegates. According to recent polls, Clinton still leads in Texas, but only by a small margin. Political analysts say in order for Clinton to get the Democratic nomination, she must win Texas.
Thursday night’s debate was number 19, with at least one more scheduled debate in Ohio before March 4. Neither candidate scored a decisive knock-out during the 90-minute encounter, and since Obama is the front-runner and did not slip up, he probably won, at least according to most political pundits.
However, Clinton supporters believe she was the stronger candidate and winner of the debate.