Things may have gotten nasty on Wednesday night in Philadelphia, but Barack Obama saw the "gotcha" tenor of the Democratic presidential debate as a preview of what is in store for the general election campaign. And thousands of viewers, for their part, considered it an outrage.
For nearly an hour, the 10.7 million viewers of the most watched debate in this election cycle did not hear a single question about the economy, Iraq or healthcare. Instead, they heard ABC newsmen Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, the moderators, revisit controversies about Obama's former pastor, Obama's failure to wear flag lapel pins, and his casual association with a '60s radical.
In a town hall meeting in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday, Obama sounded a cautionary note to supporters: "That was the rollout of the Republican campaign in November," he said. "They will try to focus on these issues that don't have anything to do with how you're paying your bills at the end of the month."
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, too, was grilled -- albeit less intensely -- about her discredited tale of landing under sniper fire in Bosnia in 1996 and whether she is trustworthy and honest.
Many who watched were livid.
"Great job, ABC," wrote one indignant viewer, in a posting on the network's website. "You managed to bury any signs of intelligent life under a mountain of pointless goo. What does any of last night's debate have to do with the price of bread (or gas), Iraq, Bin Laden, judicial appointments, public education, the mortgage crisis . . . oh, never mind. Let's all focus on lapel pins."
Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, who ran John F. Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004, said Obama should have shot back, "Where's your flag pin?" (Neither of the moderators or candidates wore one.)
Thursday morning, Stephanopoulos said that he and Gibson had decided to focus on what he called "electability questions" in the first half of the debate. "I think the questions we asked were tough and fair and appropriate and relevant," said Stephanopoulos, a senior advisor to former President Bill Clinton in his first term.
"The questions we asked are what the campaigns are debating every single day and are being debated in the political world every day. The question of who is the most electable Democrat is at the core of it."
By 8 p.m. Thursday, the ABC News website had received nearly 19,000 comments, most of them attacking the tenor of the debate and the moderators. One called Stephanopolous "George Stupidopolous."
