Make your mistakes while 'no one' is watching

Obama will benefit most from lowered expectations after first debate

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A look at the Democratic candidates and their performance on the campaign trail

COMMENTARY

By Joe Scarborough

Host, ‘Morning Joe'

msnbc.com

updated 2:57 p.m. ET May 11, 2007

Joe Scarborough
Host, ‘Morning Joe'
• Profile

Barack Obama strolled across the Columbia Marriott Friday morning looking relaxed in a black sweat suit. Shaking hands with hotel workers and walking over to a group of reporters, the man roundly panned by political pundits last night looked as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

And why should he? Sen. Obama survived his first presidential debate, has over $30 million in the bank and still has the most exciting campaign in America.

Let’s face it, the guy wasn’t JFK or Bobby Thursday night. He wasn’t even Mario Cuomo. Instead, Barack Obama acted like a candidate who was a state senator the last time a presidential debate was conducted.

I started running for Congress the first time a year and a half before my election. The idea was to make my mistakes while nobody was watching. It worked. Unfortunately for Obama, his every move is dissected under a microscope and the stakes are so much higher than a little congressional race. Still, if Barack Obama was going to have an off night, better to do it on a warm spring evening in South Carolina than on a cold Iowa night eight months from now.

I suspect there will be very little impact from Thursday night’s lackluster performance. As I mentioned earlier, the candidates had so little time to respond that breakout moments would be few and far between.

Unfortunately for those who know and like him, John Edwards seemed to be somewhere else Thursday night. I kept hoping to see some of the rhetorical flourish Sen. Edwards wowed us with in 2004 but it never came. Only after the debate did I really think about the burden his wife’s illness must be putting on his shoulders. That being said, last
night’s performance will do little to help his campaign.

Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson are three of the most likable candidates. Biden did especially well. But short of buying the winning ticket in a Powerball jackpot, these guys can do little to survive next year’s front-loaded primary process.

CONTINUED : No great challenge for Clinton

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