The Pennsylvania debate was broadcast on ABC a little over a week before the Pennsylvania primary election. The first question from debate moderator Charles Gibson was whether each would pledge to choose the other as a running mate — a proposal of former New York governor Mario Cuomo.
Neither responded initially, a rather uneasy silence all around, until Obama finally broke the silence and said the issue was "premature." Clinton finally replied that each was determined to make sure a Democrat was inaugurated as President next January — whoever won the nomination.
If the debate had to be summed up in one phrase, it would be “mud on her face.” For weeks, Senator Hillary Clinton has been degrading her opponent and saying he is too inexperienced to be President, he isn’t electable, he is all talk, even insisting that John McCain is the better choice since experience is the most important thing for a President.
Clinton has been caught lying on several issues already, but on the night of the debate, she was backed into a corner by moderator George Stephanopoulos when the debate took on the question of the November general election and the importance of a Democrat being put in the White House. It took two answers — and a nudging from Mr. Stephanopoulos — before Mrs. Clinton answered whether she believed Senator Obama could win.
At first she praised McCain as a formidable opponent and "a man with a great American story to tell." Pressed to answer directly whether Obama can win, she responded: "Yes. Yes. Yes." But she added: "I think I can do a better job."
Then Clinton did an about face and disingenuously pressed the "bitter" statement and other issues, raising questions about Obama's electability. "These are problems and they raise questions in people's minds," later saying they go to "a larger set of concerns about how do we run against John McCain," the probable Republican nominee.
Clinton was reminded of being caught stating on several occasions that she had dodged sniper fire on a visit to Bosnia in 1996. The context for the question was a new Washington Post-ABC News poll showing that nearly six in 10 Americans do not find her honest or trustworthy.
"On a couple of occasions in the last couple of weeks, I just said some things that were not in keeping with what I knew to be the case and what I had written about in my book, and you know, I am embarrassed by it, I have apologized for it, I have said it was a mistake," said Senator Clinton. "And it is something, I hope, you can look over.”
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