Area Politicos Put Their Spin On Democratic Debate in Phila.

KYW Newsradio Team Coverage

Immediately following the debate between US senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama at the National Constitution Center on Wednesday night, each candidate's supporters met with members of the media to "spin" the results of the debate.

KYW's Mike Dunn reports that US Congressman Chaka Fattah was spinning the Democratic debate for the Obama camp. Fattah was fuming that much of the debate focused on the candidates' mistakes rather than issues. 

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Congressman Fattah came to the spin room to tout Obama's performance in the debate but he was more focused on the line of questioning by moderator Charles Gibson, questioning that Fattah said was centered too much on slips of the tongue by both candidates:

"It's amazing that the first hour could be spent on gaffes and misstatements, before we could talk about millions of Americans losing homes to foreclosures. So I think that Senator Obama had to keep forcing the debate back to the real issues."

Fattah said Obama's recent surge in Pennsylvania polls shows that voters here are more concerned about issues than what the Congressman described as "all of this nonsense." 

KYW's Steve Tawa reports that when Governor Ed Rendell put his spin on the debate, he agreed that there was too much emphasis on "gotcha questions."

The governor has known the Clintons for about 18 years, and he believes Clinton scored a "decisive win":

"She was much crisper. Her answers showed she has a greater command of the facts and better solutions facing our state and country."

But Rendell kept waiting for the questions to get to substantive issues:

"ABC must have thought, 'We've got to put on the sexy stuff' -- Reverend Wright, the bitterness stuff, and Bosnia, 'We have to lead with that.' Those questions may have had some part in the debate, appropriately, but not the first 45 minutes!"

He says Senator Obama faltered on some economic questions that included whether he'd raise taxes, including the capital gains tax.

And Philadelphia Mayor Nutter was happy for his candidate, Hillary Clinton, and his town, when he walked the gauntlet of reporters and photographers in the spin room at the National Constitution Center.

But Nutter agreed that the first half the debate focused too heavily on candidate gaffes. Nutter says he doesn't know why it was produced that way, and perhaps they could have been in a different segment. But on the major questions, he says, Senator Clinton scored big:

"Issues of public safety, she hit that out of the park, educating our kids, creating jobs and economic opportunity, health care, the war, crime."

He was also pleased that Philadelphia got national attention on a fine spring night, not to mention nearly a dozen of the city's top hotels were nearly filled with the 800 credentialed journalists covering the debate. 

KYW's Jim Melwert, meanwhile, reports that with hundreds of reporters inside the National Constitution Center getting ready for the debate, supporters of both candidates were having a blast outside.

Hundreds of supporters of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton lined Arch Street, waving signs, banging on empty buckets, and chanting and signing their candidate's' names:

"It's a beautiful day, you know everyone showing their support. It's good, people need to be engaged in America, that's what America's supposed to be about."

Judging by signs and volume, Clinton supporters seemed more organized and out-numbered Obama supporters. No worries for Qasim Bassir who is a fan of Obama:

"The way it looks around here is the Hillary thing is more like the institution because all her posters are the same. It's representative of what this election is. Barack's people, it's more of the people. People made their own stuff, they came out and they did it, you know. And it's clear what's happening here.”  

The AARP meantime hosted a discussion and debate-watch event at the studios of WHYY, across the street from the debate at the National Constitution Center.

About 200 people watched the debate with the AARP's "Divided We Fail" campaign. And with less than a week to go until Pennsylvanians go to the polls for the primary election, some in the crowd remain undecided, including Marian Lewis of Wyndemoor:

"There were many issues, especially health care issues, that they could have done more with but they did not."

Ed Ryan is also undecided. He feels there was too much emphasis on Obama's "bitter" comment and Clinton's trip to Bosnia:

"And I sort of blame that on the moderators. Even though I'm a great admirer of both of them, I think that they were talking about petty issues that the American people don't really need to hear as much about." 

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