The View from the Debate Watch Party

While Jerid and Russo were using their press passes to gain entry to the Wolstein Center and watch the debate live, I set up camp at the official Obama debate watch party at the Clevelander, a bar at the corner of E. 9th and Prospect. The crowd was a mix of young and old, white and black, indicative of the coalition Obama has put together that has brought him numerous wins this primary season. The crowd was clearly pro-Obama: early in the debate while Hillary kept jumping back in to hit Barack on his health care plan the crowd began booing. The loudest cheers of the night came when Tim Russert pitched his hardball question to Hillary about her unkept promise to create 200,000 jobs in the Buffalo, NY area, and when Barack conceded the point to Hillary and said he would both "denounce and reject" the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, thus dousing a Clinton line of attack.

The crowd at the Clevelander clearly felt that Barack won the debate, and that his continued momentum would allow him to win both Ohio and Texas on March 4th and seal the nomination. Will that happen? We'll just have to wait and see.