I did not know that the new ultra-high speed FiOs service from Verizon would not carry MSNBC. What's scary for MSNBC is since switching from Direct TV something like a month ago - evidently I had not watched the distant third place network (or wanted to) even once.
So last night I'm scrambling to look up what channel number it is - only to discover at this time MSNBC and Verizon have some sort of issue with each other.
Therefore - like Dean Barnett - I too did not see the live debate between the Democrats in South Carolina last night.
Listening to Chris Wallace on Fox News this morning made it sound like Hillary, Biden, and Richardson all seemed to help themselves...
But I wanted to know what the people (not the pundits) thought about the event. And that's where I was not surprised at all. Barack Obama clearly won.
Why? Well as Chris Matthews put it - he gave the most sophisticated/multi-layered explanations to the questions. The Survey USA poll based the responses on who had "heard" the debate... again - oratory being the key.
The New York Sun's Ryan Sager said yesterday on my show that he had cleverly titled the Obama run to date as the "Vapid Campaign of HOPE" and that's what is coming through.
In the Survey USA numbers not only did Hillary not win on the positive question, she placed number 2 on the question of who LOST the debate. Compared to Obama's showing, number 1 in who "won", and low negatives, Hillary's boat anchor of high negatives, and less than enthusiastic positives are remaining consistent.