By Sam Wroblewski 630wpro.com
Former Governor Lincoln Chafee’s first debate as a presidential candidate in the national spotlight is likely to be one that haunts him for the remainder of his campaign.
During Tuesday night’s debate hosted by CNN, Chafee did his best to make an impact despite having the shortest speaking time among the five candidates (Only 1,685 words spoken according to the Washington Post). The longshot candidate was quick to call out frontrunner Hillary Clinton for her ‘Yes’ vote in the Senate to invade Iraq, asserting that she didn’t do her homework.
“If [the voter] is looking ahead and is looking at someone who made that poor decision in 2002 to go into Iraq when there was no real evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq […] that’s an indication of how someone will perform in the future,” said Chafee.
Clinton declined to respond.
The move to paint Clinton as a poorly researched leader backfired when CNN’s debate moderator Anderson Cooper called out Chafee’s own voting record in the Senate.
“Governor Chafee, you’ve attacked Secretary Clinton for being too close to Wall Street banks,” said Cooper “In 1999 you voted for the very bill that made banks bigger.”
Chafee hesitated.
“Glass-Steagall was my very first vote, I had just arrived, my dad had just died in office, I was appointed to office…”
“Are you saying you didn’t know what you were voting for?” countered Cooper.
“I think you’re being a little rough,” replied Chafee, drawing murmurs from the crowd.
Later in the debate, Cooper again took on Chafee’s ever-changing party affiliation after the former governor said he was a “block of granite” on the issues.
“It seems like pretty soft granite,” Cooper said.
Chafee’s performance drew national criticism from pundits, with New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait wrote, “Lincoln Chafee looked like he wandered into the building after his yacht had been lost at sea for weeks.”
