Justin Webb's America

In the spin room

• Justin Webb
• 27 Feb 08, 08:07 AM GMT

The entire debate in Cleveland was a test of whether Obama can be attacked with profit. The answer: No.

Take as an example the spat over Louis Farrakhan (the founder of the Nation of Islam) who has endorsed Obama - an endorsement that is less than welcome, coming as it does from a man who has also attacked Jewish people in a manner that leaves little doubt about his organisation's anti-semitism.

So does Barack Obama reject that endorsement? Well he failed to get to that word - I felt he was oddly weak in his initial response. But pressed by her, he got there magisterially: Denounce and reject, he said, if that's what Mrs Clinton wants. It left her looking a little foolish.

The truth was that he had made an initial stab at an answer that was rather unsatisfactory; but he spun it around and ended up looking funny, cool and victorious. As usual. The New York Times puts it like this: "At a point when Mrs Clinton apparently saw an opportunity - when she said it was not enough for Mr Obama to simply denounce Mr Farrakhan; he needed to reject his support - Mr Obama did not take the bait. “I would reject and denounce,” he said.

Enough debates now. I wonder if, for most Democrats, this is the over-riding impression left after Cleveland. It has been fun. It has been invigorating. But now it could get boring. And damaging. And sickening. At the end of the spin-room time, as everyone was going, I asked Mark Penn (Hillary's chief strategist) whether the game was up if they lost Ohio and Texas. Not a bit of it: they would fight on, he said.

If they lose both, I think they can't, frankly, but what if they win one? It is not looking good.

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