The Obama Defense

One of Barack Obama's most underrated assets as a politician is his crafty responses. Over the past few weeks, as Hillary Clinton has sought to elaborate on distinctions between her and the junior senator from Illinois, he has responded not with long-winded refutations of her answers but rather shrewd but light-hearted one-liners: Clinton tries to hit him for his lack of Washington experience by trumpeting her own fiscal credentials as first lady, Obama retorts "My understanding was she wasn't Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration." (peep it) Clinton launches a somewhat absurd attack on his kindergarten presidential aspirations and after being hounded by the press for a response, Obama quips, "It's silly season. I understand she's even quoting my kindergarten teacher in Indonesia." And in the most recent Iowa debate, when Clinton tried to humanize herself with boisterous robotic laughter following a question about Obama's ability to bring change if he is relying on ex-Clinton officials for foreign policy advice, Obama shot back "Well Hillary, I'm looking forward to you advising me as well."

It's almost like that street ball tactic where your opponent is trying to trash-talk you and you merely chime back with one word: "Scoreboard...." Infuriatingly effective.