A note about why Hillary says these weird "inside baseball" things in debates

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Several times in the debate season Hillary has mentioned TV incidents, like Barack's drivers-license answer, the Hardball "name an accomplishment" thing, SNL, etc.

It often seems senseless, and is surely lost on most of the audience, who are not 24/7 cable news junkies.

It is a particular strategy, and a good one for any campaign that needs free media. The idea is to give an answer that is provocative, but makes little sense without the video clip that provides context. Most people don't watch debates, but they get lots of little snippets of them after the fact. If you can get the news to include a clip you want played a lot, you make the clip an issue.

When she (seemingly senselessly) referred last time to the bad Hardball appearance by an Obama supporter that had only been seen by a few news junkies it was a gambit to encourage the news to air the clip. (It didn't work... the clip was not resurrected, at least that I saw.)

Same thing with the Saturday Night Live reference. She wants news shows to show clips of the skit... to make the skit "news."

It doesn't always work, but it's not random.

[thevoiceofreason]

1. Yawn

Flailing, flailing. The only folks that'll reach are young, and they are 4-1 for Barack.

[MadBadger]

2. But in doing so I think she attacked a man very popular to the audience.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. I am not suggesting it is working... nothing she does is working

The OP is informational. I am sure a lot of people have wondered why she mentions TV incidents all the time, and that's why.

Every day in a campaign is about trying to program that night's (or week's) evening news.