Democratic Debate

[EE-BO]

I did not catch all of it, but what really astonished me was Hillary Clinton stating unequivocally that she would begin a withdrawal from Iraq even if the Generals in charge of the war effort strongly advised against it and told her that it would mean all the progress we had made would be lost.

For a long time, Clinton was very smart and reasonable in stating that she wanted to get out of Iraq but would wait and see all the facts available to her as President before making firm plans.

And I think we can all agree, regardless of what we feel about Iraq, that it is very reckless to make so firm a campaign promise on such a major and constantly evolving issue when the person making that promise is not yet in a position to know all the details and have to actually make a decision.

I think it shows her desperation, as did her many carefully crafted and controlled responses on the many Obama "scandal" questions which contained many direct jabs.

Contrast this with Obama refusing to "go there" and get dirty when the question of Hillary's gross lies about sniper fire during her landing in Bosnia as First Lady came up.

To the original poster- I agree Obama got hit with a lot of fluff questions about all the little press scandals going around, but that is just part of the game. He escaped that for a long time and so his time finally came to get hit with it. I thought his answer on the bitter rural voters question was pretty weak- but then again it is hard to back off a statement like that.

I do not think either candidate really stood out or changed their standing tonight- nor do I think it impacted the ultimate outcome.

Earlier today, a Clinton supporter was referenced on CNN as stating that if Hillary could get big wins (double digit I presume) in Pennsylvania and Indiana- and also cause an upset and win North Carolina- she still has a chance.

Talk about fantasy land. I think this thing is over unless the super-delegates all go for Hillary. But I don't see that now. She had a valid argument that she was more electable than Obama in a general election, but after the last 2 weeks I do not think that is true anymore.

[shinerbock]

You said "police and protect" didn't you?

I think going into Darfur, which a lot of liberals would support, qualifies under that.

You could certainly make the claim that policing and protecting is not a base democratic value, just as republicans will certainly argue that Neo-con interventionist policies are not traditional GOP values. However, there is certainly a significant portion of the the democratic left who supports the idea of policing and protecting the subordinated people of the world.