Photograph of Obama, Clinton and Edwards at the Nevada debate by Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
Yesterday the three top Democratic contenders for the presidential nominations debated in Nevada. The debate wasn't as testy as previous ones, in part because Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were trying to maintain an aura of good will and love for the Democratic party - and not bicker over race or gender. Which meant that Clinton, Obama and John Edwards were pretty boring in their happy, friendly paces. The NY Times noticed that even Tim Russert, one of the moderators, "seemed subdued" in a night of "'John' and 'Barack' and 'Hillary,' soft voices, easy jokes and belly laughs."
Still, Clinton did say that remarks from BET founder Robert Johnson (who had referred to Obama's drug use) were inappropriate. Politico's Roger Simon noted that a few sharp elbows were thrown, though not with the question about what their greatest weaknesses were.
Obama said: “I ask my staff members not to hand me paper until two seconds before I need it because I will lose it. And my desk and my office don’t look good.”
Edwards said: “I sometimes have a very powerful emotional response to pain that I see around me.”
Clinton said: “I get impatient. I get, you know, really frustrated when people don’t seem to understand that we can do so much more to help each other.”
More on the debates at MSNBC.
And Mitt Romney won his first primary in Michigan, allowing the Post to finally break out the "The Mormon the Merrier" headline. (Clinton also won the Democratic primary in Michigan, but the other candidates weren't really concerned with it.) Former mayor Rudy Giuliani placed 6th, after Romney, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul AND Fred Thompson. Giuliani may not have been hoping for Michigan, but that doesn't seem too good, does it?
