Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Oh yeah, on what?

I think this woman was banking on her rivals kissing her ass in the hopes of winning the VP sweepstakes. However, if these guys are indeed serious about their campaigns, then part of their job is to rip this woman to shreds - or to put it more politely, expose her for everything she is ( and stands for ) and let the American people decide whether or not they like what they see. This is not “negative” politics - as much as people want to whine about that, the truth is that criticizing one’s opponent is not only fair, but arguably a candidate’s responsibility. In fact I’m not sure what “negative politics” really means, since the nature of politics is to struggle against opposing forces, and that obviously entails criticizing those forces to the electorate. I guess “negative politics” might boil down to not much more than base and/or irrelevant personal attacks.

And when Hillary says “I’m not going to attack my rivals” its not because she’s lofty or noble, it’s because she assumes she’s got the nomination locked and therefor doesn’t have to. If she were behind, she’d be on the phone with a private detective every day digging for dirt.

LAS VEGAS - Under pressure in a caustic campaign debate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday night the American people “know where I stand” and accused her rivals of distorting her record and slinging mud “right out of the Republican playbook.”

“There’s nothing personal about this,” countered former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who joined Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in bluntly accusing Clinton of forever switching positions on Social Security, driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and other issues.

“What the American people are looking for right now is straight answers to tough questions, and that is not what we have seen from Senator Clinton on a host of issues,” added Obama.

The three-way confrontation reduced the other Democratic presidential hopefuls on the debate stage to the uncomfortable role of spectator, yet it perfectly captured the race for the party’s nomination seven weeks before the kickoff Iowa caucuses.

Clinton leads in the nationwide polls, but recent surveys in Iowa show she is in a virtual dead heat with Obama and Edwards.

Obama was the first to challenge Clinton, saying it took two weeks to “get a clear answer” from her on the issue of driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. “The same is true on Social Security,” he said.

For the first time in a debate, Clinton swiftly answered in kind. “When it came time to step up and decide whether or not he would support universal health care coverage he chose not to do that,” she said of Obama. She added his plan would leave 15 million people without coverage—the population of Iowa and three other early voting states in the nominating campaign.

Edwards was next to accuse Clinton of trying to have it both ways with the war in Iraq, Social Security and defining the scope of President Bush’s power to use military force against Iran. “She says she will bring change to Washington while she continues to defend a system that does not work, that is broken, that is rigged, that is corrupt,” added the former North Carolina senator.

“I’ve just been personally attacked again,” Clinton shot back. “I don’t mind taking hits on my record on issues, but when somebody starts throwing mud at least we can hope it’s accurate and not right out of the Republican playbook.”

The debate unfolded on a stage at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. The state holds caucuses on Jan. 19—following Iowa and most likely the New Hampshire primary.

For the other four contenders on stage, the opening moments were frustrating—and they repeatedly tried to break in.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who has campaigned in Nevada more than any other presidential hopeful, took verbal shots at Clinton and her two closest pursuers in the polls.

He said Edwards is engaging in class warfare, Obama was trying to start a generational war and questioned whether Clinton wanted to truly end the Iraq war. “All I want to do is give peace a chance,” he said.

The focus on Clinton was hardly surprising.

The New York senator herself conceded she turned in a sub-par performance at the last debate, when she stumbled on a question about driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. Her husband, the former president, leapt to her defense in the interim, saying of her rivals: “Those boys have been getting tough on her lately.”

The setting underscored Nevada’s newly prominent role in the nominating process. The state is far more racially diverse than either Iowa or New Hampshire, with a population that is about 22 percent Hispanic and 10 percent black.

Democrats in Nevada hoped the focus on their state would prompt candidates to pay closer heed to Western issues like water, grazing and mining rights.

That didn’t happen in the opening hour, though.

Instead, Clinton drew the first question—and moments later the first barb from Obama.

Despite her critics, she said, “I think the American people know where I’ve stood for 35 years,” adding she had been fighting for children, workers, families and universal health care.

The debate was carried live on CNN.