NYT: In Debate, Democrats Show More Unity Than Strife

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/us/politics/27dems.html?ei=5088&en=2e7790a690fd1c3f&ex=1335326400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

April 27, 2007
In Debate, Democrats Show More Unity Than Strife
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY

ORANGEBURG, S.C., April 26 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was professorial and emphatic as she spoke Thursday night about health care, Iraq and whether Wal-Mart was good for America (a “mixed blessing,” she decided) .

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, by reputation a dynamic performer, was reserved and cautious as he talked about a donor with a shady past, how he would respond to a terrorist attack on American shores and his biggest mistake (not doing more to stop Congress from intervening in the Terri Schiavo case, he said).

The setting was the first Democratic presidential debate of the 2008 campaign, a surprisingly sedate and meandering affair, filled with as many moments of awkward humor as memorable insight into the qualifications of the candidates or the policy differences among them.

Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton, the junior senator from New York, the two most closely watched candidates of the night, did not tangle at all. They were as likely to address each other politely by first name as to discuss differences between them.

It fell to their rivals to take cuts at them, and even those were modest. John Edwards, the former vice presidential candidate, said Mrs. Clinton’s handling of her vote in 2002 to authorize the Iraq war was between her and her conscience, and he obliquely suggested that Mr. Obama had not offered much substance when it came to one of the most pressing domestic issues, health care.

“Highfalutin language is not enough,” Mr. Edwards said.

FULL story at link.

[Bluzmann57]

1. Try as they might, the MSM can't tear the Dems apart

It seemed that some, such as Matthews, Scarborough, and the entire fox noise network were complaining that the Dems weren't "mean enough" or something like that. The candidates do have different views on various issues, but there is nothing wrong with that. The media moguls need to re-learn that principle, the one called civility, even when people have differing viewpoints.