Article by James W.Smith

John Edwards’ campaign slogan is that there are two America’s. The reality for John Edwards is that there are two Democratic parties, the party of Hillary Clinton and everyone else. Unfortunately forJohn Edwards, his campaign was running well behind Hillary Clinton in all the public opinion polls.

Barack Obama is running the campaign of hope. He was suppose to be the candidate of change. Somehow throughout 2007, Obama has allowed Hillary Clinton to be the candidate with the most political experience and the candidate that best represented change in Washington D.C. This failed strategy, were it to continue, would offer no hope for the Obama campaign.

This was the desperate state of the Edwards and Obama campaigns as both trailed far behind Hillary Clinton in public opinion polls as they entered the debate of Tuesday, October 30, 2007. With two months until the first primary vote is cast, it had become now or never for the Edwards and Obama campaigns.

Indeed, it turned out to be open season on the frontrunner in the debate. Hillary Clinton withstood attacks from the six men on the debate podium for over an hour. She would later refer to the experience as “pile on”. She is the first major party female candidate for President. Therefore, it is unknown how the image of six men verbally attacking one woman on stage relentlessly will be considered by the electorate. However, Mrs. Clinton should certainly be helped among female voters where she is currently drawing much of her strength.

Late in the debate, Mrs. Clinton made the first significant mistakes of her campaign. She has been parsing her position on some issues for months. In this debate, her issue waffling caught up with her on the prospect of giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. She was asked about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to offer driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. Clinton tried to demonstrate empathy for the governor’s predicament, but did not specifically endorse his position. She seemed to be trying to have it both ways. Of course, Hillary Clinton is aware of the public opinion polls which show that giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants is very unpopular with American public.

As with the question concerning torture for terrorists in the September debate, her less than clear debate answer on drivers licenses for illegal immigrants put her in conflict with an answer she gave in a newspaper interview. She is on record as clearly endorsing the Spitzer position in an interview with the New York Times on 10/18/2007.

Edwards and Obama jumped on her unclear answer as proof of the kind of double talk they’d been accusing her of all night. “America is looking for a president who will say the same thing, who will be consistent, who will be straight with them,” Mr. Edwards said.

Her next mistake occurred when Tim Russert asked Clinton about whether she would expedite the release of her records from her husband’s Presidential term in office, and she gave a long, pondering, and frustrating answer about the slow archival process. She was intimating that the slow, pondering, bureaucracy was the problem until Tim Russert pointed out that her husband signed a letter to withhold release of the documents until 2012.

Obama seized the moment to continue the assault on her candor. “Not releasing… these records at the same time, Hillary, as you’re making the claim that this is the basis for your experience, I think, is a problem. Part of what we need to do is rebuild trust in our government again. And that means being open and transparent to the American people.” He noted that Republicans are “very comfortable” with renewing the partisan fights of the past decades. “And what we don’t need,” he said, “is another eight years of bickering.”

The issue of the release of Hillary Clinton’s White House records is an issue both Obama and Edwards can use effectively in the campaign in the next two months. We have not heard the last of this issue. The drivers licenses for illegal immigrants issue is sure to trouble the Clinton campaign in the 2008 Presidential election against the Republican candidate.

The Democratic campaign has entered it final two months before an accelerated state primary voting calendar begins. Edwards and Obama have now shown that they are not just in a race to be Hillary Clinton’s Vice Presidential choice. Both are still campaigning to win the nomination. The Democrats’ primary election campaign over the next two months should be interesting to watch.

Was this debate a “pile on” by the Democrats as stated by Hillary Clinton or a Clinton “waffle” on several issues as stated both by Barack Obama and John Edwards? The answer is clear. It was both.