The rest of the Dem Debate
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Welcome to Drexel University, the site of tonight’s Democratic presidential debate. Let’s get started with Senator Barack Obama. Senator, you’ve vowed to spend this entire debate standing on Senator Clinton’s windpipe while reducing her to a quivering mass of jelly. How do you plan on doing that?There is more great sarcasm and ridicule as Edwards talks about two Irans. Democrats are desperately in need of this kind of ridicule, because they are taking themselves far too seriously for people who really are not serious about solving the problems we face. Their position of Iran is double diplomacy without the threat of coercive force. In fact they want to preemptively withdraw that threat "do the best they can" to stop Iran from wiping Israel off the map, but if they fail it will be just like Bill Clinton's promise of a middle class tax cut in 1992 followed by a huge tax increase when he got in office, but he did try really hard to come up with a tax cut.SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: Well, Brian, as you know the goal of my campaign is to make this country as noble as I am. But without casting aspersion or criticism in any direction, I have noticed that Senator Clinton, probably without meaning to, has not fully contextualized her discourse, which has had the effect of diffusing the national conversation we must have about the tremendous challenges we face.
WILLIAMS: Senator Clinton, I’m going to give you a few seconds to recover from that mauling.
SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON (quietly weeping): Thank you, Brian.
TIM RUSSERT: Senator Edwards, let’s turn to you. Four years ago, you vowed to run an entirely positive campaign. Now you’re running a negative one. What changed?
JOHN EDWARDS: My convictions, Tim. The American people want a president they can trust. Four years ago I went from being a centrist New Democrat to a left-wing populist because I wanted voters to be able to trust that I would stand up against the forces of opportunism in this country. Now I stand up to the megarich lawyers. I stand up to the hedge fund managers, the big spenders and the McMansion owners. Basically, I’ve been standing up to myself. And I don’t take money from Washington lobbyists. I take money from the people who hire Washington lobbyists, which means a savings of, like, 15 percent.
RUSSERT: Senator Clinton?
CLINTON: First, I want to pre-emptively agree with what everybody will say on all sides of every issue in this debate. That’s why the Republicans are so afraid of me. Second, I want to congratulate the Boston Red Sox. I’ve been a Red Sox fan my whole life ...
WILLIAMS: Senator Biden, a different topic. If the Iranians vaporize Tel Aviv with a nuclear weapon, should Democrats ask them to apologize?
SENATOR JOE BIDEN: Well, I ...
WILLIAMS: Sorry, your time has expired. Senator Obama, same question.
OBAMA: Absolutely not, Brian. If you look at this administration’s record on Iran, you see a lot of pejorative words, some of them very hurtful. We Democrats need to have the courage to counter the politics of fear by using the word “diplomacy” six and seven times in one sentence — eight, if necessary.
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Diplomacy without the credible use of force is is useless. We have had 28 years of diplomacy with Iran and all it has gotten us is a few scandals and little else to show for it.
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