Walter Shapiro writes in his regular post-debate analysis at Salon that last night's Democratic debate in Myrtle Beach got really testy. It was "about as nasty a debate as we've seen in this presidential cycle, and Mitt Romney was not even in the state." Clinton seems to get most of the blame, while Obama simply fought back. But at center of the wrangle is the same old issue: does America want a "Clinton dynasty"?
The hardest thing to calculate are the political ramifications surrounding Bill Clinton's increasingly prominent role in his wife's campaign. Early in the pie-throwing segment of the debate, Obama complained, "One of the things that happened in the course of this campaign ... [is] a set of assertions by Sen. Clinton, as well as her husband, that are not factually accurate." What Obama was, in essence, saying is, "Buy one exaggerator (Hillary) and get one free (Bill)."
Perhaps it was inevitable that any serious challenger to the former first lady would have to take on the whole Clinton machine. It would be intriguing to ferret out what the internal Obama polling is saying about the former president's involvement in the campaign. What we do know is that a national CBS News/New York Times poll, conducted after the New Hampshire primary that Hillary won, found that 43 percent of Democratic primary voters believe that it is a "bad thing" for just two families (the Bushes and the Clintons) to share the White House for 20 years.
Shapiro thinks the Dems may have lost their shine last night.
The Democrats have long prided themselves on the history-making aspects of their presidential field. ... But after Monday's mayhem in Myrtle Beach, the pride was -- at least momentarily -- gone. All that remained were the scars from a family argument that had turned horribly awry.
