Their debate truce obliterated in a blizzard of recriminations, Democratic candidates for president on Monday questioned one another’s honesty and fitness for the White House in a televised confrontation notable for its nasty tone.
The harshness of their exchanges was an odd coda to a day in which the Democrats paid tribute to the nonviolent movement propelled by the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday was celebrated Monday and in whose honor the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and CNN sponsored the two-hour session.
The bitterness was particularly acute between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, who belittled each other as if opening their opposition-research files and flinging out the contents. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards forced his way into the debate at several points as if to remind voters of a calmer, less divisive option.
The sharpest exchange came near the opening of the debate, when Obama was asked to respond to criticism by Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, that the Illinois senator’s economic stimulus proposal doesn’t add up. Obama tersely denied it, leading Clinton to mock his comments.
I did not see the debate, but a political analyst on the morning news radio interview a few, one white male republican (so not in any interest on any side) commented he thought it was a good debate on the issues and you could learn a lot of the differences between the candidates but all people will remember is the sound-bite tiff.
By virtue of original sin, there will always be something on each of us that someone else can drag out and use to attack us. I wish that the candidates, all of whom profess to be Christians, would see this and get past these petty character attacks. The debate on the issues was OK, but there were some missed opportunities, especially on the economy and national security.
This sort of jabbing between candidates is, together with special-interest fund-raising, one of the worst sides of electoral politics. (Not the worst, though: at least these jabs weren’t mostly aimed at the back.)
But let’s remember why candidates attack each other: it works. We as voters respond more strongly and reliably to the negative than to the positive.
My advice, let them go at it. I don’t want either of them in office, and their bickering will benefit the Republican candidates.