Dems Debate in the Iowa Morning

The Democratic Presidential debate in Iowa yesterday morning - on ABC-TV - was a fine, articulate exchange. But it had no real surprises, and certainly no knock-out punches.

I continue to be impressed with Obama's position as an outsider - not going along with conventional Washington wisdom on how to deal with world leaders, and correctly putting out that it was the traditional Congressional way of doing things that got us involved in Iraq in the first place. (And kudos here to Bill Richardson, for pointing out that we should have had a Declaration of War - as required by the Constitution - something which only Ron Paul among the Republicans seems able to point out.)

But Hillary continues to be appealing as well, for different reasons. The more Karl Rove attacks her, the better Hillary looks - and responds. Her point about knowing how to beat the Republicans is very well taken. (Well, Gore beat the Republicans too in 2000 - certainly in the popular vote - but no doubt not by the margins that Bill Clinton achieved in 1996 and 1992. My preferred Democratic ticket for 2008, by the way, would still be Gore and Obama.)

John Edwards continues to say good things. I still don't find him as compelling as Obama or Hillary - but his voice deserves to be heard, and the polls in Iowa show a three-way tie among Obama, Clinton, and Edwards.

The truth is, for my money, any of the Democrats are easily better than any of the Republicans, with the exception of Ron Paul.