Politico: Diamonds and Pearls for Hillary

By: Roger Simon

LAS VEGAS — "The (rhymes with rich) is back.

In a Democratic debate here Thursday night, Hillary Clinton was not the passive, parsing, punching bag that she was at the last debate in Philadelphia two weeks ago.

She gave as good as she got. And those who tried to kick her, stubbed their toes.

John Edwards got booed when he attacked her for taking money from Washington lobbyists — a charge he has made many times before — and seemed both surprised and irritated.

But when it came to a real stumble, Clinton left that to her chief opponent, Barack Obama.

He tried the same duck-and-cover tactic that Clinton failed at in the last debate and on the same subject: driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.

When CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Obama if he supported giving out such licenses, Obama replied: “When I was a state senator in Illinois, I voted to require that illegal aliens get trained, get a license, get insurance to protect public safety. That was my intention.”

But Blitzer was not going to settle for a non-answer answer and said: “Do you support or oppose driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants?”

Obama replied: “I am not proposing that that’s what we do.”

This led to laughter in the debate hall and it was not the good kind of laughter.

“No, no, no, no, look,” Obama said, trying to stumble his way out of his own answer, but Blitzer was properly relentless.

“This is the kind of question that is sort of available for a yes or no answer,” Blitzer said and the audience laughed again.

And, again, it was not the kind of laughter that Obama wanted to hear.

Finally, Blitzer said: “Senator Obama, yes or no?”

Obama was pinned. “Yes,” he replied.

Clinton neither parsed nor obfuscated — this time. When asked if she would also support driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, she replied with a firm, “No.”

She said nothing more. She didn’t need to.

At the beginning of the debate she said “my pantsuit is asbestos tonight,” but she hardly needed it to be.

This was a night for her opponents to feel the heat and, once again, the worst damage was inflicted by the journalists on the stage and not the other debaters.

At one point, Obama said he would sit down and talk to the leaders of rogue nations such as Iran.

“Hillary and I had a disagreement on this,” he said. “I said I would meet with not just our friends but also with our enemies.”

But Blitzer pointed out that Obama had missed a key Senate vote on Iran.

“This is true and it was a mistake,” Obama said. “This is one of the hazards of running for president.”

No, debates are one of the hazards of running for president.

Though often accused of not being clear on what she would do to save the Social Security system, Clinton was very clear during the debate about one thing: She was against Obama’s plan to increase Social Security taxes on some people making more than $97,000 a year.

“I do not want to fix the problems of Social Security on the backs of middle-class families and seniors,” she said.

“If you lift the cap completely, that is a $1 trillion tax increase. I don't think we need to do that.”

A visibly upset Obama responded: “Understand that only six percent of Americans make more than $97,000 a year. So six percent is not the middle class. It is the upper class!”

Then he lashed out with his strongest language of the evening. “You know,” he said, “this is the kind of thing that I would expect from Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani, where we start playing with numbers.”

But Hillary had scored exactly the way she wanted to: by raising the electability issue.

It is no secret the Republicans intend to come at the Democratic nominate on the issues of immigration and raising taxes.

And Obama has now given them plenty of ammunition on both.

The last question of the evening came from a young woman who laughingly asked Clinton: “Do you prefer diamonds or pearls?”

“Now, I know I’m sometimes accused of not being able to make a choice,” Clinton said with a wicked smile. “I want both.”

And her opponents laid both at her feet Thursday night."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/6926.html