Targeting Rivals, Clinton Gets Back on Track

Edwards, whose presence didn't seem to dominate this debate as it did the last one, went after Clinton for defending the status quo in Washington. "She continues to defend a system that does not work, that is broken, that is rigged and is corrupt," Edwards said.

Again, Clinton pushed back. "I don't mind taking hits on my record on issues, but when someone starts throwing mud at least we can hope that it's both accurate and not right out of the Republican playbook," she said.

Clinton also got the opportunity to work in a special appeal to women voters when CNN's Campbell Brown asked her what she meant at Wellesley a couple of weeks ago when she mentioned the all "boys club" of presidential politics. Clinton responded with a sly and knowing, "Campbell… " She went on to say, "Well, it is clear, I think, from women's experiences that from time to time, there may be some impediments."

Obama delivered his toughest hit on Clinton when discussing her refusal to endorse lifting the salary cap on taxable income for Social Security.

"Understand that only 6 percent of Americans make more than $97,000 a year. So 6 percent is not the middle class. It is the upper class. You know, this is the kind of thing that I would expect from [Republican presidential hopefuls] Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani, where we start playing with numbers. We start playing with numbers in order to try to make a point," said Obama.

"And we can't do that. No, no, no. This is too important — this is too important for us to pretend that we are using numbers like a trillion dollar tax cut instead of responsibly dealing with the problem," he added. However, the punch didn't land cleanly because he clearly meant to say tax hike instead of "cut" and Clinton made sure to correct him, like a teacher would to her student, during her next response.

There are still seven weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses and clearly much can happen between now and then. But this much is clear: This 16-day period of Clinton playing defense and struggling to get a handle on all the attacks coming from her opponents has come to a close. Obama and Edwards will now have to look for another opportunity to grab a foothold to drive the narrative as cleanly as they were able to do over the last couple of weeks. Luckily for them, in the volatile world of presidential politics such an opportunity may not be that far off in the distance.