Live-Blogging During Tonight’s Democratic Debate

11:05 pm ET: Rick Klein wrapping it up — Hillary Clinton gave a truly bad answer at the end, on illegal immigration, one that feeds the argument Obama and Edwards were making all night. Did Obama clear the bar he set for himself? Probably yes, but not with much room to spare. Edwards still seems better, though, at finding compelling ways to set himself apart. And other surprises — how about Joe Biden taking on Rudy Giuliani? Is he the new George W. Bush, in terms of punching-bag status?

That’s it for blogging tonight. Check out The Note tomorrow and ABCNews.com tonight for a more full recap…

11:04 pm ET: From ABC’s David Wright: Okay I take it back about the lightning round.  UFO’s, life on mars, driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, legalizing pot, and christmas toys from china.  Oddball questions that have, in the end, sparked some interesting responses.

11:03 pm ET: We’re now talking about Halloween costumes. End this. Now.

10:59 pm ET: This talk of extra-terrestrials is argument enough to making these debates shorter. But Obama’s answer about taking care of life on Earth, that’s a good response to a weird question.

10:58 pm ET: Russert: "Did you see a UFO?" Kucinich: "I did." You can’t make this stuff up.

10:58 pm ET: From ABC’s Jake Tapper: Clinton parsing on the difference between "I think it makes a lot of sense" and "I agree with it" on Gov. Spitzer’s plan to give driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants — confusing. And, whoa, Edwards just went in for the kill. Whoa – so did Obama…. A new issue just was born.

10:56 pm ET: It’s rare that a highlight comes this late in a debate, but Edwards picks up on that inconsistency on immigration: "Sen. Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes." Obama: "I was confused on Sen. Clinton’s answer." And Obama calls the Spitzer plan "the right idea."

10:54 pm ET: Sen. Clinton is actually engaged in a good debate with Sen. Dodd over illegal immigration — harmed by the fact that her stance is less than firm. It’s still not clear whether she supports the initiative of her own governor.

10:50 pm ET: ABC’s David Wright: Whoever came up with the "lightning round" concept should be fired.  It seems we are in for 10 minutes of boilerplate in 30 second chunks.

10:35 pm ET: The last few minutes remind me of why debates should end at 90 minutes. Less energy on the stage, and fewer interesting things to be said.

10:29 pm ET: Clinton really doesn’t want any part of Charlie Rangel’s tax plan. She doesn’t know the details — and here’s guessing she doesn’t want to know them.

10:28 pm ET: The Clinton campaign provides documentation for saying that the healthcare records are available: "The only documents certain to be available at the opening of Clinton’s library are 500,000 pages collected by the health care task force headed by then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. The task force’s proposal for a universal health care system included closed-door meetings and led to one of Clinton’s early first-term defeats. The closed meetings led to a federal court ruling that opened the documents nine years ago." [AP, 9/17/04 <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,132789,00.html> ]

Newsweek, however, reported last week that "some key papers from her health-care task force" remain hidden from public view.

10:18 pm ET: From ABC’s Jake Tapper: I think Obama’s having a pretty good night. And though clearly Clinton’s folks seem to have told her not to engage directly with Obama or Edwards – probably because they think it would only elevate them – I don’t think that has worked. She’s projecting "frontrunner" but I’m not sure it’s projecting "frontrunner you should be content with." And boy — LIHEAP? "Sense of the Senate"? Whoda thunk on a stage with Biden and Dodd that Hillary would be the one with Senate-it-is?!!

10:08 pm ET: Where was that Obama answer going? I’m sort of surprised he didn’t have something more concise to say on Social Security, since he’s identified it as a Clinton inconsistency.

10:06 pm ET: From ABC’s Jake Tapper: All the Republicans are running against Clinton. All the Democrats are running against Bush . . . except for Biden, who is focusing on Rudy Giuliani. Interesting.

10:03 pm ET: Don’t double talk around Tim Russert! Clinton is still maintaining that she has a real position on Social Security. "Fiscal responsibility" is nice if you want to try to balance the budget, but that does not — and will not ever — fix Social Security.

10:02 pm ET: Biden just had a great moment. He has lots of them. Maybe it won’t ever matter, but maybe they add up.

10:01 pm ET: Biden knows Democrats love attacks on Republicans, and not just Bush, but Rudy Giuliani. Laugh line of the night: "There’s only three things he makes in a sentence: A noun and a verb and 9/11. . . . He is genuinely not qualified to be president."

9:54 pm ET: Richarson is the one defending Clinton: "Pretty close to personal attacks." Now he’s the one trying to rise above — what’s his play here? Then he attacks Clinton’s electability, by pointing out that senators are rarely elected president. And really, governor, you don’t agree with Sen. Clinton about a "majority" of the issues?

9:52 pm ET: Obama’s answer about his own experience isn’t bad, but why wouldn’t he hit that one out of the park? The blizzard of bills he worked on — he sounds like, God forbid, a senator.

9:50 pm ET: Another good Edwards line: "If people want the status quo, than they want Sen. Clinton."

9:48 pm ET: From ABC’s David Chalian: Obama’s cleanest swipe of the campaign on Clinton library records. . . Not turning the page — you can’t claim this as your experience and then be secretive about it. Republicans obsessed with HRC is a fight they are comfortable having."

9:46 pm ET: "All of the [healthcare] records, so far as I know . . . are already available." — Clinton. That’s just not true, and Obama calls her on it: "This is an example of not turning the page." "Part of what we have to do is invite the American people back in our government again." And here comes another fresh attack: "What we don’t need is another eight years of bickering." SEE ENTRY AT 10:28 PM FOR UPDATE

9:44 pm ET: Clinton: "In a perverse way, I think the Republicans and their constant obsession with me obviously means they think I’m communicating effectively." Good answer, odd word choice.

9:37 pm ET: Edwards seems to be drawing sharp distinctions tonight as well. But look at Clinton’s face — it DOES NOT MOVE while he goes on the attack, even when it’s not fair. Clinton’s response: "I stand for ending the war in Iraq, bringing the troops home. But also know that it’s going to get complicated, and it’s going to take time."

9:35 pm ET: Now it’s about "credibility" for Obama. He is taking Clinton on from so many different directions tonight, I’ve lost count.

9:33 pm ET: Clinton is strong, concise, and sharp tonight. She is finding ways to contrast herself with the Bush administration even while defending herself. That’s not easy, particularly given the advanced publicity surrounding all the aggressiveness we’re expecting.

9:30 pm ET: Not to harp on Richardson for this, but does he seem like he’s playing outside his weight class when the discussion turns to foreign policy? Sort of surprising for a guy with that much experience in the realm.

9:28 pm ET: Give Biden bonus points for a deep answer as well on foreign policy. So far, this is some serious substance — a wonk’s dream.

9:25 pm ET: "You asked me if I would pledge, and I have pledged." — Clinton, sounding, shall we say, Clintonian. Then Obama gets a bit deeper: "We have been governed by fear these past six years." THERE is the link to his campaign message that was missing earlier this evening. It does seem like the Obama camp has plotted this out a good bit this evening.

9:23 pm ET: Kucinich has a good line: "We have a number of enablers who happen to be Democrats." Then he brings up impeachment. Filling the Gravel role well.

9:22 pm ET: Where is Bill Richardson going in this answer? He just emptied the kitchen sink on Iran — not the clear message he wanted in his first question.

9:20 pm ET: Edwards’ line about how this "sounds familiar" is an effective way into the debate over Iran. "It literally gave Bush and Cheney exactly what they wanted." "Literally the language of the neocons." "How in the world is that . . . Democrats standing up to this president?"

9:18 pm ET: This actually is a real difference in foreign policy, though you have to wade through some deep spin to get there. The shorthand is Clinton as tougher than Obama, but Obama’s more nuanced view does seem like the cleaner break from Bush.

9:16 pm ET: Obama: "I don’t think we should be talking about attacking Iran at this point." Notice that Obama is talking about "the kinds" of foreign policy — not just Bush foreign policy. In his formulation, Bush foreign policy IS Clinton foreign policy.

9:13 pm ET: Another thought on Obama — he seemed to be shifting his message from "judgment" to "flip-flops." It may be a tough case to make against someone as well-known as Hillary Clinton, but it’s definitely a different tack.

9:12 pm ET: So far, Sen. Clinton is acting as if she is alone on the stage. Clearly a strategy of non-engagement.

9:07 pm ET: Edwards is just as aggressive as Obama, but we’re not hearing new language from him yet. Yet if tonight is going to be a pile-on on Clinton, who is going to come out on top? Edwards says "double talk," Clinton replies, essentially, c’mon, you know me. "I have a long record of standing up and fighting," she said. "On specific issues, I have very specific plans." (Though her "very specific plan" on Social Security really isn’t anything beyond a "bipartisan commission." Good, poll-tested lines, but that’s not an answer, senator.)

9:05 pm ET: Clinton chose not to respond on a personal level to Obama. She’s doing what she normally does — rising above. But can that last tonight?

9:03 pm ET: Brian Williams wastes no time — jumps right in by asking Obama to back up his promise of being more aggressive. Obama: "Some of this stuff gets overhyped." Good Philadelphia reference with Rocky — but WHO hyped this fight if not Barack Obama? And here it is: "It does not mean changing positions whenever it’s politically convenient." NAFTA, torture, Iraq — there’s the beginning of your laundry list. "what we need right now is honesty with the American people."

8:51 pm ET: We’re just about ready to rumble — and what makes this debate different already is that we essentially know the storyline in advance. It’s Obama vs. Clinton — but how that shakes down depends on what happens on stage. And to make it fun, it looks like they’re going to be next to each other on stage.

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Rick Klein from ABC’s The Note here — I’ll be online starting at 9 pm ET tonight, blogging from Philadelphia during the Democratic debate. All eyes will be on Barack Obama, as he seeks to deliver on his promise of a sharper series of distinctions with Hillary Clinton. But here’s a fascinating piece of pre-debate spin: Clinton strategist Mark Penn is out with a memo seeking to define "the politics of hope" for Obama — and claiming the label for Clinton herself.

Writes Penn, "Does the ‘politics of hope’ mean launching attacks on one candidate? Or does it mean laying out a vision for the American people? Does it mean questioning a rival’s integrity? Or does it mean talking about the change we need?"

This is some serious spin — what gives Clinton the right to define Obama’s own term? Surely the Clinton campaign would consider any comparison an attack, but that’s not a fair standard to judge Obama, John Edwards, or any other candidate on, is it?

Interested in your thoughts before we begin…

5:50 pm ET: I can’t ever imagine this much pre-debate spin. The Edwards campaign fires back with its own memo, from campaign manager David Bonior: "Unfortunately, the Clinton campaign has made it clear — through its choices, its words and its silence — that it intends to defend the broken system in Washington, where the interests of the American people are bought and sold every day by an army of lobbyists, instead of taking the path that the American people want -– a path that leads to ending the corruption in Washington and bringing the big, bold change we need to America."

7:45 pm ET: We’re a little more than hour out — two quick pieces of buzz. First, and no surprise here, but the stakes are huge for Sen. Obama — and he made them that big by building up expectations that he would go on attack. Here’s a prediction: He’ll be the storyline — in a bad way — if he doesn’t have new things to say that really set himself apart from Sen. Clinton. And the other thing I’ll share is that the best thing that could have happened to Mike Gravel is his exclusion from the debate stage. All the reporters I’m talking to are secretly wishing they could be at his mock debate, with him and a Tivo machine, down the street in Philadelphia.