Democratic '08ers Target Frontrunning Hillary

Sept. 27, 2007<br> HANOVER, NH&#151; -- In the build-up to the sixth Democratic presidential debate this year, there were high expectations for every Democratic candidate not named Clinton to come gunning for the frontrunner. Perhaps the fireworks were not quite as bright as the pundits had predicted, but there was no doubt that Sen. Hillary Clinton was taking some heat from her opponents for the Democratic presidential nomination. The rest of the field (and the moderator) kept Clinton on defense for most of the evening, though nobody seemed to be able to land a clean punch that posed any serious harm to Clinton.

After Sen. Clinton once again described her failed battle for universal healthcare in the 1990s as "kind of a lonely fight," Sen. Obama responded by saying, "If it was lonely for Hillary, part of the reason it was lonely, Hillary, was because you closed the door to a lot of potential allies in that process." The Obama campaign later pointed reporters to comments Senators Bill Bradley and Pat Moynihan had made about then First Lady Hillary Clinton's approach in dealing with the Congress on her proposed. healthcare reform package.

Sen. Edwards attempted to draw a clear distinction between himself and Sen. Clinton on a Senate vote to declare Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization. Sen. Clinton voted in favor of the resolution. Edwards sided with Sen. Dodd and Sen. Biden who voted against that resolution today and went on to say that he believes he and Clinton learned very different lessons from their 2002 votes for the Iraq war. "I have no intention of giving George Bush the authority to take the first step on a road to war with Iran," Edwards added. (Sen. Obama was not present for the vote on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.)

Sen. Dodd and Sen. Biden were both probed about their past statements concerning whether or not they believe Sen. Clinton is too polarizing to govern effectively as president. Sen. Dodd, in what is becoming a pattern, was far less aggressive on television than he has been in written press releases distributed by his campaign.