Nevada Democratic Presidential Debate 1-15-08

Here's the transcript (some problems with their version) of Tuesday's Nevada Democratic Presidential debate. Also the NY Times has the complete transcript.

Did Obama and Hillary kiss and makeup?:

CLINTON: Well, I think what’s most important is that Senator Obama and I agree completely that, you know, neither race nor gender should be a part of this campaign.

[...]So I very much appreciate what Senator Obama and I did yesterday, which is that we both have exuberance and sometimes uncontrollable supporters; that we need to get this campaign where it should be....We’re all family in the Democratic Party.

[...]OBAMA: Well, I think Hillary said it well. You know, we are, right now, I think, in a defining moment in our history. We’ve got a nation at war. Our planet is in peril. And the economy is putting an enormous strain on working families all across the country.

[...]OBAMA: I think our party has stood for that. Dr. King stood for that. I hope that my campaign has inspired that same sense, that there’s much more that we hold in common than what separates us.

And that is how I want to move this campaign forward and I hope that’s how it moves forward.

What a strange criticism. Williams is equating what Hillary did and Obama did. Sounds like something out of the Clinton playbook:

WILLIAMS: But another given was at the last televised debate, when you, in a comment directed to Senator Clinton, looked down and said, “You’re likable enough, Hillary.”

That caused Frank Rich to write, on the op-ed page of the New York Times, that it was “your most inhuman moment, to date.” And it clearly was a factor and added up.

Senator Obama, do you regret the comment, and comments like that, today?

OBAMA: Well, I absolutely regret it because that wasn’t how it was intended. I mean, folks were giving Hillary a hard time about likability. And my intention was to say, “I think you’re plenty likable.”

This was really tough from Obama, but right on:

I have to say that when Senator Clinton uses the specter of a terrorist attack with a new prime minister during a campaign, I think that is part and parcel with what we’ve seen the use of the fear of terrorism in scoring political points. And I think that’s a mistake. Now, I don’t want to perpetuate that.

Read the entire debate...

Here's an alternative to the same old politics as usual that we are hearing from the candidates.