With the latest Ohio poll showing Senator Hillary Clinton holding an eight-point percentage lead over Barack Obama in the Buckeye state, the Democratic debate held on the campus of Cleveland State University, might have been Clinton’s last real chance to connect with voters and hold off her surging opponent. The thinking is if the New York senator doesn’t win primaries in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday, and in convincing fashion, she’ll likely be encouraged to concede the nomination to Obama in order to prevent a superdelegate bloodbath.
        It was obvious the plan was for Hillary to come out swinging, the problem is it made her look desperate and harried, while Barack came off calm cool and collected. Her whining about always being asked the first question was sophomoric; and the way she resorted to semantics over whether Obama denounced or rejected Farrakhan’s endorsement was a pathetic attempt to stir up the Jewish community against him.
        I’m not sure if Hillary should be asked the first question or not during these debates, but I’m convinced health care should be set aside until the end of the evening. For the second debate in a row, both nit-picked to death each other’s health care plans, proposals which are nearly identical. Chris Matthews made an excellent point about their annoying hair-splitting over health care, saying they both act like they’re fine-tuning a system already in place. The point the Hard Ball host was making is they’re eating up valuable time breaking down a make-believe program.
        By the way, just for the record, MSNBC reported Clinton was asked the first question, six out of the last 10 debates.
        If you want to end the debate on a high note, I found it odd that Clinton, when asked by Tim Russert which vote she most regretted, mentioned her vote authorizing the war in Iraq. With all the votes she has cast in the Senate over the last eight years, why would she remind voters about her greatest blunder, Iraq; all it did was drive home the view that she didn’t have the wisdom or the foresight to question the administration’s Baghdad offensive. If Clinton offered up Iraq as a way of formally apologizing for Iraq, something she’s been reluctant to do, it’s a little too late for saying she made a mistake; that’s something that should have been done long ago.
        Only time will tell, but I’d be shocked if Clinton made much headway Tuesday night spoiling her opponent’s growing appeal to voters. Rodger Govea, political science professor at Cleveland State University, thought the ``undecided and independents will be more impressed by Obama than Clinton.  Clinton, Govea explained, was attempting to solidify her support in Ohio, which has been slipping.  It was the equivalent of rapping them on the head and saying "wake up, you bozos! you're about to defect to the wrong guy."  
        Obama seems to be gaining more confidence and looking more presidential with each passing debate, throwing compliments at his opponent while pointing out their differences in a stately way. Hillary, by comparison, throws mud pies and tells voters not to dream the impossible dream.
        You would have never known by watching the debate from the CSU's Wolstein Center that  it was taking place from the Rock-N-Roll capital of the world, not by the sound of the audience, it seemed so well behaved and orderly. Before the debate ended and the 20,000 in attendance broke out in applause, there was barely a whisper to be heard. Joel Lieske, political science professor at CSU, informs me that Tim Russert strongly encouraged audience members to exercise restraint during the debate. In other words, hold their applause until the very end.  I guess we can be thankful the cherubic Meet the Press host didn’t show similar restraint in pressing the candidates hard on a number of issues. Too often Obama and Clinton have turned debates hosted by CNN (especially the ones on Wolf Blitzer's watch) into long-winded info commercials and stump speeches.
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net