Democrats Debate—continued

Sat, January 05, 2008 - 9:53 PM

Experience is having a moment at the Manchester debate.

Obama states the obvious: The American people are hungry for a different kind of politics. They want to reduce the power of lobbyists. And, that's "something I have done..."

Speaking of experience, Richardson summarizes his resume. "I'm the only person here who has actually balanced budgets..." He has lowered taxes, insured kids under 12, improved education. "The next president is going to have to have foreign policy experience," he says. "I'm the only one who has had...the higherst national security clearance." He's on a roll. He says he's had experience, been tested. Everybody else looks mildly annoyed.

Edwards says he has been fighting special interests all is life. Charles Gibson of ABC asks Edwards for something significant he acomplished in 6 years in the Senate. Edwards says he worked with Senators McCain and Kennedy on a Patients Bill of Rights. "This battle is personal to me," he says. When he sees lawmakers and lobbyists at cocktail parties, "the picture I get in my head" is of his father and grandmother going into the mill to work every day.

Obama's got his own personal tale. When his mother dying of cancer, she was in her hospital bed reading insurance forms to keep the insurance company from withholding coverage as a pre-existing condition .

Clinton brings the reveries to a close. Asking for "a reality break for a minute," she notes that the Patients Bill of Rights Edwards cited as his big accomplishment isn't law. It never passed the House. And, when it comes to lobbyists, she said, the chairman of Obama's campaign in New Hampshire is a lobbyist for the drug companies.

"What we've got to do is translate talk into action and feeling into reality," she said. "I have a long history of doing that....I'm an agent of change."

-- Marsha Mercer