Iowa Black and Brown Debate

The technology-challenged Black and Brown Debate last night had a great Hillary one-liner to Richardson. Here's myDD's play-by-play:

Richardson to Clinton: He's equating Bill Clinton to himself and asks her "Don't you think Governors make good presidents?" "Well Bill. I also think they make good Vice Presidents." Hilarious. That's her entire answer. Moderator: "Aren't you sorry you asked?" Richardson doesn't know what to do.

Here's what HuffPo said:

The forum also allows candidates to ask other candidates questions.

Dodd and Edwards played along but when Norris asked Kucinich what he would like to ask the other candidates, Kucinich thought for a moment and then said, "Gee, I'm going to ask Congressman Kucinich a question" and then proceeded to ask and answer a question on single payer, nonprofit health care plan, of which he is the only Democratic candidate advocating such a
plan.

The crowd erupted in laughter.

This is the type of thing that accounts for Hillary's position. She's clawed her way to the top of the Democratic heap day by day. She's aided by the flaws of the other candidates, whether it be imbecility (Kucinish, Gravel, Richardson), long congressional track records (Biden, Dodd), or inexperience (Edwards, Obama). Of course, she's in a dead heat with Obama right now in Iowa. That could be the knockout blow if she wins. I don't think that it is necessarily a dead sentence if she looses. If Obama wins, it'll be similar Buchanan winning in 1996 in New Hampshire. Here's what the Democrats will say to themselves: we've got a really good shot at winning the White House in '08, so do we want to blow it by fielding an inexperienced candidate named "Barack Obama"? The frontloaded primary calendar might make this harder, ironically making Iowa and NH more important, as we've said here.