SIOUX CITY, Iowa - It was very early on a Sunday morning in Iowa - and, believe me, it doesn't get much earlier than that anywhere - and I thought maybe the triple espresso hadn't kicked in yet as I turned on the Republican debate.

So, I checked the transcript later to be sure.

I searched for "Hillary." Nothing. I searched for "Clinton." Nothing. I even searched for "rhymes with witch." Nothing. Nothing. And nothing.

So, it was true. If you watched the 90-minute Republican debate on This Week, moderated by George Stephanopoulos, not once did you hear any of the nine invoke the dark shadow of Sen. Inevitability. That has to be the upset of this debate-filled weekend. I know it was early, but I didn't think it could ever be that early.

What could it mean? And had anyone consulted Rush Limbaugh?

Clinton had been knocked around plenty just the day before - but that was by fellow Democrats. At the YearlyKos event in Chicago Saturday, Clinton somehow found herself cornered into defending lobbyists - she takes their money; Edwards and Obama do not - and, in defending them, she went so far as to suggest that lobbyists might actually be people, too. (If you cut them, do they not bleed . . . money?)

By the way, here's the money quote from Clinton:

"You know, a lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans. They actually do. They represent nurses. They represent, you know, social workers. They represent . . . yes, they represent corporations. They employ a lot of people. The idea that somehow a contribution is going to influence you - I just ask you to look at my record. I have been fighting for the same thing, my core values have not changed."

Later, John Edwards would ask how many in the audience had their own lobbyists. How about you in the reading audience?

The crowd of maybe 1,500 mostly liberal bloggers predictably hissed and booed Clinton's lobbyist lobbying, but the surprise, it turned out, was how infrequently Clinton was hissed or booed Saturday. (The official count was twice, but one came when she mentioned she was a Cubs fan and not a White Sox fan, which may need an asterisk.)

Before the debate, she did a breakout session with a room full of bloggers, a session that was more like a group hug - if you don't count the guy who was passing around anti-Clinton-dynasty buttons. She got softball questions, and a steroid-free debate champion, Clinton kept hitting them out of the park.

You don't have to read, uh, hate-filled Web sites to know the liberal blogosphere is Edwards territory. And Edwards, who otherwise keeps slipping in the polls, was the clear winner in this debate. Who knew they'd be so forgiving of a hedge-fund guy? But all that was in doubt was who could get louder - Edwards or the crowd. When Edwards said his wife would be White House blogger-in-chief, you'd have thought he announced universal high-speed Internet in our time.

And, of course, it wasn't just Edwards that Clinton was up against. Chicago is literally Barack Obama territory, and Obama is nearly as popular with the Netroots as Edwards. The word you kept hearing in the debate was "change," and "change," in this room, does not mean changing back to 1992. LOL.

When the booing began, Clinton went into defensive mode, saying, half-jokingly, she was "waiting for this." The next day, presidential politics shifted from Chicago to Iowa, where the Republicans were taking their turn. And Clinton must have been waiting for more, or even worse. She didn't get it. Apparently, there was only a vast left-wing conspiracy.

Instead, it was almost all Obama.

If you're in the Clinton camp, it's when they stop saying terrible things about you that you should be worried (I'd put the over and under at 36 hours before they are ripping her again.)

Mitt Romney was ready. He dominated the debate - although, to give Tom Tancredo his due, Tancredo did use his time to reassure the audience that he was serious about being ready to bomb either Mecca or Medina, if necessary.

Here's Romney on Obama's foreign policy: "In one week he went from saying he's going to sit down, you know, for tea, with our enemies, but then he's going to bomb our allies. I mean, he's gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove in one week."

(And the State Department, meanwhile, on Tancredo's Strangelovian tale: "Absolutely crazy.")

It's no mystery why Obama is at the center of every political conversation now. He has put himself there. I've kept waiting for Obama to make a real move, other than simply toward the bank.

And it's no mystery why Romney attacked him. You have to be on the offense when you're stuck defending your party's 30-percent president and his war.

In one week, Obama made a major foreign policy speech in which he said that if he could locate Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, he'd go after him, even without Pakistan's permission. He also said, in an off-hand comment, he wouldn't - note to Tancredo - use nukes in the process. He also had a running debate with Clinton about who was more "naive." Whoever won on the merits, it appears Obama was no naif in the polling.

Speaking of polls, one from the Washington Post showed that only 19 percent of Iowa Republicans were "very satisfied" with their choices.

At the Kos convention, a self-satisfied Howard Dean - is there any other kind of Howard Dean? - said of the Republican field, "Don't they look like they're out of the 1950s?"

That may explain why Republicans may not agree to a YouTube debate. Poor John McCain looked like he was having trouble staying awake in this debate. Maybe he needed a loud Wassup. Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson - who isn't even in the race yet - have been spending time defending their respective wives. And, given they've had five between them, that could take some time.

Stephanopoulos opened the debate by showing an attack by Sam Brownback against Romney. It was a good opening, but he had real trouble finding anyone who wanted to play along. It was that kind of debate.

Yes, Mike Huckabee had another good showing. Someday he may even break 10 percent in the polls. This would be the time.

This is the week of the Ames straw poll, and Romney is the only front-runner competing, meaning he has to win big just to win at all. You can expect some of the second tier to drop out.

And, meanwhile, to see how the Democrats are doing, you should watch the Republicans.

If you'd gotten up early enough Sunday, you would have seen it was a good weekend for Obama.

littwinm@RockyMountainNews.com

Back to Top