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  Presidential Debate 2.0: Pussyfooter Clinton, Rainmaker Obama and Steamroller Edwards

Presidential Debate 2.0 Pussyfooter Clinton, Rainmaker Obama and Steamroller Edwards

By Gabor Steingart in Charleston, South Carolina

Part 2: Obama as Hillary's Veep?

Pussyfooter Clinton might soon need just such a rainmaker -- as a candidate for the office of vice president, for example. The primary elections next spring will determine the Democrats' presidential candidate and almost as soon as the elections are called, a running mate will be selected, thus cementing the party's nominees to succeed George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Steamroller Edwards

The office of vice president would appeal to Edwards too. But he will have to start waging a more heavyweight campaign if he wants to get it. The former senator from North Carolina, who earned a fortune as a lawyer prior to his political career, is trailing far behind Obama in the polls. The most recent poll, conducted for the Washington Post and ABC News, saw Edwards getting 12 percent of the vote, Obama getting 30 percent and Clinton far in the lead with 45 percent.

And so Edwards' campaign managers want to crank it up for the final sprint. They have chosen the role of steamroller for him -- the strongman, a straight-talker who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty.

Edwards pleaded tirelessly for a higher minimum wage, demanded socialized medicine and flatly rejected nuclear energy. Addressing interest groups, he said "you need someone who is taking these people on and beating them over and over and over" instead of seeking compromise. His plans are more ambitious than just repairing the healthcare system though. He wants to revolutionize it. "When are we going to stand up and do something about this? We have talked about it too long," he said. Almost 50 million people in the United States live without health insurance.

Edwards tried to trump Obama's desire for change wherever he could. The country doesn't need just any change, he said, but a "big change," a "real change."

Whenever Edwards couldn't deliver the clear positions expected of him because he accommodated his party's prudish stance, he would mention his wife Elisabeth. In a YouTube video message, a lesbian couple asked the family man: "If you were elected president of the United States, would you allow us to be married to each other?" Edwards replied: "I personally have been on a journey on this issue. I feel enormous conflict about it, as I think a lot of people know. My wife Elisabeth spoke out a few weeks ago and she actually supports gay marriage. I do not, but this is a very, very difficult issue for me, and I recognize and have respect for people who have a different view on it."

Dreams Of Hillaryland

The advisors called the shots both before and after the TV event. After the debate, the masterminds showed up in a room specially prepared for them -- the spin room -- in order to explain to journalists what the candidates had really meant.

South Carolina's former superintendent for education, Inez Tenenbaum, was there. With a pious upward glance, she gave her opinion on who deserved the title of winner for the evening's performance: Obama, of course. "He was the star of the debate," she said, adding that his was the only fresh face, that of an outsider whom one virtually has to recognize as a "new leader." And then she asked rhetorically: "Don't you think?"

A few feet away, Elisabeth Edwards praised her husband. Her face was flushed, and her dotted blouse was heaving. The woman had talked herself into a rage. Her husband is the only one who stands up to these damn lobbyists, she insisted. All you have to do is take a look at who finances the campaigns of the other candidates, she astutely added.

Joe Trippi, Edwards' top strategic advisor, stood next to her and nodded vigorously. The interest groups must not be given what Obama had called "a seat at the table," he said. They should have no seat at all, since they have had too many seats for too long. The issue is not about the right or the left, but about what is right, he emphasized. His candidate will soon overtake Obama, he added, no doubt about it.

Meanwhile, pussyfooter Clinton maintained a noble distance, sending only her Internet advisor, who politely praised the "exciting and very direct questions from young people" before sitting down in his electric cart and driving out of the citadel. The cart was adorned with a sticker that revealed what its owner will be dreaming of in the coming months: "Hillaryland."

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