Significant issues elude presidential debate

A Denver Post columnist points out that in the latest Democratic presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, it was 43 minutes into the debate before Iraq was discussed. He called this the fault of the press who was conducting the debate, but political infighting between Barack and Hillary was at least as much to blame.

What it amounts to is that Americans can tell you what Barack has said about guns and church among small town folks, or how Hillary lied about her trip to Bosnia, but have no idea where the candidates stand on health care, the economy or Iraq. As usually happens in election, trivia overtakes significance every time.

This becomes an increasing problem for Democrats, the longer the fight between Barack and HIllary drags on. The longer the candidates can be kept focused on each other, tearing each other from stem to stearn, the more of a free ride John McCain and the Republicans get. With an unpopular incumbent GOP president in George W. Bush, it would be better politically for the Democrats to concentrate their fire there. The longer they can be kept from doing that, the better it is for the GOP's fall electoral chances.

If Hillary loses Pennsylvania, its probably all over. It may be anyway, as she is thought to be seriously short of money. But any kind of win this coming Tuesday in Pennsylvania, its on to North Carolina and Indiana, the next biggies, Hillary will go. National Democratic Chairman Howard Dean, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, recognize the desirability of the party coalesing around a single candidate as soon as possible and are calling on the Superdelegates to take the lead in doing so. So far it seems to be falling on deaf ears.

As much as anything, this indicates the depth of the split within the Democratic ranks, and how close the two candidates really are. It will make it that much more difficult to paper over, when the actual candidate is finally selected. John McCain is a more moderate Republican, who can appeal more easily than many GOPers, to Democrats. Disgruntled losers, when the die is cast, could leave McCain in a very formidable position come November.

This lack of sharp distinctions between the candidates on issues means the division is done on trivial stuff. We're seeing that already.