Early Attack

This past week the Democratic candidates for President in 2008 held a debate. The debates at this stage in an election season usually tend to be pretty formulaic. Not much new information is presented, there are too many candidates all trying to make their points, and so on and so forth. The debate this past week however did have a significant difference in it. That difference was in the tone of it. Most polls and media outlets have indicated for awhile now that New York Senator Hilary Clinton is the Democratic frontrunner, and many already feel that she will win the primary and will be the democratic candidate. Well, after this weeks debate you might as well count the rest of the democratic candidates among those who feel she will win the nomination.
For reasons unknown to me all the democratic candidates seemed to basically take the attitude that Clinton is going to win so lets’s all attack her. Much of the debate centered on going after Clinton and pointing out her flaws and weaknesses. To her credit Clinton handled it like a frontrunner should. She took it all in stride and tried to stick with the issues and make her points, doing nothing to lower her frontrunner status. But the real question that one wonders about this is whether or not this is a good idea for the democratic candidates and the party.

At this stage in the campaign is it really smart for the democratic candidates to attack one of their own? No votes have been cast yet, and even though the primary elections are starting earlier than ever this time around the fact still remains nothing has been decided yet. There is still plenty of time for some of the other candidates to gain ground and we have seen many occasions where the person many believed to be a lock for the nomination has been upset in Iowa or New Hampshire and someone else came along and gained momentum. By attacking Clinton as they did the democrats seem to have agreed that she is going to win, and also it shows signs of panic. The democrats should be trying to stand as united as possible at this point, but instead they are going after their own. This just doesn’t seem like smart logic, and frankly the only one it benefits is Hilary Clinton herself.