A night for Obama and Biden
THERE WERE no big winners last night, but there were two figures who managed to stand out on a stage cluttered with candidates: Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Obama, the youngest and least experienced of the Democratic hopefuls, won several verbal duels with John Edwards, who was aggressively trying to draw distinctions with him and Hillary Clinton on Iraq and their respective plans to expand healthcare coverage.
When Edwards accused Obama and Clinton of failing to lead on ending the Iraq war because they hadn't drawn attention in advance to their opposition to the latest war-funding bill, Obama reminded his rival that he, unlike Edwards, had opposed the war from the beginning.
"So you're about four and a half years late on leadership on this issue," he noted, in a tone that managed to be both pleasant and pointed.
Later, when Edwards tried to poke holes in Obama's less comprehensive healthcare plan, saying that without an individual mandate children wouldn't be covered, Obama replied: "John, I've got mandatory insurance for children for exactly that reason."
And he had another notable moment in telling Dennis Kucinich, who would consider a missile targeting of Osama bin Laden an assassination, that it would be legitimate to "take out" the terrorist that way, even at the cost of some civilian lives.
All in all, Obama's was a strong performance, one that gave away nothing at all to the front-runner, Clinton, who came off as smart and competent, but for all that, didn't turn in as many memorable moments.
Of the second tier candidates, it was Biden's night. Biden was forceful -- and funny -- about letting gays and lesbians serve openly in the military. The candidate who seemed most knowledgeable about foreign affairs, he also spoke powerfully and passionately about establishing a no-fly zone to help end genocide in Darfur.
Like Obama's, Biden's was a performance certain to win him some notice.
Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com. 