Democratic South Carolina Debate: Obama, Clinton Take The Gloves Off

Logan Murphy, Crooks and Liars: During [Monday evening’s] Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama engaged in what is by far the most heated and ugly exchange in the 2008 campaign and brought boos from the audience.

Clinton brings up Obama’s past statements on Iraq and refers to a recent statement he made about Ronald Reagan — and it was on. Clinton accused Obama of not being consistent in his statements about Iraq and his stance on Republican programs and Obama shot back sharply. There’s plenty of nastiness in this exchange, both candidates took brutal shots at each other.

Obama: "…Because when I was working on those streets watching those folks see their jobs shipped overseas, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board of Wal-Mart. I was fighting these fights."

Clinton: "I was fighting those ideas while you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum-landlord business in inner city Chicago."

HuffingtonPost.com: One of the more heated moments from Monday's Democratic debate came during a discussion of Barack Obama's recent comments about Ronald Reagan, which he said had been distorted by Hillary and Bill Clinton.Hillary Clinton told Obama, "You talked about Ronald Reagan being a transformative political leader. I did not mention his name." Obama responded, "Your husband did." She shot back, "Well, I'm here. He's not. And..." But Obama interrupted, "Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes." (Included in the clip at 06:20.)

LSB: Right on, Barak! Bill, who has every right to support his wife, is out of control. He's manic in his support of his wife. Like it or not, he is a former President and SHOULD be neutral - or at least less vocal - until a candidate has been selected. If Bill is this vocal now, what can we expect of him as First Gentleman? I didn't vote for Hillary in 1992 or 1996 as she was the candidate's spouse - not the candidate. If Hillary takes the convention this year, I'm not sure if I can use that same logic in 2008. Chill Bill!

MSNBC: Can Democratic leaders get Bill Clinton to 'pipe down'? Prominent Democrats, including Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), recently told former President Bill Clinton he has to tone down his campaign rhetoric against Barack Obama. Jonathan Alter, who broke that story for Newsweek, explained to the hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe that the party leaders felt that, although it was acceptable for Clinton to say nice things about his wife, it was "inappropriate for a former president -- and the guy who is informally still the head of the Democratic Party -- to be out trashing another Democrat."