Clinton Attacks, Obama Parries

FROM THESTREET.COM:

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama dueled in their final Democratic debate in Cleveland on Tuesday night. Clinton ignored her colleague Sen. Chris Dodd's call for unity earlier Tuesday and passionately attacked Obama on a variety of issues.

Obama deflected most of the attacks, clearly improving on his performance in prior debates. Obama made no serious errors under pressure, much to Clinton's chagrin. Should he become the Democratic nominee, he might want to thank Clinton for taking him to task over policy and substance.

And he's looking more like the nominee unless Clinton can sweep both Ohio and Texas on Tuesday.

The first attacks of the debate came on health care, a topic I have covered in detail. Obama has tried to paint Clinton's mandate of universal coverage as a bad thing because some people may not be able to afford it. But this ignores a few key points. Clinton's plan has significant subsidies for those who cannot afford insurance.

Furthermore, Obama's plan has mandates for children but not their parents. Clinton pointed out that this mandate won't help kids if their parents get sick.

Both candidates hope to get universal coverage passed. But many Republicans will dislike both plans because they call for taxpayer dollars to be spent on health care.

Both candidates have also been crisscrossing Ohio, hammering the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), trying to curry favor with voters unhappy about the loss of manufacturing jobs there. But demagoguery won't bring jobs back to Ohio.