Nov. 15 Democratic debate transcript

Blitzer: John, a quick thought from you, John Roberts?

John Roberts: Well, it will be interesting to watch how John Edwards and Barack Obama comport themselves tonight. They know that there is a crack in Hillary Clinton's suit of armor. Can they get inside there and wedge it open just a little bit more? It is a natural for John Edwards to go in and try and do that. Barack Obama, he has a different personality.

Roberts: He tends to shy away from direct conflict like that. We'll see how strong he can be tonight.

Blitzer: Our Emmy Award-winning best political team on television, and they're standing by. All that coming up.

And even before we begin watching all of this unfold, we want to give some housekeeping items to all of you, on behalf of all of us.

First of all, I'd like to thank our hosts, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the Nevada State Democratic Party...

... and the people of Nevada, so the candidates -- they don't have to use up all of their valuable time doing it themselves. Thanks to all of you.

The debate tonight will be in two halves. In the second part, we will hear directly from some of this group of about 100 undecided Nevada Democrats. We look forward to hearing what's on their minds tonight. That's coming up.

But for roughly this, the first hour, questions will be asked by CNN anchors Campbell Brown and John Roberts. We're more or less, by the way, on the honor system, here tonight. There will be no loud bells, no flashing lights. The candidates all know they'll have a little bit more than a minute to respond to these opening questions.

If they lose track, I'll gently try to remind them. Some answers, by the way, might even be less than a minute. You never know.

Then we'll try to spend the next six or seven minutes following up on that specific subject. At my discretion, I'll ask either that candidate or any of the other candidates here up on the stage to weigh in on that topic.

We hope in the process to get a real conversation going on important issues. There are few other rules other than this.

Candidates must stay on the topic of the original question. If they stray or try to answer a question on another topic, I'll gently try to stop them immediately, and then we'll move on to another candidate for a question -- another candidate or a question, that is.

That's enough from me, at least for now.

So let's begin our questioning tonight, Campbell Brown.

Campbell?

Brown: Senator Clinton, recently in an interview on CNN, you said of the last debate that you weren't at your best that day.

You stumbled on an important question involving illegal immigration. But your opponents are saying that that's really part of a larger pattern with you, that you often avoid taking firm positions on controversial issues. And one of your opponents on this stage calls this "the politics of parsing."

How do you respond to that?

Hillary Clinton: Well, Campbell, I am happy to be here tonight. And this pantsuit, it's asbestos tonight.

So I am aware that some people say that, but I think that the American people know where I've stood for 35 years. I've been fighting for issues affecting women and children, workers and families.

I've been fighting for universal health care.

And I know that people are looking at this campaign and evaluating us, and I've put forth very specific policies about what I will do as president.

Because this has to be a big election. This is going to be one of the most important elections we've ever had in our country's history. And it is important that we have a candidate who is tested and a president who is ready to lead from day one.

And I'm perfectly comfortable leaving these assessments up to the American people to make their judgments among us.