Watching Tuesday's parallel campaign dramas

Back in Las Vegas, at the Democrats’ debate, the backdrop was this: The Clinton and Obama campaigns had spent the previous seven days waging a war of words over, among other things, whether Clinton showed sufficient respect to Martin Luther King and Obama.

Obama, asked by NBC’s Tim Russert about his campaign operatives who had issued a statement alleging that the Clinton camp had used race-based politicking, brushed it off as the action of “overzealous” staffers.

By about 30 minutes into the debate, the race-gender fracas seemed shelved.

Is Obama up to the job?
The debate got interesting when the talk turned to whether Obama was really up to the job of being president.

Russert asked Clinton what the consequences would be for the fall election of her refusing to say whether Obama is ready to be president.

“I have the highest regard for both Sen. Obama and Sen. Edwards. … When we have a nominee we’re going to have a unified Democratic Party.” But she asked, “Who is ready on Day One?” to handle foreign and economic challenges.

Later Obama turned his fire on Clinton, implying that she was exploiting what he called the “politics of fear” and using “the specter of a terrorist attack” in her reference to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown being tested by al-Qaida.

“That is part and parcel with what we’ve seen in the use of the fear of terrorism in scoring political points. ... That’s part of why we ended up going into Iraq,” said Obama.

It was a clever linkage of Clinton with President Bush.

But Clinton stuck to her implication: Voters should worry about whether a new president has the stuff to face what she called “a relentless enemy.“

She said she felt the national security imperative “acutely because I do represent New York.”

At times, Obama echoed Clinton, saying he would “call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff” and order them to “start to phase out” the American entanglement in Iraq. He also quoted 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Mike Dukakis as promising to bring “good jobs at good wages” if elected.

The debate took place four days before the Democrats' Nevada caucuses, with the Silver State serving as a test of the Democrats’ Western states strategy.

Some party strategists hope to offset the Democrats' weakness in the South with November Election Day wins in Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, all of which Bush won in 2004.

Clyburn 'very proud' of Obama
Earlier Tuesday, in Washington, House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn, the chief Democratic power broker in South Carolina, which holds its Democratic primary in 10 days, told reporters it was “a shame” that the Clinton-Obama war of words had overshadowed discussion of the issues.

Although he said he'd remain neutral in the South Carolina primary, he also said very sympathetic things about Obama.

Asked about the Clinton camp’s argument that Obama has inadequate experience to be president, Clyburn emphatically said, “I don’t think that’s a valid argument at all.”

Clyburn recalled chatter several months ago asking, “'Is Obama black enough?' Now they’re talking about, ‘Is he too black?’ I said back then that was not a discussion we ought to be having.”

The Democratic whip said he had done everything he could to ensure that his three daughters “would not have to answer those kinds of questions.”

He then noted that his daughter Mignon and Obama are the same age. “I’m very proud of Mignon; I’m very proud of Barack. That’s what I worked for.”

Picking the president: The candidates Click to visit that candidate's MSNBC page or click the XML symbol for an RSS feed. John McCain                Barack Obama

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