Obama Plays Defense

Chicago Tribune: "Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton carved each other up, sometimes gingerly and sometimes ferociously, in a debate Wednesday night that focused on some of the worst moments of the presidential campaign and the candidates' ability to win election in November."

Philadelphia Inquirer: "Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton sparred over each other's electability and the political weaknesses that might make them vulnerable to Republican attack in the fall."

L.A. Times: "The Democratic candidates for president debated forcefully Wednesday over who would prove more electable in November, with Hillary Rodham Clinton repeatedly raising questions about Barack Obama's past associations and Obama contending that her approach typified the blowtorch political style that Americans decry."

But there were exceptions.

"Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton went on the attack against Senator Barack Obama on a variety of issues during a contentious debate Wednesday, warning that he would be deeply vulnerable in a general-election fight if he won the nomination," says the New York Times.

"Helped along by the questioning of the moderators, Mrs. Clinton mentioned several areas in which she said Mr. Obama was vulnerable, including the incendiary remarks by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and his service on a board with William Ayres, a former leader of the radical Weather Underground. She even cited Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, who has endorsed Mr. Obama."

Washington Post: "Sen. Barack Obama repeatedly found himself on the defensive here Wednesday night as he sought to bat away criticism of his remarks about small-town values, questions about his patriotism and the incendiary sermons of his former pastor in a potentially pivotal debate six days before Pennsylvania's presidential primary."

Washington Times: "Sen. Barack Obama was treated like the Democratic front-runner for the first time in a debate last night -- fielding hard questions about his ties to a 1970s domestic terrorist, his racially divisive church and his electability."

Politico: "Sen. Barack Obama faced his toughest grilling yet in a presidential debate Wednesday night, spending the first 45 minutes of his last scheduled meeting with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton defending his own words and his associations with several controversial figures."

Liberal bloggers hated the debate, led by those at the Huffington Post:

Jason Linkins calls it the worst debate ever:

"I had one significant worry: that the bulk of the time would be taken up with process questions and media obsessions, and that issues of import would end up getting sidelined. As it turns out, I was depressingly, distressingly correct. In fact, there were times when the debate ventured into territory so utterly asinine that I could scarcely believe what I was witnessing.