Heavyweight Debate

Tonight’s Democratic debate could be interesting. More interesting and intense than the heavyweight unification boxing match was on Saturday night. To escape the doldrums of jabbing and weaving, dancing and clutching, a la Klitchko and Ibragimov, here is what each candidate must do:

Hillary has to ask Obama to take a position on Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement of him. Will Obama denounce Farrakhan and risk the Black vote or will he waffle and risk the white vote in general and the Jewish vote in particular? Nasty wedge issue.

Obama must counter Hillary’s tactics of being the nice Hillary in one debate and the aggressor in the next. He must ask which is the real Hillary the one who is “proud” to be up there with him or the one who calls for him to be deeply ashamed of his use of the Karl Rove playbook? He must point out that Hillary cannot be both the good cop and the bad cop. With all her experience, she should be able to pick one “authentic” position.

Tonight may test Obama’s chin. We’ll see if he can take a punch and remain unruffled. In this case the test is fair, and style is substance, or at least partly, in politics. Hillary has little to lose. It is too late be worry about seeming warm and likable to those not already in her camp. This is the stark question: Will she risk losing without grace for the chance of winning the prize? Will Obama parry her charge of plagiarism by asking her if she wrote that terrible line about him being "about change you can Xerox"? Meanwhile, I expect lawyers from Xerox to serve papers for misappropriating their trademarked brand as a generic.