The Showdown

The speculation going into last night's Cleveland State University debate was how Hillary Clinton, faced with Obama's ll straight wins and her campaign in disarray, would try to stem the opponent's momentum with her last stand in delegate rich Ohio and Texas. For those expecting fireworks or some calamitous misstep by one of the candidates, they were disappointed. And after 19 debates, how could it realistically be anything more? Sure, there were the usual contentious moments: Clinton and Obama trading jabs about distortions and misleading characterizations about each other's positions; the familiar mantra about the dichotomies, experience vs. judgment and action vs. words. But neither one emerged, to borrow the shopworn sports metaphor, to score a knockout. And with Clinton sorely in need of scoring not simply victories but substantial victories in next week's contests, that means she fell short.