Sen. Barack Obama, desperate to cut down front-running Sen. Hillary Clinton, did not take advantage of one opening during Thursday night's Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas. Obama pulled his punches regarding Clinton's September vote for a resolution that he had earlier said could be used to go to war against Iran. His reticence can be traced to his co-sponsorship of a similarly hawkish amendment in March.
Obama was softer toward Clinton than he was last month when he called her "reckless" for voting to name the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, claiming such a vote would give President Bush a pretext to attack Iran. For her part, Clinton did not raise Obama's inconsistency and was uncharacteristically silent about Iran. The two leading candidates for the Democratic nomination were muzzled by mutually assured destruction, reflecting a Democratic dilemma.