Hillary Hillary Hillary. Didn’t you mother ever teach you don’t bite the hand that feeds you?

In the twentieth, oh my goodness, yes, Debate 20 last night in Cleveland, Ohio, Hillary Clinton came out swinging low sweet chariot not at Barack Obama her foe in the contest for the Democratic nomination, but at the press, that band of angels-NOT, little Timothy Russert and Brian de Williams, the debate's moderators.

“I just want to point out that in the last several debates I keep getting the first questions,” Hillary whined, yes whined as, yes, once again, she was asked to answer the first question.

The question of the medias' bias in this campaign is a legitimate one, and there are few who would argue that Barack Obama has not been receiving the scrutiny that Senator Clinton has. But, Senator Clinton, take the press on at the beginning of the debate?

It was a swing low moment for Ms. Hillary.

It could only go uphill from there, and it did, although you couldn’t tell it from the press coverage that followed. That band of angels–NOT were swooping in for the kill salivating that Hillary’s inability to score a knock out  punch in the debate was coming to carry her home to the Senate not the White House.

Been there done that, the debate centered on the big issues and the two candidates fought to distinguish their nearly indistinguishable positions on health care and NAFTA. On the subject of health care Senator Clinton’s position and strength is indisputable. And her plan is truly universal while Senator Obama’s is a step towards universal coverage.

But Senator Obama only had to appear knowledgeable on any subject rather than an expert as Senator Clinton seems to have to be, the bar for Senator Obama consistently set swing-lower by, yes, that band of angels–NOT.

Obama, whose demeanor during most of the debate seemed at once bored and lethargic, often looked as if he was looking over Jordan. Still, on more than one occasion, he appeared defensive. When on the ropes he smartly made the attempt to tie Senator Clinton to her husband’s administration as he tried to do on the subject of NAFTA since President Clinton was presiding over the government at the time of the NAFTA vote.

The North American Free Trade Agreement is front and center to the voters of Ohio, the Buckeye State, a must-win for Senator Clinton if she is to stay in the presidential race. Fifty thousand of Ohio's jobs have moved overseas because of NAFTA.

Both candidates tried to walk a line of non-commitment to where they stand on  NAFTA because in Texas, which is another upcoming primary state, NAFTA has been a boon to the economy.

On the Iraq War, Senator Obama once more tried to best Senator Clinton by saying he is smarter than she because he opposed the war from the beginning. Senator Clinton, going a step further than she had in the past said she wouldn’t have voted for the war if she had it do over.

Again she made the point, and it’s a strong one, that despite his objection to the war as an outsider at the time of the vote, once in the Senate, Mr. Obama voted along with her on every vote having to do with the war. He countered with one of his brilliantly meaningless metaphorical missiles that the press seems to buy: “Once we had driven the bus into the ditch, there were only so many ways to get out”

Actually, Senator Obama, there was only one way to vote if you were against the war, NO! But again, the press in its analysis always seems to give Obama a free ride on that bus he helped drive into the ditch when he didn’t take a stand against the War when he had the chance.

And that leads to another issue that Senator Obama has had trouble taking a stand on: the issue of that anti-Semitic lunatic Louis Farrakhan who has endorsed Senator Obama. Here again, as is somewhat of a pattern with the semantically adept Senator Obama, he tried to have it both ways when asked about his relationship to Reverend Farrakhan who has called Judaism a “gutter religion.”

“Tim,” Senator Obama said, “I think -- I am very familiar with his record, as are the American people. That's why I have consistently denounced it.”

Denounced “it” not him?!

Hillary called the Senator on his response saying he didn’t go far enough. He didn’t because so much of his constituency holds Reverend Farrakhan in high esteem. Only when forced by the only brilliant move by anyone in the debate did Obama move toward a stronger stand saying he would both “reject and denounce [it].”

Still, one can’t help thinking that the Jewish community noticed Senator Obama’s waffling,  a sweet chariot victory for Senator Clinton, but probably not enough to carry her home.