Last week, Barack Obama announced his intention, if elected president, of bringing US troops to the Pakistan border if Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf did not take appropriate actions to prevent future al-Qaida attacks. Hillary Clinton didn't condemn this statement at the time, but after American flags were burned in Pakistan following the remarks, she changed her tune, and at last night's AFL-CIO debate, she let loose her full wrath on Obama and his big talk.

"I think it is a very big mistake to... destabilize the Musharraf regime, which is fighting for its life against the Islamic extremists who are in bed with al-Qaida and the Taliban," Clinton said. She then unleashed this soundbite, the gist of which seems to be: "maybe if you're a little one-term senator without much foreign policy experience, you should keep your big trap shut."

Obama struck back at Clinton and fellow critic Chris Dodd (who both voted for the Iraq invasion)by saying, "I find it amusing that those who helped to authorize and engineer the worst policy disaster in our generation are now criticizing me for making sure we are on the right battlefield."

Ouch.

Dodd quickly replied with, "I know you are, but what am i?" Okay, no, not really. But stay tuned.

Last night marked a watershed moment in American politics with the inaugural CNN/YouTube debate. Not unpredictably, the event had its champions and its critics.

For a good round-up of the critical reaction, check out this article on Wired.com. Most of the criticism, quite justifiably in my opinion, has been leveled at the final list of 39 questions (culled from more than 3,000 entries) that were picked by the event's organizers. Simply put, CNN/Youtube could have picked a much better way to represent the American people to the candidates and to the rest of the world.

This debate had the potential to have a massive impact on how candidates respond to questions, -- it could have made canned answers become candid ones. So why in the hell did they choose this question, which happened to be the most-viewed on the entire site? This kind of stuff belongs in The Onion, not in a nationally televised event that should help determine the future of a country enduring one of the biggest collective political crisis in its history. A little editorial discretion would have come in handy, don't you think?

For a comprehensive round-up of all the clips, check out the PoliticsTV YouTube channel.

No, there's nothing wrong with the sound in this clip. That screeching noise is the microphones failing Rudy Giuliani during last night's Republican debate, just as he's about to make a moderate statement about abortion. I really, REALLY don't want to believe that God has an issue with Giuliani's vaguely-pro-choice position, so instead I choose to believe that God just doesn't like Rudy on general principles.

Still, I award major points to Giuliani for having a sense of humor about the wrath of God. Let's just hope he can keep that smile on his face when the floods come.