I hope they get back to that because, frankly, the hedge fund stuff is beneath them.  Not because I think they're too nice to use it, but because they're a smarter campaign than that. It gives Edwards ammunition and it does so, when based on that ridiculous NAFTA video, he appears to be struggling for it. (Don't get me wrong, I think there are differences on trade between Edwards and Clinton and that Edwards would probably benefit from highlighting those, but that video is a rather pathetic - and disingenuous - effort at making this argument.  It's trying too hard to recapture the Politics of Parsing video and it just doesn't work here, IMO.)  

In other news, according to TPM, Obama is now referencing the discredited allegation that HRC and the Big Dog had a pact on power and so she has been plotting to be president for 20 years. I thought the early attacks on him abandoning the politics of hope were ridiculous, even if politically smart, but lately he does seem to be using the very tactics he complains about. And I can't believe any Dem. would trust anything Novak or Gerth has to say about Clinton (or any other Dem). It comes across as desperate and, given his fundraising and the close Iowa polls, he has no reason to be desperate, so I honestly can't figure out what the deal is with Obama lately. The Clinton response to this (see http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=4258), btw, is a much better one than the hamfisted response to the Edwards' NAFTA stuff, IMO.

Williams: And, Senator, I have a follow-up for you. On modern day America, you've been of counsel to hedge funds.

Do hedge funds make America any better in any way?

Edwards: Well, I think what -- first of all, I think the financial markets are an important component of trying to figure out what it is we need to do about the fact that we have 47 million people without health care, 37 million people who wake up in poverty every day.

They play an enormous role in how money moves in this country. And I happen to believe that we have a responsibility to the people in this country who wake up every day worried about feeding and clothing their children.

And I think those people in New York who work in financial markets understand -- in some ways, at least -- what can be done and can play a significant role in trying to lift people up who are struggling.

I am proud of what I've been doing for the last few years. You know, I've been all over the country, organizing workers into unions and raising the minimum wage, and also working at a poverty center at the University of North Carolina.

Williams: I'm afraid time is up.

Senator Clinton, you represent the state of New York -- just mentioned. How is America a better place because of all these burgeoning hedge funds?

Clinton: Well, I think that America is a great place because we have an entrepreneurial economy. We have people who are willing to make stakes and new enterprises and invest their money.

And, obviously, one of the other reasons we're a great country is because we've learned over the years how to regulate that, so nobody gets an unfair advantage -- and that we, you know, have a framework within which our free market system operates.

Obviously, for me, it's exciting to represent both New York City, the global capital market leader, and yet I also represent a big state where there are a lot of poor people and people who have no access to health care. They don't have access to affordable college. They're worried about their futures.

So what we've got to do here is get back to having a Democratic president who will set the rules, so that we can continue to build our economy, we can inspire and incentivize people to take those risks, but we begin to repair the damage that has been done by this president and Republican Congress.

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