Democratic Hopefuls for the 2008 Presidency Attack One Another in Nationally Televised Debate

On Sunday night June 3rd, the eight Democratic hopefuls vying to be the next president of the United States took their podiums in a nationally televised debate at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. The debate marked the first time that all of the candidates who had declared their candidacy for president on behalf of the Democratic Party had shared the same stage together.

The eight Democratic candidates included Senator Hillary Clinton from New York, Senator Barack O'bama from Illinois, Denis Kucinich from Ohio, Senator John Edwards from North Carolina, Senator Joseph Biden from Delaware, former Senator Mike Gravel from Alaska, Senator Christopher Dodd from Connecticut and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico.

The candidates were asked numerous questions by the moderators who were picked by CNN, the news network that carried the debate on television. The main issue of the debate was the Iraqi War in which Edwards criticized O'bama and Hillary for not taking a more active leadership role in the Senate against the war. O'bama fired back by saying that Senator Edwards was four and a half years late, referring to O'bama's own stance about being against the war from the very start. O'bama had from the start voted against the Iraqi War while most democrats including Edwards and Clinton voted for the war. The main difference in the issue of the Iraqi War was not that the United States needed to withdraw from the region. Instead the debate focused on whether or not the Senate should cut off funding for the troops. Denis Kucinich was a strong supporter for cutting off funding while Joseph Biden argued that cutting off funding could result in the death of even more troops because of a lack of supplies or equipment.