Okay, so the other Dem candidates hit her a little harder than they have been last night. Good for them. So the issue of her possible "unelectability" came up as a theme last night. Good. I see that Scarecrow at Firedoglake argues that going negative on Hillary is a mistake. I disagree.
Here's why - that issue is one of the biggest issues about her right now, and it has to do with her history and her positions on recent events. That's all fair play, and open game. And frankly, if she can't do better than she did last night in the debate, then voters deserve to know that now, instead of September of 2008 in a debate against the Republican nominee.
Ignoring this issue doesn't help the Democrats. If she's going to succeed to being the nominee, it should be because she successfully refuted her opponents' efforts to define her, not because she was able to run out the clock. There's not going to be a "running out the clock" option in 2008, so the time to get this heavy lifting done is now.
I don't prefer Clinton as the candidate. Then again, I don't like the fact that there are so many candidates, or that the media primarily only gives attention to two of them, or that most of them seem pretty mediocre. But it is what it is. It's going to get negative for a few months until things play out, that's the reality. If Clinton can push forward through this, she'll have earned the nomination. If not, it should be a new race.