Hm. Once again, Kathryn and Rich get to see the debate about an hour earlier in New York than I do in Washington… if it started at 10 a.m. EST in your market, check the Corner for a “sneak-preview.”

Steph begins by asking if Obama has the right experience. Hillary says, “George, I was going to begin with, ‘good morning.’” She defers, saying it is up for the voters to decide.

Richardson: “I think Barack Obama does represent change. I think Senator Clinton represents experience. With me, you get both! (laughter) Regarding the dictators, I’ve met ‘em. Already.”

Obama: “To prepare for this debate, I rode in the bumper cars at the state fair… We need a fundamental change if we’re going to dig ourselves out of the hole that George Bush has dug us in.”

Is it just me, or does Obama sound a little hoarse?

Hillary refers Bush-Cheney administration of trying to “drum up” war for Iran. She laments the pursuit of bunker-buster bombs. Calls her comment taking nuclear weapons off the table in dealing with Iran is “a brushback.”

“We shouldn’t use hypotheticals,” she declares again. Interesting, since the candidates are asking us to consider the hypothetical of them in office.

“It is not hypothetical that al-Qaeda has established base camps in the mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Obama responds. Not a bad jab.

Edwards sounds a little hoarse, too. Wants to drive a wedge between Iranian people and their leaders.

He closes to say he would eliminate nuclear weapons from the planet. Yeah, that’ll be easy.

Gravel says the administration is “cooking the books” on Iran. Under no circumstances do you invade Iran. What have they done to us? We’ve been trying to destabilize their government!

Ahem. Senator Gravel, hostage crisis? Khobar Towers? Gravel says Cheney should be committed. Guess it takes one to know one.

Richardson, sanely, points out that you can never take the military option off the table.

The presence of Gravel is getting tiresome.

Steph cites Rove’s comments about Hillary’s negatives, points out no one has ever won the presidency with such high negatives. Obama, are Democrats right to worry about her negatives?

Obama: There’s a bigger issue here. The last six years for America have been disastrous… If you’re tired of the backbiting and the failed politics of Washington, I’m your guy. Dodges the question, pretty much.

Edwards: I have a slightly different view. We were out of power for thirteen years. The Democrats in November 2006 stood for change, and they won. If we become the party of status quo, we will lose in 2008. … These people will never give their power away voluntarily, we have to take their power from them.

“We are not the party of Washington insiders,” says SENATOR Edwards, disagreeing with SENATOR Clinton and SENATOR Obama.

Clinton: I’ve been fighting with these people longer than anyone else on this stage.

She blames the “Republican attack machine” for her high negatives, and gets applause. Easy crowd. Yes, Hillary, it’s all their fault.

Asked about taking money from lobbyists, says how she has fought the special interests on so many . Criticizes others for not taking money from lobbyists, but says they’ll take money from those who employ lobbyists She says she wants to move toward public financing.

Edwards hits at insurance companies and drug companies. Says they killed health care effort of 1990s.

Dodd: I like public financing too!