Debate Impressions, Act 2

JOHNSTON, Iowa -- Clinton on trade sounded more muscular than in the past and didn't dodge the NAFTA issue (remember in Las Vegas all she recalled from Ross Perot's opposition to NAFTA was some "charts"), but said the trade deal needs changes. Her acknowledgment that trade also creates loser AND winners in Iowa is not nuance but a fact. Coming out of the winners-and-losers explanation with the line about America not being "trade patsies" may signal a new comfort level on an issue Edwards clearly wants to use against Clinton in Iowa union households.
By the way, the Republican National Committee, ever ready to jump into the Democratic debate bloodstream, e-mails immediately (Danny Diaz is nothing if not quick) that Hillary has proposed "more than $778. billion in new spending over one White House term." I would count the RNC among the Clinton-fiscal-discipline skeptics, even if no other Democrats on the stage wishes to suggest the same.