ABC was doing its job--debate will help Obama, not Clinton

Everyone who's outraged over tonight's debate on ABC--in particular the first 50-odd minutes when Barack Obama was getting hammered with questions from Charlie Gibson, George Stephanopoulos and Hillary Clinton--are missing the big picture: Tonight's debate treated Obama as the Democratic nominee.

Think about it--if this man is advancing to the final round in the race to be president of the United States, wouldn't you want to throw everything at him, to see how he responds?

Clinton has no path to victory, so she had no choice but to spend the night talking about him. Imagine if it were John McCain and Mike Huckabee up there--who'd you rather be, McCain getting raked over the coals because he matters, or Huckabee getting ignored because he doesn't?

So you give the car you're planning to buy one last, good, going-over; kick the tires, test out all the features. That's what the voters want, and that's why ABC spent most of the debate on Obama.

As long as the car starts--and Barack Obama did more than start, he roared at times tonight--it doesn't matter if you find some flaws.

This is the car you're going home with; the other car just happens to be sitting next to it on the lot, why would you waste time on it?