Unlike this weekends Republican debate I am somewhat curious about tonight’s Democratic debate, though I will probably not watch the entire thing too in-depth. The only big reason I have interest, obviously, is because Obama & Edwards look ready to pounce on Clinton.

The Democrats seem like a party not ready to ever learn from its mistakes or at the very least learn the wrong lessons from them. After watching the primary season of 2004 in which Democrats bashed the daylights out of one another and gave Republicans a boatload of ammunition, I thought this election cycle the Dems might learn from the Republicans, pick a consensus candidate and move onto building up a national movement. Well, I seemed wrong in that thinking.

Obama & Edwards are moving to take down Clinton and Clinton seems all too happy to fight back. Meaning the Democrats could start tearing each other apart over all the issues and build up personal attacks that Republicans will simply pickup and use against them in a general election. The primaries it seems have simply become opposition research for the opposing campaign and in this the Republicans benefit.

The reality is Obama & Edwards in their attacks thus far have only served to highlight their own flaws. If they continue shooting across the bow they aren’t going to get anywhere and the longer they wait to bring out the heavy ammunition the closer they get to the general election and larger the risk for ruining the Democrats chances as a whole. If you only hit people on the headlines of the day you score cheap points. You have to create a running narrative against them and use the headlines of the day, whatever they are, to bash them over the head.

My advice?

If Obama/Edwards want to take Clinton out they need to stop focusing on these far-left issues and go for the jugular. If they are serious about really entering the game they cannot just pussyfoot, they need to hit hard and do it long before the primary votes to assure they don’t damage the entire Democratic Party in the process. So what do they hit her on? Corruption! Not just once, not just twice, but hard and often throughout the entire night and the weeks ahead and not just in these simple and loose lobbying terms. Spell it out for the people:

“How can you be opposed to the pardon of Scooter Libby when your husband and his brother were basically selling pardons to the highest bidder?”

“How can you say you will change the tone in Washington when you and your husband ran a scandal ridden White House that helped bring the vile of the religious right?”

“How can you bring us out of the era of money corrupting politics when you were selling out the Lincoln bedroom to the highest bidder and using the White House as a campaign pit-stop?”

Don’t hit her with a doctoral thesis about the links between money and power and lobbyists. People don’t respond to that. Use the Republican attacks of selling out the Lincoln bedroom and selling pardons and maintain that this corruption hurt the American people. Then bait Mike Gravel to bring up Monica Lewinsky (don’t do it yourself though), just repeatedly attack her in the most basic and easy to understand way about her own record of corruption, mistrust, back-talking and using her offices for political gain.

You have to point out that everything George Bush has done in corruption is simply an extension of the Clinton era of politics. That he simply took what they had done to a new extreme but a return to the Clinton era is a continuation of the status quo.

Finish with “You and your husband had eight years to solve these issues. Instead you used the White House to raise money, build influence with lobbyists and become Hollywood stars. People suffered under your first eight years, why should we ever give you four more?”

Hit her hard, hit her often and then follow-up throughout August and repeat the violations. That is the only way a freshman Senator who has only served a couple of years of his term and a guy who failed at running for the Vice President and couldn’t hold onto his Senate seat will be able to unseat one of the most powerful and savvy political teams the Democratic Party has ever seen.

Obama’s only strength is his inexperience but it is his greatest flaw. You can only shape your strengths in politics by highlighting the weakness in the other candidate. Obama keeps telling us he is “not bought and sold”, great I can tell you I am the “greatest blogger ever” but it doesn’t mean much. Instead you need to show the American people Clinton’s corruption is an extension of her experience in Washington and only someone without that experience can break the cycle.

Either come to play or don’t come at all with this stuff.