Democratic Debate in California

It's about to begin, and promises all the excitement and intellectualism of female mud-wrestling or an underground dogfight.

After:
A number of factors seemed to conspire to create the expectation of "fireworks": the last debate, the overexcited crowd, the candidate's chairs set too close together in each other's personal space, and provocative questions from the moderator-provocateur, Wolfblitzer. Clinton kept her claws retracted, and despite the horror-movie scary-clown face stare she aimed at Obama too often, peace was kept, with Obama throwing more snowballs and the occasional compliment rather than stones at the House of Clinton.

It was a victory for civility, and out-did the Republicans' Debate at the Reagan Bunker yesterday. Bad show-business, though.