Clinton has to tread a delicate line between honest fighting spirit and blind swinging. But she also had a mandate to be angry last night, since some interpreted her graciousness at last week's CNN debate as a concession of defeat.
Over the last week, Clinton has been famously feisty on the campaign trail, occasionally looking desperate. In TV clips from an appearance in Boston this week, she was hoarse and visibly drained.
If this debate shed light on anything, in fact, it was the difference between the coached, mostly-controlled demeanor in these televised forums and the far-grittier groundwork of day-to-day campaigning. Both candidates admitted to waging attacks and sending out incendiary mailings. But Clinton, playing the challenger role, seemed to take it all more personally.
When Obama said, of her vote to authorize the Iraq war, that "she was ready to give in to George Bush on day one," Clinton looked at him glaringly. Obama, throughout, carried himself more as a frontrunner does: calm, collected, unflappable, cautious.
Brian Williams, who shared moderating duties with Tim Russert, was equally calm, making light jokes and asking mostly-open-ended questions. Across the table, Russert played the pit bull. Here, Clinton had no grounds for complaints about unequal treatment; Russert wouldn't stop hammering Obama about his endorsement from Louis Farrakhan, even after Obama quickly denounced the Nation of Islam leader.
Russert also used his "Meet The Press" modus operandi of impeaching candidates with their own words, tried to trip up the candidates on the details of Russian politics, and battered them both with imaginary world problems. At last, Clinton lashed out; if she was girding for a fight, Russert ultimately proved a better foil.
"You know, Tim, you ask a lot of hypotheticals," she said during one exchange.
"This is reality," Russert said.
"No, it isn't reality," she shot back.
Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com
