WASHINGTON (AFP) — Hillary Clinton Friday basked in glowing reviews after she swatted aside Democratic White House rivals in a high-stakes debate and stifled a growing narrative that her campaign was in trouble.
"That's Why the Lady is a Champ," said a headline on a column by influential political commentator David Yepsen, in the Des Moines Register, the top paper in the crucial leadoff nominating state of Iowa, where the race is deadlocked.
Clinton, more relaxed and assured than her previous flawed showing in Philadelphia, was also more aggressive in Thursday's debate, challenging top rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards, who had her on the ropes for two weeks.
While most Americans would not have watched the debate on cable channel CNN, its impact could be important in dictating wider coverage, in local media markets in key states, of the accelerating Democratic race.
In just 48 days, Democratic and Republican activists will get their first chance to weigh in on the respective fields in the Iowa caucuses, which launch a frenetic spate of nominating contests in January and early February.
Front-runner Clinton joked in the debate in the gambling paradise of Las Vegas, Nevada, that she was wearing an asbestos pantsuit, to ward off fiery attacks from her rivals, and according to Friday's headlines, did just that.
"Hillary Comes out Swinging in Vegas," blared the New York Post, as television and internet pundits awarded the debate to Clinton.
The former first lady did more punching than her rivals, and apparently got them to back off after they had skewered her for dodging questions and equivocating over the past few weeks, accusing them of mud slinging.
But two weeks of attacks on Clinton by her rivals did open up potential areas of vulnerability for the Republican nominee to exploit next year, including her waffling answers on illegal immigration, and claims that her aides had planted questions in her campaign rallies.
The four Senators in the debate -- Clinton, Obama, Joseph Biden and Christopher Dodd -- had a short night, after cross-country overnight flights to Washington to vote on two key Senate measures on Iraq funding and a farm bill.
Colleagues greeted Obama and Clinton particularly, with handshakes and back slaps, before the two top candidates jetted off back onto the campaign trail.
Some analysts questioned whether Clinton's rivals had held off their attacks, amid concern that a Democratic race devouring all the candidates could weaken the eventual nominee selected to battle the Republicans.
"Despite how high the stakes are, with less than 50 days remaining until the early contests begin, the candidates appeared to be sensitive to the potential for the whole discussion to deteriorate beyond repair," said Costas Panagopoulos of Fordham University's elections and campaigns management program.
"There were plenty of attacks in tonight's debate, but there could have been far more. But there is always the danger that negativity will have lasting ramifications and can potentially backfire."
After the debate candidate spin operations powered into action, claiming victory.
"The big question tonight was how Senator Clinton would be back, and she is back. She did a fabulous job. The campaign is back on track," said Clinton strategist Mark Penn.
Obama's senior advisor David Axelrod rejected Penn's remarks, and accused Clinton of saying one thing in private and another in public on social security retirement accounts.
"They probably feel that if you stand up in front of the American people and tell them what you think, instead of doing it privately out of the earshot of reporters, that you are being naive, or foolish," Axelrod said.
Joe Trippi, an advisor to the Edwards campaign, rejected the conventional wisdom that Clinton had won the debate.
"She's losing altitude," he said, and concluded that attacks by Edwards on the former first lady must be working as she had counter-attacked.
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