Seriously. This guy is the best sound-bite politician in the business. Check out his latest gem: blasting Bush for saying president Musharraf hadn’t “crossed the line” and was still committed to democracy.

“What exactly would it take for the president to conclude Musharraf has crossed the line? Suspend the constitution? Impose emergency law? Beat and jail his political opponents and human rights activists? He’s already done all that. If the president sees Musharraf as a democrat, he must be wearing the same glasses he had on when he looked in Vladimir Putin’s soul.”

Delaware doesn’t bring any electoral college bounty, but who better than Biden to play the enforcer role?

If you missed it you really didn’t miss it. Ooof. What a lousy debate — starting with the CNN moderators. Why have voters ask questions if Suzanne Malveaux is just going to tack her own question on the end? Garbage.

Quickly: Clinton looked caffeinated tonight. She was back on her game and was prepared to dish it as well as take it. Her line about having an “asbestos pant-suit” on for the occasion was pretty funny. All the squabbling in the beginning really didn’t amount to much. Edwards seemed eager to continue the attack, but the spontaneous booing by the crowd of any Clinton slights really made even invidious comparisons hard to pull off.

The only exchange that was worth a damn was Obama and Clinton sparring over Social Security payroll taxes. (You know it a dreary debate when the best moment comes in an exchange about tax arcana.) Obama called Clinton on her ridonckulous assertion that people making over $95,000 a year — and therefore earning above the payroll tax cutoff — are “middle class.”

The crowd booed him for comparing her prestidigitation to that of Giuliani or Romney — but the point was fair — and spot on. The top six percent of money earners are not middle-class. They’re not. A lot of people in the $100k to $200k bracket are wheelhouse Democrats — and party funders — which I suspect is why Hillary is so unwilling to go there. But her parry was weak, and a rare clumsy moment in an otherwise polished performance. So score one for Obama.

Watching the two of them go at it is a little high-school though. Obama’s the cool smart kid. Clinton’s the savagely smart, kind of insecure one. She couldn’t help but begin her retort by correcting Obama for having repeatedly talked about a “tax cut” by mistake — “First of all,” she said, “I think you meant a tax ‘increase.’ Because that’s what it would be.” Gimme a break.

I think the best night was had by Biden, who continued to show a depth of knowledge surpassing that of the other candidates. Dodd and Richardson always talk about being experienced, but Biden is actually bringing that experience to bear in his answers.

It’s impressive that he spoke to Musharraf and Bhuto before Bush did this week. That’s meaningful. His answer on Supreme Court nominees was also impressive. Richardson ticked off his talking points. Biden actually knew what he was talking about when he referred to the 14th amendment and the right to privacy. He also dressed down Malveaux for her question-jacking. Well done, sir.

To sum up: Hillary had one notable stumble, but otherwise was sharp. Edwards’ boo birds defused his attack. Obama looked good — though after criticizing Clinton so sharply on the drivers license issue, you’d think he’d have had a sharper answer of his own. Biden keeps making a case for himself over Richardson as a dark horse.

UPDATE: Yglesias nails CNN’s ‘gotcha’ game.

Press Briefing by Dana Perino

MS. PERINO: Helen.

Q Why is the President dodging a personal phone call to Musharraf?

MS. PERINO: The President has had his Secretary of State –

Q I’m asking you directly why doesn’t he call him?

MS. PERINO: The President feels very strongly that President Musharraf knows exactly how he feels about the situation.

Q That isn’t the point.

MS. PERINO: It is the point.

Q Dana, does the White House believe that Musharraf is now a dictator?

MS. PERINO: Look, I think that that is — it’s premature to say that.

The Boston Globe is running a fascinating series right now about the implications of Bush’s faith-based foreign aid.

The State department spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year paying contractors to deliver foreign aid — health care clinics, schools, clean water — to impoverished towns and cities in the third world. The Bush administration has doubled the portion of that aid that is delivered by faith-based groups, many of them evangelical Christian missionaries. The upside of this program is that missionaries often go places that secular social service organizations can’t, or won’t. The downside is detailed in today’s installment from Pakistan: Many of the missionaries are sent to Muslim countries, where they try to convert souls at the same time as they’re dressing wounds. This only convinces more Muslims that the American government is on a Christian crusade, while at the same time turning these missionary outposts into targets for violent jihadists. It’s an interesting story; check it out.

Here’s one to put on your radar: India is now semi-officially blaming Pakistan for the bomb attacks in July in Mumbai, India, that killed more than 200 people. This isn’t just a quarrel between two unfriendly neighbors: both countries have nuclear weapons. And not the kind that Iraq supposedly had before we invaded Iraq (i.e., nothing) or the kind that Iran is supposedly trying to develop, but the real thing.

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“Pakistan is committed to the war on terror, and of course we will go after any terrorist found to be operating here.” –Making nice by the same Pakistani general who said yesterday that bin Laden would be free to roam in his country as long as he lived as a “peaceful citizen.” (from The Blotter)

According to ABC’s The Blotter the Pakistani government of Pervez Musharraf has, in essence, offered Osama bin Laden safe harbor within its borders as part of a peace deal that cedes control of tribal areas in mountainous Waziristan, along the Afghanistan border, to Taliban forces.

According to a Pakistani general, bin Laden “would not be taken into custody … as long as [he] is being like a peaceful citizen.”

How’s the War on Terror going? Five years after 9/11, the mastermind of the attacks is still at large, the Taliban army that gave him a surrogate nation state from which to launch his attacks is now the law of the land in Northwest Pakistan, and as far as our erstwhile ally is concerned, bin Laden is welcome to make himself at home there?
“The Taliban and al Qaeda leadership have effectively carved out a sanctuary inside Pakistan,” former counter-terror czar Richard Clarke told ABC.

Is the Bush Doctrine no longer in effect? What happened to making no distinction between terrorists and the states that shelter them? Where is the president who said: “Anybody who harbors terrorists needs to fear the United States and the rest of the free world. Anybody who houses a terrorist, encourages terrorism will be held accountable.”

Why aren’t we leading an international force to uproot the Taliban and Al Qaeda from their mountain perch, or making Pakistan pay “a heavy price” for standing with the terrorists?

As alarming as the news of the plot to bomb ten U.S.-bound aircraft is, we should all be celebrating today.

The muscular work of the international intelligence community — including agents from the U.K. and the U.S. and, most important, Pakistan — has dealt the Al Qaeda movement an embarassing defeat. And it has saved likely thousands of innocent lives.

Unlike the paint-ball gun armed clowns in Florida who daydreamed of felling the Sears tower, this plot appears to have been a sophisticated and viable operation. And unlike in the run-up to 9/11 — when a tragic failure of imagination meant that the dots between the Islamist flight-school enrollees flagged by the FBI and a presidential daily brief, warning of hijackings and entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”, remained unconnected — law enforcement on three continents was able to move quickly, in a coordinated fashion, to wrap up this threat before it came to deadly fruition.

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