AddieStan

Alas, mes amis , your Webwench feels compelled to follow a trail of tissues back to her sickbed. You'll have to comment amongst yourselves.

John King , sensing a lack of drama in the proceedings, decided to kick things up a notch by asking Clinton to address her criticism of Obama as "all hat and no cattle." She smiled sweetly and said something nice that your blogstress, plagued by a runny nose and a mal à la tête . Obama responded with a great speech. Volley on Clinton's charge of plagiarism, which she has accused Obama of doing for using a few very good lines from the speech of one his supporters, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick . "If you're going to base your campaign on words," she said, "they ought to be your own words." She went on, "That's not change you can believe in; that's change you can Xerox." It came across as too cute by half. She did not deliver it with conviction.

Excellent! Both candidates think we all need to speak two languages, mes amis . Well almost all of us. Hill says she hasn't ever been able to get the hang of that second-language thing -- but you should!

CNN's John King asked about the border fence, noting that Hillary Clinton voted for it. Hillary Clinton was quick to note that Barack Obama voted for it, too. She appears to be backtracking, noting the concerns of Americans who actually live in border areas.

Asked a question on whether or not she would end the current practice of deportation raids of illegal immigrants, Hillary gave a full-blown stump speech on immigration, beginning with her support for ending the raids, and ending with her belief in "comprehensive immigration reform." Barack does her one better before this Latino audience by talking about how anti-immigrant sentiment results in hate crimes against Hispanics. Made a good point about fixing the backlogs in CIS, so that people actually can apply to be here legally.

With this week's announcement from Fidel Castro that he is at last stepping down after decades as his nation's strongman, the candidates were asked, before a television audience on Univision that is mostly Latino. Both said they would talk to the new Cuban leaders, with Obama first to answer the question. CNN's Campbell Brown nailed him for an apparent change in his approach; he was not jumping in this debate to say that he would end the embargo of Cuba. Apparently there was a time when he stated his desire to see that embargo end. Clinton made the point of saying she would talk to Cuba's new leaders only after a great deal of preparation, and only with bipartisan delegations behind her.

Clinton lost the coin-toss and got to go first. (Interesting that Obama did not want the opening speech.) She opened with a statement that was energetic, stating her bona fides in Texas by saying the Lone Star state was where she worked her "first political job" -- registering voters in South Texas. Then she invoked the memory of Barbara Jordan , whose birthday Clinton said is today. Next invocation of strong, Texas women? "My great friend, Ann Richards ." Hill went on to give a decent speech about discrimination against sick people, and how her health care program would elimate that. Obama seemed a bit lethargic; he sounds congested. His opening statement was boring, until he got to this line: "What's lacking here is not good ideas...," Obama said. "Washington is a place where good ideas go to die." He did seem to be trying to shine a light on similarities between his opponent and him more than differences.

For the last 30 years, the strength of the Democratic Party has risen and fallen with the health of the women's movement. It's been 24 years since a woman last appeared on the party's presidential platform. Whether or not the nominee is Hillary Clinton, a woman must grace the Democratic ticket. For the sake of the party. For the sake of the movement. If there's one thing you can say about the modern women's movement, it's that it is not, nor has it ever been, a monolith. Though sometimes derided as a white woman's movement or an upper-middle-class diversion, the feminist movement, in reality, encompasses women across race, class and even national divides. So it comes as no surprise to most that opinions on matters of strategy, or any other manner of things, should diverge widely at times. For weeks now, a heated debate has taken place between feminists who see an onus to support, based on her gender , the presidential aspirations of Sen. Hillary Clinto...