Apr. 17, Feature - The Democratic Debate in Philadelphia, framed as a no holds barred type of event, ended up a very even toned, uninformative two hour event, hosted by ABC, at the National Constitution Center.

The first 50 minutes of the debate was about politics, not policy. Questions by ABC host Charlie Gibson focused on Obama's latest gaffes and thorny personal relationships.

First, a question about Obama's comments about bitter small town folks who cling to guns, religion, and people who don't look like them.

"... People are going through very difficult times right now."

Clinton was asked to respond to Obama's attempt to explain himself, giving her a wide open opportunity to attack.

"I similarly don't think people cling to their traditions like hunting or guns, either, when they are frustrated with the government."

Obama was asked about associations with his pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright who was exposed saying inflammatory statements. Obama was also asked about his patriotism and the absence of the American flag on his lapel.

As for Senator Clinton's false statements about being under sniper fire while landing in Bosnia, she said he was sorry she said the wrong thing.

"So I will either try to get more sleep or have somebody who is there as a reminder to me. You can go back the past 15 months.. we've both said things that have turned out to not be accurate."

After the first commercial break, with the debate nearly half over, Moderators began with questions on Iraq and Iran. Both candidates said they'd pull the troops out, regardless of the situation on the ground.

Then a question about Iran, Obama, who has had trouble gaining he support of the Jewish electorate, was asked about his commitment to defend Israel from Iran. He didn't really answer the question.

"I think it's important that Iran understands that an attack on Israel is an attack on our strongest ally in the region. One who's security we consider paramount. That would be an act of aggression that I would consider an attack that is unacceptable and the United States would take appropriate action."

Senator Clinton was emphatic in her support.

"I think we should be looking to create an umbrella of deterrence that goes much further than Israel. Of course I would make it very clear to the Iranians that an attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation from the United States but I would do the same with other countries in the region."

Iraq and Iran culminated all the foreign policy discussion. Matt Corley with the Center for American Progress would have liked to have heard much more.

"..what about the war in Afghanistan and our policy in relation to Pakistan..."

As for the economy, Both Clinton and Obama agreed to not raise taxes on wage earners below $250,000. Obama said he would, though, lift the cap on social security.

"We should be honest in presenting our ideas in how we're going to do that."

"I am certainly against one of Senator Obama's ideas which is to lift the cap on the payroll tax."

Bill Scher with the Campaign for America's Future says the debate was full of holes.

"We haven't had a real discussion on global warming in any of these debates - which is crazy. We've had very little discussion about the housing crisis. We've had very little discussion about their health care plans - they might think that they've done that enough, that's only because they've focused on this one element of mandates but they've not talked about other aspects of their plans."

"ABC just had this great journalistic scoop - that the highest level of the Bush Administration, including Condi Rice and Dick Cheney, directly approved torture techniques. Yet ABC seems to be incapable of ever talking about it again. There was a petition that was released today, calling for Condi Rice's resignation. It would seem perfectly appropriate to ask Obama, and Clinton 'do you support that call'..."