ALEX CHADWICK, host:
This is DAY TO DAY. I'm Alex Chadwick in the studios of NPR West.
MADELEINE BRAND, host:
And I'm Madeleine Brand from the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Later on, I'll go out to the mean streets and find out what's happening in the housing market here. This place has one of the nation's highest rate of foreclosures.
CHADWICK: First, several of the Democratic presidential hopefuls are hanging around in Nevada a few hours today before heading out. Hillary Clinton and John Edwards move on to California - on separate flights, one presumes, after the fireworks last night.
Tomorrow they're attending a forum on global warming in Los Angeles. NPR news analyst Juan Williams joins us now for his weekly chat.
Hello, Juan.
JUAN WILLIAMS: Good to be with you, Alex.
BRAND: Hey Juan, and last night here at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus it got kind of personal between Senator Clinton and Senator Obama and between Senator Clinton and Senator Edwards. At one point, she hit him with the ultimate Democratic put down.
Ms. HILLARY CLINTON (Democrat, New York): I don't mind taking hits on my record, on issues, but when somebody starts throwing mud, at least we can hope that it's both accurate and not right out of the Republican playbook.
BRAND: So Juan, I guess the question is, once things get a little testy, if you will, a little heated, how can you return to loving each other? Or at least a form of civility.
WILLIAMS: Well, you know, heat is the right term there, I think, Madeleine, because at the recent Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa, Senator Clinton said that she was going to turn up the heat. And last night, I think the way that she strategically handled it was to try to put her opponents on the defensive, to put them in a position of being desperate politicians who are really worried that she is moving away from the pack.
I thought it was a much better performance for her, but the way that she did it was to begin calling them by name. I think you should have noticed that for the first time in a debate she's calling her opponents by name, and then she's making specific reference to policy proposals that they've made and the shortcomings, such as Obama on health care saying that he is leaving 15 million out by not calling for universal health care coverage in the United States.
CHADWICK: Juan, is there any sense, do you think, among the Republicans that it's good to see the Democrats going after each other or is it bad? Because the Democrats are getting a lot of attention here.
WILLIAMS: Oh no, Alex. In fact I know as a fact that the Republicans are just delighted with it. And the whole idea, for example, that you have former President Bill Clinton out there saying, you know, they're ganging up on her - the boys are getting kind of tough - I'm using his language here - has lead the Republicans to make a point that, oh, Hillary Clinton is playing the gender card, as if she is somehow afraid of actually being challenged and using her femininity to try to defend herself. They see this as something that will play in the general election and they want to plant that seed in the American mind right now.
CHADWICK: Uh-huh. How about the other story on the GOP side - it's got to be the continuing rise of Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in Iowa.
WILLIAMS: It is really a stunner. You know, in political circles this is so curious. This man was at - Huckabee was a two percent in one poll back in July. In that same poll now he's running second behind Mitt Romney with an 18 percentage point - is what the voters in caucuses say that they would give him.
So only Romney at 27 percent is better than he is. And now he's attracting attention in a way that he had not before. Mike Huckabee, who doesn't have much money, has very little organization, is the subject of intense fire from Republicans, and specifically anti-tax Republicans, because he's moving up in Iowa.
BRAND: And Juan, this week, also on the Republican side, John McCain had one of those campaign trail moments that, you know, before YouTube was around might not even register. In South Carolina, a very well put together looking older woman stands up and asked him so how do we beat the rhymes with witch, obviously referring to Hillary Clinton. And then John McCain takes a few moments to compose himself. He doesn't brush her off. He doesn't say we don't use those kind of words here, but goes ahead and gives a thoughtful reply. That got a lot of play on CNN and elsewhere. How bigger deal is it?
WILLIAMS: It's all over the country, Madeleine. And I think it's the kind of thing, you know, that increasingly comes to define our politics. I think it was a surprise to people, and I think for a lot of people on the Republican side, they say, oh well, he didn't say it, he just went ahead with it. But for people on the Democratic side, I think it's - they're not happy about it, and they're saying if that's the kind of politics that's coming in the general election, especially if the candidate is Hillary Clinton, then people on the Democratic side shouldn't stand for it.
BRAND: So, Juan, it appears that we are ending the week with big questions on both sides about where these campaigns are going on the civility issue.
WILLIAMS: I think what you're going to see in campaigns 2008, Madeleine, is intense spending on negative advertising in the way that we have never seen in this country. People remember Swift boating and Bill Clinton mentioned that he thought, you know, that it looks like we're headed in that direction again. I don't think there's any question, people are loaded for bear for a very personal and bitter season of politics.
CHADWICK: NPR news analyst Juan Williams with us again on Fridays.
Juan, thank you.
WILLIAMS: My pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
