Hillary Clinton tried to out-distance Barack Obama from anti-Semitism in last night’s debate, noting that when she was endorsed by an anti-Semitic fringe party in New York, she rejected its support, while Obama has denounced Louis Farrakhan in more surgical terms–repudiating Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic statements–after the Nation of Islam chief heaped praise on him earlier in the week. But Obama quickly came ’round to her side, seeming to neutralize the issue:

“I don’t see a difference between denouncing and rejecting,” Obama replied, adding that if Clinton likes the word “reject” more than the word “denounce” he’d be happy to both reject and denounce Farrakahn’s support. Applause filled the debate hall.

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