Candidates brace for first presidential debate on Wednesday

Just a reminder that on Wednesday at 3 PM ET/Noon PM PT, every Democratic presidential candidate except Barack Obama will take part in the first candidate forum.  The event will take place in Carson City, Nevada, and will be broadcast on C-Span television.  (Sorry for not bringing this up earlier, especially when considering the amount of time on this site that I devote to the '08 presidential race.  Look for a few clips from that forum to be posted later in the day on The Blue State.)

With Senator Obama a no-show, Hillary Clinton will be front and center -- making her an obvious rhetorical target for the other candidates.  Look for the second tier of candidates to be aggressive and hopefully say something worthy of making the network news later that evening.

Already, the Republican National Committee is planning a smear piece on all the candidates, which will be unveiled tomorrow during a conference call with reporters at 12:30 PM ET.

UPDATE (2.21.07: 1:10 AM): I almost forgot to include the entire list of candidates that will be there.  They are Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, Tom Vilsack, Chris Dodd and John Edwards.