Article snippet: DETROIT — The attacks flew fast and furious, echoing off the soaring gilded ceiling of the Fox Theater here and rattling Democrats with fears that a protracted and messy intra-party fight will distract from the real battle royale against President Trump. Over the course of two nights this week, a soccer team’s worth of low-polling candidates hit one front-runner after another as they tried to make a mark. Little-known moderates at the edges of the stage sought to deflate populist liberals Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders at its center. The barbed rivalry between Joe Biden and California Senator Kamala Harris flared up again, with Cory Booker of New Jersey piling on the former vice president for good measure. And, as if fighting solely with the cabal on stage were not enough, candidates such as Julian Castro and Bill de Blasio brought President Barack Obama’s legacy into the fray as they sought to land a blow on Biden, showing that even the popular former president no longer occupies the party’s demilitarized zone. “There is a vast majority of American voters that just want to see an adult in the room and that was not demonstrated onstage,” said Stacy Pearson, a Democratic campaign consultant in Arizona. “They really were the parents fighting on the side of their kids’ football game.” Political debates are messy, bruising exercises by definition. But as this week’s clashes turned remarkably negative, they showcased the unwieldy contours of a primary election i... Link to the full article to read more