OLBERMANN: After 24 hours of letting this sink in, how in the world is this not the headline out of that debate last night?

MADDOW: This is the greatest burying the lead story we have yet in the campaign. I mean, the question to be asking is two fold: Number one, why would something like this advance American interests? To make our military, our troops, the bomb that any country can throw into the square in the Middle East whenever they to. As you said, we will get involved whenever anyone start fighting each other in the Middle East.

It is hard to imagine a conception of American interests broad eno...

OLBERMANN: After 24 hours of letting this sink in, how in the world is this not the headline out of that debate last night?

MADDOW: This is the greatest burying the lead story we have yet in the campaign. I mean, the question to be asking is two fold: Number one, why would something like this advance American interests? To make our military, our troops, the bomb that any country can throw into the square in the Middle East whenever they to. As you said, we will get involved whenever anyone start fighting each other in the Middle East.

It is hard to imagine a conception of American interests broad enough to make this a prudent promise to make to the world, particularly to this volatile part of the world. You have to ask that.

You also have to ask why this advances Senator Clinton‘s political interests. This is a huge reorientation of American foreign policy and America‘s role in the world. Given its enormity, it is surprising to have it dropped into debate 21 --

OLBERMANN: By the way—

MADDOW: By the way. No follow-up questions asked last night, no follow up details today. This is an elephant that has now been shoved into the room.