Democratic Debate

Because I am both lazy and have nothing better to do I watched the Democratic Presidential Debate. It was on CNN, and they are yet again transmitting to us under the assumption we are morons by reminding us that the Senators running for the Democratic nomination are indeed democrats (they put the little (D) next to their name). From the blogs that I read I only get views and positions on Obama and Edwards mostly, with a few snarks at Clinton and the rest of second tier candidates. So i wanted to see a bit more of the rest of the field and HRC too. From the moment I saw them standing straight and composed behind their podiums I couldn't help but laugh at the pony show I thought would follow. Here are a few thoughts:

Gravel: Who is this guy!? In his 4 or so chances to say something all he did was turn to the rest of the candidates and bitch, whinge and moan. He really is a generator of democratic infighting. I read a comment about Gravel on Dailykos - " Meanwhile, Gravel is eating a pizza at stage right... " So very true! He just sat there the whole debate... with 5 minutes of talk time! Just does not seem serious in his candidacy/campaign. Though every now and then he smacks someone down and keeps people in their place a bit.

Kucinich: Everybody writes this guy off as a legitimate candidate for POTUS, and he he pretty much is. But he probably got the most applause for when he did speak. Never mind he couldn't directly answer the question asked to him - and neither did most every other candidate up there. He does have a hot wife though. And his positions are superb: against Iraq war from the beginning, end NAFTA, end PATRIOT act, Universal Healthcare, is a vegan, etc. Kudos for slipping in GWB is a war criminal!

Clinton: This is pretty much the first time I heard her speak in public. I don't pay much attention to her as I've concluded that she is too much of a hawker. Really inconsistent on Iraq - she trusted Bush! Not admitting she was wrong on her vote to use force. It's hard for me to support her. I'm sure she has good ideas and positions on other things, but I've yet to hear them. I do applaud her for taking it to Wolf tonight with his ridiculous "raise your hand" bullshit along with the inane hypotheticals. THAT was refreshing!

Edwards: On the attack! Right on Iran, right on different types of democracies. Also liked him on his views of gay marriage, as they come pretty close to my own (from what I could gather). Ending public subsidies to oil companies! If I had to decide tomorrow, he is probably the person I'd vote for. But he did vote to use force in Iraq. Hrmmm... Really though, I'm in the -not a clue- category.

Richardson: Snoozefest...zzzzz. He has this stellar resume and pretty much flopped tonight, failing to live up to it. He must have used half of his talk time to explain he is a) a governor and b) from New Mexico. He makes really weird comments too, or maybe he just has a lot of brain farts? "I'm a pro growth democrat!" Or his comments about Roe v Wade and Supreme Court Justices. For now I've lost any interest in him.

Biden and Dodd: Have trouble discerning these two; they look the same and are both east coast senators. Glad to see Biden getting loud on genocide! But he is military action this, military action that. Seems hawkish like Clinton. Dodd had a good response on the English as official language question - that being "no." Also, Dodd seemed to get longest response to the "gas prices" question. He went on and on about long term goals, yada yada and never really answered the question; so I'll assume he would do nothing to ease gas prices - right answer! He also linked energy supply/dependence to national security - a plus. He definitely piqued my interest from these debates.

Obama: I've seen him speak before and his style just won't work with the minute long answers for these so called debates. Saying that he got pretty good treatment. He had the most talk time of everyone but a lot of it was umms and ahs. And he got first response to a lot of questions - the GOOD questions. Kudos to him for attacking the framing of one of his questions (question is meant to divide us). I want to see more of him...he should come to Minnesota! Because even with all that talk time he still didn't really impress me all that much.

The Republican debate is coming up... think of all the comedy and great drinking games! Chug a beer each time evolution is denied! Take a shot each time the use of torture is advocated for! I wonder how much hand raising will be done with them? Man Wolf Blitzer is an ass.... and were those questions from the people really their own? Ha! In the end it was OK, it was far better than the Kerry - Bush debates that were nothing more than prepared speeches. There was too much bias: lower tier candidates got terrible questions, ie: Gravel - What would you do with Bill Clinton? C'mon! And the Kucinich/Osama Bin Laden hypothetical.... pathetic. I was and still remain a bit worried about the Dems candidates but this has made me a bit less dissonant; any of these people running are a welcome change to Bush and are miles ahead of the Republican army of old white guys. Are there any Independents running yet?

The two or three people who I actually want to run have all declined, or most likely won't. Damn!