Ponderings of a Scientist

Comment by nikkiana

June 4, 2007 @ 12:34 pm

We watched the second half (my mother didn’t think to IM me and tell me it was on until then… ).

What amused me most is that for the majority of what I watched, Bill Clinton suddenly didn’t have a name. He became “her husband” (or in the case of Hilary, “my husband”).

I kept forgetting who Gravel, Bidden and Dodd were… Richardson didn’t say much impressive, other than something about all day kindergarten ought to be mandatory which rubbed me the wrong way. Edwards didn’t get to talk much. Kucinich, as you said, had great ideas but they lack a certain sort of realism. Hilary seemed to spend more time talking about her husband than what she was going to do, and Obama got me to look up from the Scrabble board every time he talked, but I can’t for the life of me remember what he said.

There was a lot more talking over each other in the second half… but I blame that more on moderation, it was often unclear who was supposed to respond first.

Comment by Z.Monkey

June 4, 2007 @ 1:41 pm

Much of the questioning in the debate was leading, which, I suppose, it is supposed to be. But questions like, “By a show of hands, who believes that English should be the official language?” Are specifically designed to be talking points for Republican analysts, who will ignore the comments Hilary made about why she voted against the measure (i.e. making it official and not just national forces “all” government documents to be in the language, takes away “all” money for multi-lingual services at hospitals and other civic programs such as child services). I applaud Obama for attacking that sort of question, but I bet you $10 that the question will be used by the republicans in the actual elections to show how “Unamerican” the democratic candidate is.

On another note I thought the following observation was quite good:

I don’t know why she just can’t say about her war authorization vote: “I regret that vote. It was a mistake.” Edwards did so and it hasn’t hurt him. In fact, given our current president’s inability to admit a mistake, being honest about the biggest whiffs is kind of refreshing. But Hillary is learning the worst lessons from Bush. And thus, rather than admit she screwed up, she’s reduced to arguing that she placed all her trust on Bush.

In my book, saying “I made a mistake” will always trump “I trusted Bush.”

Also, I do agree that there is something about the way Obama speaks that is attention grabbing. I think its more style than substance; that’s not saying the substance is bad.

Comment by Z.Monkey

June 4, 2007 @ 1:43 pm

Ha. Poor use of blockquotes. That last paragraph wasn’t supposed to be in a blockquote.

Comment by tizzom

June 6, 2007 @ 10:31 am

I think the debate was good, overall. they seemed to have a unified agenda of getting the democrats on the same page - away from republicans.

I agree with comments that Hillary was pushing the anti-Bush thing and i too was peeved at the arrangement of the candidates on stage. maybe alphabetical order would be more appropriate. it’s subtle ways like this that the media controls who’s in and who’s out. also, at one point obama, clinton, and edwards had spoken 2 times each consecutively. then when it was graves’ turn blitzer pre-empted him with a ‘keep this really short’ type of comment. it was bullsh1t.

I was impressed by Kucinich’s speak although i think he should have spoken more - especially about his plan for single payer universal health care and how it’s time people stop making excessive amounts of money over denying/granting health care.

i like that obama calls out problems with the questions. i don’t like how there are no follow up questions to issues of campaign finance reform which is one of the most important first steps for fixing our dysfunctional democracy.

:endrant:

tom

Comment by The Scientist

June 6, 2007 @ 12:30 pm

Hey Tom are you back in the States? We are having a bit of a get together - Beer Tasting, BBQ, baby watching at our house on the afternoon of June 16th if your interested.