Debate

by digby

I think the question I enjoyed the most in the Democratic debate was the one where Wolf asked them all what they would do if they were tied to a bed naked with a ticking time bomb and a bunch of terrorists rushed into the room and started kibitzing among themselves about where to get the best Botox in Miami. Or maybe it was the one where he asked them all to raise their hands if they agree that killing is wrong — and if so, doesn’t that indicate that Democrats can’t lead? I can’t decide. I just love those multi-part yes/no hypotheticals.

Actually, I’m being unfair. It was far less fatuous than the Hume and Matthews debates, but still — the hand raising nonsense has got to go. Clinton rightly took Blitzer to task over it and quite effectively too. It’s just stupid.

But overall it was a pretty substantive debate. (And guess what? There wasn’t even one question about embryos!)I think any one of those guys, including Mike Gravel, would make a much better president than Rudy McRomney or Drop Dead Fred.

I do find it almost unbelievable that everyone but Edwards and Richardson were willing to to say that they wouldn’t boycott the Olympics even if it might help stop the genocide in Darfur. I grant that it was a more nuanced position than that, but that’s how it came off. Weird.

Also, I like Dennis Kucinich and I am glad he’s in these debates to voice certain positions that wouldn’t get heard otherwise. But I really hate it that he said Iraq is the Democrats’ war. I would hope that candidates could play hardball with one another without undermining the single most important rationale for a Democratic president, which is that the Republicans are responsible for the mess in Iraq.

I don’t think it matters all that much right now — as GOP strategist Mike Murphy said on CNN, this isn’t really about the voters yet, it’s about the media and money. But still, it takes almost nothing to gain currency in the MSM and that particular notion is a very dangerous one. If anybody out there has Kucinich’s ear, I would hope you could talk him out of using this line again. I’s the second time this week he’s crossed a rhetorical line and while there aren’t a lot of limits in my mind, implying that your rivals are racist and saying that Iraq is now the Democrats’ war is counter productive to say the least.

Who won? Who knows. The gasbags are calling it for Hillary Clinton, and she did do very well. But I thought they all did

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