“Raise your hands”. “How many of you think that Wolf “I am a rightwing tool” Blitzer is a dweeb?”
God, do I hate the raise your hands motif. What possible point could there be to having such a simple black and white question and response? There are no easy answers, except to Wolf and his beltway media pals. For her response to Wolf, I applaud Clinton for telling Wolf to piss off. Although, it was presumptious of her to speak for everyone.
The media, of course, thought that it was presidential and that Clinton took the initiative. Blech.
What is presidential is not saying that ‘we are safer now than we were in 9/11′, which is what Clinton said. It’s clear to me that, aside from her triangulating and trying to have it both ways problem, the bigger problem is that she is a hawk. Based on that one response alone, I have categorically ruled out voting for Clinton. The fact that she has other issues that I have problems with (see afore-mentioned triangulation and both ways problems.)
I like Obama. But, I’m not ‘in love’ with him. He speaks well, and he’s on the ‘right’ side of most issues, though he’s voted with Clinton on just about every issue.
Another thing that I didn’t like about Clinton was her continuing to say, despite all evidence to the contrary, that all the Democratic candidates agree on all issues and that they’re just disagreeing with bush. That’s not the case. There are plenty of differences between the candidates. This was yet another example of Clinton being very annoying and inaccurate. She did that a few times during the debate.
My favorite candidate, Edwards, did very well, I thought. He had a nice line, widely quoted, about how Obama and Clinton sneaked up to the voting area and voted against the Iraqi war funding at the last minute. Obama came back with a non-sequitor that Edwards was 4 1/2 years late. Yawn. Try to address the point, dude. And, Clinton made a lame comment about how people on outside (pointing to Edwards) not really having the standing to comment on what people on the inside are doing. It was yet another annoying response by Clinton.
Edwards talked about getting out of Iraq, helping poverty in America, becoming a good ambassador to the world again, working with the world on Global Warming. Edwards talked about getting bold. All of these issues were consistent with what I saw when I saw him in San Jose last week.
Oh, good, I’m listening to Bob Shrum on Chris Matthews show. He doesn’t think that Edwards is doing well. Almost by definition that means that Edwards is doing well.
On the other side, I think that Kucinich and Gravel have used up their 15 minutes. Both are a complete waste. Democrats who call up rightwing spin to attack the entire Democratic party suck.
The other controversial moment in the debate came when Wolf asked Edwards about his ‘bumper sticker’ comment, i.e. the war on terrorism is a bumper sticker phrase. He defended it, not well, IMO for people who don’t know what the subject is. But, Clinton’s response was just scary. She laid into the 9/11 phrasebook and said that we are fighting a war on terrorism and that we’re safer. While a line like that makes the entire beltway media and rightwingers drool, it’s not a true statement. Neither part is true. I’ve already talked about the joke that the we’re safer now than at 9/11. (i.e. terrorist activities are up dramatically since 2001, recruiting is up dramatically since we invaded Iraq, etc.) It’s also not true that we’re fighting a war on terrorism. Where is Osama? Where is the head of the Taliban? Where are we fighting terrorists? Nowhere. Our military is completely tied up in the Iraqi civil war.
Shrum just pissed me off again. Saying that attacking other Democratic candidates is not a good way to go. That’s a whole new post that I will get to. For now, I’m glad that he’s ‘retired’. What a joke. He’s cost Democrats elections and has not a clue that he’s responsible.
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