New Hampshire Democratic National Debate
The competitors:
- Hillary Clinton
- Barack Obama
- John Edwards
- Dennis Kucinich
- Joe Biden
- Bill Richardson
- Chris Dodd
- Mike Gravel
I watched the debate this evening in its entirety and I have a synopsis for all y’all. First, I just want to say how I feel everyone did this evening. If I had to choose a winner out of the top three front-runners (Clinton, Edwards, Obama), it pains me to say that Hillary is not it for tonight. Edwards clearly won this debate, Clinton second, and I have no clue what was up with Barack Obama tonight, but it wasn’t pretty. Ordinarily, Clinton manages to outshine her competition, but tonight I saw some hesitance and an unusual amount of side-stepping in her answers. Edwards continuously took control of the debate and the issues and even though I find him to be a very cheesy guy, I give him the winning title. Barack Obama did not make any substantial flubs, however, his presentation was flat and unenthusiastic most of the time he was speaking. Unfortunately, there is not much to report on ol’ Barack except that his favorite story in the Bible is the Sermon on the Mountain. . . and, yeah, who cares?
For the lesser-knowns, I can say that few of them made a lasting impression on me. Dennis Kucinich is obviously a sharp guy with strong convictions. However, strong convictions + ultimate power do not always equal the best interest of the country. Even though I consider myself to be a liberal in most areas, Dennis is simply too liberal, even for me. He is a likable enough character and I can definitely see why he has a very loyal fan-base.
Dennis Kucinich sings “Sixteen Tons”:
Governor Richardson comes off as a human being more so than the others because you can see that he makes a lot of mistakes in his debates that most seasoned politicians would not make (and he admits to it). He has an impeccable track record in politics
and, as he made sure to boast tonight, has been nominated four times for a Nobel Peace Prize. Pretty impressive really. His platform from the beginning has been that he has experience in foreign relations (to include hostage negotiations) and also is an established diplomat who wants change for the U.S. of A. I do agree we need a president who stands for change in addition to one who has tons of valuable experience, however, I also think we need a president who can articulate what he is going to do and how he feels on certain issues. That is where Bill Richardson struggled tonight, but I still have to keep my eye on him because I find him very interesting.
Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, and Mike Gravel did not leave much to be desired. Of course I realize that in these debates, the lesser-known candidates are not given as many questions to field. Mike Gravel was kind of a funny old guy. He was presented with an opportunity to set the record straight about having filed for bankruptcy due to a $90,000 credit debt. In essence, he loudly proclaimed, with much fortitude, that he did not pay back the creditors because they didn’t deserve to be paid back. While I tend to agree that credit card companies are a shady racket, it sends a terrible message to people that it is OK to rack up nearly $100,000 in debt and not pay it back simply because you think credit card companies are evil. It also highlighted Hillary Clinton’s point for the U.S. needing to embrace financial responsibility. Still, it made me chuckle that he had no qualms about announcing that on national television. As for Biden and Dodd- meh. So-so, but to tell you the truth I don’t really remember much about what either of them had to say.
At this point in time, I do support Hillary Clinton for President in 2008. I was a wee bit disappointed by her answers this evening. There seemed to be an awful lot of rhetoric and tip-toeing, even for Hillary. I do not envy her position, though, so I can kind of understand. The people who hate the Clintons, really hate the Clintons. The people who like them, really like them. All of the people who are neutral and have yet to pick a candidate to root for are the ones Hillary is trying to impress. Many people in my generation know only one or things about Hillary: that she is married to Bill and that Bill had sex with an intern half his age while he was President. So, it stands to reason that Hillary would want to downplay the negatives and focus on getting people to forget about that for a second. I did like her answer tonight regarding torture. She was faced with a hypothetical situation: If the United States captured the third most-wanted guy in Al-Quaida, who just so happened to know the location of a bomb set to blow up the U.S. in three hours, would you temporarily allow that person to be interrogated via torture in order to save the country? Of course, Hillary said no and then it was revealed to her that her husband was given the same question on Meet the Press and he had answered yes. Hillary looked straight ahead and said, “Well he’s not the one standing up here right now, I am!” I thought it was a brilliant move to a very cheap shot by Tim Russert.
Hillary Clinton on Meet the Press:
© 2007 LBB
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