Open Thread (Democratic pres. debate on MSNBC)

*This is a temporary departure from my normal topics - Indulge me for a sec…

Its 36 minutes into the democratic presidential debate on MSNBC - This is an open thread for those watching while logged on…feel free to comment with your thoughts:

Quick impressions so far.

Hillary Clinton is clear, sharp and looks very confident and comfortable dealing with the questions from the Giant Head of Brian Williams (mini joke from Daily Show - he makes satellite appearances where Jon refers to him as the giant head for this post his abbreviation will be GHBW). Would have her minimize the shoulder shrugs when describing the poor in her state if i were her advisor. - She was being asked about Hedge funds when she did this, but she answered the question really well, sounding like she would regulate the hedge fund industry. Edwards did not do too well on the hedge fund question. He didnt recover from the $400 dollar haircut flap sufficiently, acknowledged that they are rich and lived a priviledged life…then went into a story about his humble background - weak example of his dad not being able to pay for a bill at a restaurant and his resulting embarrassment.

Obama - Floundering abit, he appears to be getting his feet wet with this debate.

Kucinich - Anti war (esp. war as a tool of foreign policy)
Biden - Funny use of 1 word answer regarding the comment abt him being a gaffe machine (this refers to his gaffe where he referred to Obama as articulate bright and clean)

Gravel - First thought was heh wacky! wanted to tell him ‘chill abit’, After afew minutes, i think he comes off as passionate, abit on the bleeding edge, and extremely clear about his anti war and anti nuclear stance (He is a long shot as a candidate, but quite a strong character. They should have him on the next debate)

Bill Richardson - when asked why he was last to ask for Alberto Gonzales’ resignation was honest abt saying that he knows Mr. Gonzalez and wanted to give him time to answer, plus felt kinship with Gonzalez because he is also Hispanic.

Email Q: what mistakes have them made?:

Edwards sorry for voting for war.

Obama: Not staying in senate during the Terry Schiavo vote

Hillary: Healthcare - not being able to get it sorted in 93 ‘94, and how she handled it.

Richardson:Impatient with implementing change (didn’t choose his words carefully here)

Oh havent mentioned Chris Dodd, seems like a confident guy but i don’t get the sense that he is a strong contender on this one.

Hillary is looking better and better each minute. She is handling the debate deftly!

They tried to cram too much into the first hour rushing them through questions.

7pm CDT

GHBW - Who are the 3 allies for US?

Obama - Long winded answer not being specific though mentioning Japan, asia - follow up Q by GHBW on his stance abt Israel, obama acknowledged the issue of palestine and Israel (sorry i missed part of this)

3 important enemies:

Gravel - No enemies, military industrial complex is controlling culture and pointed to the fact that Iraq was not a threat to US.

Edwards - Russia, dissent being squashed suggests that America can change the underlying relationship with the rest of the world by providingprimary sch education, clean drinking water, microfinance, reposition US as caring abt humanity.

Richardson: How would you deal with Russia? His answer - control nukes, humanity towards chechnya, give energy to US, promote russian democracy within. He passionately pointed to the Darfur problem and poverty.

The myth of Dem’s being soft on Defense-

Hillary - great answer on bad foreign policy feeding into this myth.

Dodd- Absence of diplomacy and turning away from diplomatic tools - great answer.

GHBW - Part where they had a show of hands. Is there such a thing as War On Terror? - No one raised their hand.

GHBW: What would you do if there was a terrorist attack?

Hillary - Very strong IMO very presidential answer - Be swift as is prudent.

GHBW: Would you join Kucinich in calling for impeachment of Cheney? - No one bit. Kucinich pulls out a pocket copy of constitution pointing to constitutional transgressions by Bush Admin.

GHBW: Hard choices on Climate change as quoted by Friedman of NY times

Biden - legislation, fuel cells etc

GHBW: Gay Marriage Vs Civil Union - How are these things different?

Dodd - Looked at it from the parent point of view - civil unions ok, same sex marriage not

Gravel changed subject from a q asked by GHBW to address Iraq war - Terrorism is mischaracterized, invasion of Iraq has created more terror.

What have you done personally to deal with climate change - Obama - organized others to plant trees. Taught his daughters about changing light bulbs to low energy consuming ones (CFL’s i presume is what he meant though didnt mention CFL’s by name) He could have answered this better.

IRAN - Abit of sparring btwn Obama and Kucinich. Obama reiterating that a nuclear threat must be met with seriousness

GHBW: Who is your moral Leader?

Edwards - Took time thinking - Prays to God, His wife source of great conscience, his father these are the people with most impact on his views on morality.

GHBW: Is walmart good or bad?

Hillary - mixed blessing - goods to rural arkansas, with growth responsibility on discrimination provision of healthcare…points to buddy buddy relationship between corp and current bush admin.

90 minutes went by very fast.

My opinion: I would say HILLARY WON THIS ONE. by far. The talking heads on TV will deconstruct this further in the news

Update: If interested in more commentary, see what John Dickerson has to say over at slate.

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Posted in: Amer. Pol.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 5:47 pm and is filed under Amer. Pol.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

14 Responses to “Open Thread (Democratic pres. debate on MSNBC)”

E-Nyce April 26th, 2007 at 7:12 pm

Thanks for the rundown. I have a feeling that your commentary is much better than the hot (and stinky) air we will get from talking heads in the days to come.

AfroMusing April 26th, 2007 at 7:30 pm

You are welcome E-nyce, boy are they are going to talk - it will be interesting to see what they choose to emphasize from the debate.

KA April 26th, 2007 at 10:38 pm

I have to confess I love these debates…thanks for post.

bankelele April 27th, 2007 at 4:27 am

It seems kinda crowded to have all the candidates up there. Last time I followed debates seriously was in the 2000 election and I remember how the format of the debate was something that was â??debatedâ?? extensively by the candidates advsiors e.g. how many questioneers (who would they be?), audience questions, same question asked of both candidates? etc -result was that, while everyone expected Gore to walk all over Bush, he came out wooden, while Bush charmed his way, was not challenged intellectually, and showed he was a real guy. The election would not have been that close if Gore had handled the debates better

Whispering Inn April 27th, 2007 at 6:04 am

Great write-up AFM. Unfortunately, I missed the whole thing but from what I gather there was probably not much to miss anyway.

The main complaint I’ve heard from most folks is that the 1-minute answer time was not enough to say anything substantive — in fact, it seems to perpetuate the “sound bite” mentality that we should be discouraging.

Then, apparently, it was all over the place — too many subjects to cover — with too many candidates (was it ten?).

But it’s a start and, hopefully, Obama will polish up make Hillary and company eat his dust!

Whispering Inn April 27th, 2007 at 6:08 am

Correction - “…Obama will polish up AND make Hillary….” *Too early in the morning*

Mentalacrobatics April 27th, 2007 at 6:44 am

Interesting, thanks for the round up.

AfroMusing April 27th, 2007 at 9:32 am

@KA - You are welcome, the republican candidates will be next on May 3rd.

@Bankelele and Whis -Yeah, I remember that debate too. Gore may have been too confident and didn’t take the chance to really connect with people. It was definitely crowded! and like whis said, the short time given to answer the questions really feeds into the ’sound bite’ mentality that is American news these days. Obama will thrive in a longer format, he is well reasoned in his answers almost academic though, he needs to get more ‘politico’ like Hillary did, her experience in politics definitely comes through.

@MA - Karibu.

Ntwiga April 27th, 2007 at 8:17 pm

That is a pretty good write up. Thanks

So, is this still being sold as a Clinton/Obama race?

What about the Republicans?

AfroMusing April 27th, 2007 at 9:58 pm

Steve, i think it is, Obama and Clinton were very cordial during the debate and didnt take any potshots at each other, they were echoing each other’s points alot…Edwards threw a barb Obama’s way… talking about his ‘high falutin’ language, more to be seen in the ensuing months. As for republicans, their debate will be on May 3rd also on MSNBC. (Mccain, Giuliani, Mitt Romney..dunno who else)

jjray April 28th, 2007 at 7:33 am

Great summary of the action AfroM. Didn’t catch it myself and don’t trust the MSM to accurately report what went down. Somebody, I think it was George Stephanopoulos, said this was like a preseason football game. Too early in the election cycle to get much attention. As such, it was great for Barak to get experience in this debate format. Hillary, as can be expected having been in the media spotlight for many years now, is more comfortable with debates. Does Barak adjust and improve his performance next time around? I’d bet “yes”. Shall be interesting to see.

irene April 28th, 2007 at 1:37 pm

AfroM, bravo for this great step-by-step report. Couldn’t have asked for a better run-down. I do hope that Obama gets more comfortable in this kind of set-up and does a better job next time. As academic as he comes through, I think he also possesses the capability to be more “human” (for lack of a better term) and connect with people. I hope that at the end of the day, democratic voters will see through the refined political machine that is Hillary Clinton, and really vote for change. BTW, love the look of your blog; I had not visited for a while…

AfroMusing May 2nd, 2007 at 9:04 am

jjray and Irene..thanks for visiting! nothing like a little politics to get you to comment :) this is one interesting race, looking forward to your thoughts as we continue watching the goings on in this country

Scoonaccouh January 3rd, 2008 at 9:36 am

Few things are as frustrating as when your laptop battery suddenly won’t charge fully or stops holding its charge for as long; when this happens, you’ll probably want to buy a replacement battery.

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