Tonight's Democratic Debate Thread

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So far, Biden has taken over the debate.

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So far, Biden has taken over the debate.

Hmm...not if he is running for the Democratic nomination.

I didn't say "winning the nomination or debate," I said "taken over the debate."  He's been the only one clear and confident in what he was saying.  Everyone else is studdering and trying to craft their words.

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I'm not sure how they are counting the minutes between the candidates to ensure there is equal time.  So far, they've been focusing too much on Obama, Clinton, and Edwards.

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Gravel had a good comment.  "Yeah, it's Bush's war, but it's the democrats war too." (paraphrased)

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I will admit, the first series of questions have been a lot better than the fluff stuff MSNBC was tossing up.  Blitzer is putting them on the spot.

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Gravel was really left out on the immigration issue.

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Edwards has done too much kissing up on Obama tonight. 

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you want to raise taxes, you might as well stay home.

Not watching, who said they wanted to raise taxes?

Yup, many of them have either said so directly (Edwards) or indirectly (Clinton, Obama) that they would have to raise taxes to cover national healthcare.

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"No one every asked them if they were gay in those holes."  hahaha . . . good pun, Biden. 

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Clinton says that former presidents should be used, yet I don't see her ever tapping Bush for a role if she's elected president.  hahah

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wow, a waste of a question, lol.  Think abouit the Cabinet and Staff on your own time

Yeah this Bill Clinton question is a total waste of time. They were quite good up until this point.

Bill is the Dems Ronnie.  They have to have someone to reflect back to to energize the base.  Unfortunately, having Killary on the state cheapens the question.  If she wasn't running, the question would have a tad bit more relevence.

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Oh God.  "We've got to investigate the oil companies."    Why not build new refineries and tell California to remove the production restrictions off of the existing refineries?  That's where most of your cost inflation comes from.

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Yup, many of them have either said so directly (Edwards) or indirectly (Clinton, Obama) that they would have to raise taxes to cover national healthcare.

Of course you have  to raise taxes on the rich to cover universal healthcare. If you think that's going to hurt them, then you're wrong.

As long as you don't raise taxes on the middle class, you're good.

To think that the middle class would not get a tax increase is wrong, unless you tax the "rich" by 50%.

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I might be a little biased, but I think Obama has been excellent.

Edwards and Clinton are getting the most camera time.

Biden has done the best, followed by Clinton.  Gravel and Dennis haven't done well, but that's because they haven't had equal time to provide their views.

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"Heroes Health Card??"

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Hillary thinks we are long overdue with talking to Iran?  How come Bill never had formal contact with Iran?  She'll fail on that argument every time.

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Obama hasn't answered a single question.  He's just giving random "feel good" answers that veighly connect to the questions.

That's been Obama's MO.  He is a great inspirer, but he is still weak on substance.  Every now and then he comes up with a good nugget, but not often enough.

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People are clapping for Clinton when she refuses to answer question after question.

This hour has been kind of boring so far.

Yeah, most of them haven't answered the question as asked on the first go-around.  Fortunately Wolf has been trying to make them answer it on the second try.  

As far as Darfur goes, Biden and Richardson have had the best answers so far.

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Gravel:  For every one year of service you would get four years of education?  SHEESH, sign me up!

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I guess if Biden is President we will invade every country that has some kind of violence going on it.

Darfur has been the hypocritcal point for a lot of Democrats.  They complain about military action in Iraq to enforce UN resolutions , but call for military action in Sudan enforcing UN resolutions.  We should be in the Sudan right now.  It would be a relatively quick operation, and the police work afterwards would be done by the UN forces slated to be there.

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I wonder what the Republicans are thinking right now?  Are they grinning from ear to ear, are they scared?

I think a lot of them have already accepted that they are likely to lose because of the political atmosphere in the country anyway.

Considering that this a democratic debate infront of democrats, I don't think the Republicans feel scared.  I'm sure many of them are writing down quotes which they can use against the candidates though.

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Gravel's best comments come at the end.  The only way to end the abuse of earmarks will be through a presidential line-item veto . . . something that Congress would never give him.

Gravel backs it up with debunking Clinton on Bill Clinton's "surplus."  Good job.  So he gets two good answers out of many bad ones.

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Bonus points for Obama.  Following Killary's "Bring the troops home" response as far as the first action as President, Obama says "only if nothing has changed."  I told you he comes up with a good nugget every once in a while.

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Not a bad debate.  First of all, the questions and the moderation were far superior to those of MSNBC.  I'm sorry, but MSNBC's democratic debate has been the worse so far of all debates, and they should be ashamed of that.  As far as the format goes, the format did allow for a better dialogue and actual debate on the topics, but with no time moderation, some of the candidates were short-changed and therefore didn't get a fair chance to answer the questions.  Lastly, here is how I ranked the performances:

1 - Biden
2 - Killary
3 - Edwards
4 - Obama
5 - Richardson
6 - Gravel
7 - Dodd
8 - Dennis

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Clinton's spin doctor seems pretty defensive.

Yeah, he answers questions as well as she does.