Politics and Culture

I found it interesting how the Democratic debate turned into a sort of WWF tagteam match with Obama and Edwards on one side and Hillary and the Fabulous Moolah, Richardson, on the other. Perhaps Obama told Edwards that he can be his vice-president and Hillary told Richardson that he can eat all of the truffles during state dinners.

It was a painful sight to see them argue against Petraeus' surge strategy. If things keep improving in Iraq, a McCain will wield those words over them like a needle over a balloon.

On to the candidates:

Bill Richardson:

Bill Richardson had the worst debate performance since the Pharisees went up against Jesus, and he's the worst candidate for anything anywhere since Palpatine ran for senator a long long time ago. At turns goofy, sycophantic, crazy, odious, and stupid, the only two words I could think of when he opened his mouth were "shut up." I could tell the excellent moderators, Charlie Gibson and Scott Spradling, as well as the other candidates, thought the same thing: Several times, Gibson said something like, "Let's hear from Richardson [the babbling idiot] to be fair."

Sometimes, after Richardson spoke the audience into a trance, the other candidates forgot the question. Whenever he brought up his experience as energy secretary or whatever, I could almost hear the whisk of air in the room from the rolling of eyes. Frankly, had he said that he'd been elected record keeper for his middle school Dungeons and Dragons club, I would have been shocked. It was awful. Highlights:

1. "We have the worst of all worlds in Pakistan," according to Richardson. Really? Worse than an Islamist takeover?

2. A foreign policy of "idealism and realism," a statement both stupid and empty.

3. He will negotiate with the Soviet Union and ask Musharraf to step down. "Mr. Musharraf, ummm, you need to go. Step down from the presidency of this nation of 130,000,000 right now!"

4. Amongst his experience, he went "head to head" with the North Koreans and tackled the oil problem. Good jobs.

5. We should leave because he doesn't want to "hear of another American death." Is that how you'll decide foreign policy? "We can't do that because Americans might die." Al Qaeda must be quaking in their boots. Oh, and by the way, how do you capture bin Laden without people dying.

6. "The only way to end the war is to leave." Well, I guess that would do the trick.

7. "There isn't any political progress in Iraq, Zero" A liar as well as an idiot.

8. "A carbon tax is a bad idea because it would pass the cost on to the consumer." So, taxes hurt the consumer? What about the other taxes you propose on energy?

9. "Government mandates on the energy industry, in contrast, don't affect the consumer" Shut Up!!! Shut Up!!!

Obama- Winner

Obama did a nice job and he'd be the toughest opponent for the Republican nominee; he made even me think that an Obama presidency wouldn't be so bad. He did well on his Pakistan question (he got a bum rap for his earlier statements). I'd go after Al Qaeda there too. Obama seemed moderate on health care compared to Hillary. In a signal that he's not just a "feel good" candidate, Obama picked up on Richardson's energy mandate lie (#9 above), saying that energy regulation would cost people.

He also accomplished two important goals: First, he put some meat on his "change" skeleton. His talk about making the government transparent made sense. Second, he parried Hillary's attacks. Hillary didn't come back with anything after he told her that it's OK to criticize, but not to "distort records," ouch.

His "heart to heart moment" with the American people, when he spoke about politics being personal, was, to paraphrase Superbad, like listening to the Beatles for the first time.
Most importantly, unlike Hillary and the divider, Edwards, one can't hate Obama.

Policy-wise he's a Democrat so he talks about silly things like closing loopholes in the Cayman Islands (isn't that like another country?) and "bottom up" economic progress (any precedence for this economic model?)

Edwards:

Edwards was very likable. Good "heart to heart" about his dad, but he shouldn't have mentioned it twice. Somebody told him to stop scaring happy people so, sounding like David Duke saying that there are some good black people, Edwards conceded that some corporations are OK. He rode the change wave strait into Hillary's boogie board by painting her as a champion of the "status quo."

He wanted to talk about the root causes of nuclear proliferation and have a plan for the long term- whatever.

I apologize for trying to make sense of people's policies, but I have some questions for Edwards:
1. If you never deny anybody expensive care like the liver transplant you mentioned, how will you reduce health care costs?
2. If poverty is such a great concern, how does illegal immigration make it better?
3. Why would illegal immigrants come to a country where there's so much poverty?

Finally, I don't think most Democrats notice this kind of stuff, but Edwards said that if the United States suffers a nuclear attack, the president should be careful not to "ratchet up the rhetoric." I'm thinking: "The president has a right to some strong words after a nuclear attack," but that's just me.

Clinton:

Clinton didn't have a good debate. Not terrible in that she was articulate and didn't trip over one of her lies, but not as good as Obama or even Edwards. The problems for me:

She kept mentioning her experience, but she's only been a senator for eight years. Is she counting her time with Bill? She needs to clarify. Plus, how does Hillary's experience stack up against any of the Republican candidates? Very poorly, I think.

Hillary insists that the country wants somebody whose core beliefs are "clear yesterday, today, and tomorrow." Like you, Mrs. Clinton?

Most importantly, I got a chill when she said that on her first day in office, she would "task" the joint chiefs for drawing up withdrawal plans. Do you want Hillary tasking Petraeus with anything?

Hillary made some other mistakes that my Democratic brothers and sisters might pick up on:

1. She reminded everybody that her husband could have killed bin Laden, but decided not to.

2. If you're going to attack a smart guy like Obama, bring facts and not just newspaper clippings.

3. Just like Romney and Huckabee shouldn't bring up religion, Hillary shouldn't mention her sex. It's apparent, no?

4. She shouldn't bring up specific military hardware like "predator drones." It makes her sound like a poseur.

5. She was quite boring with several of her answers.

6. How do we stop the subsidies for the oil industry, stop drilling, and lower the cost of oil for the consumer at the same time?

On the other hand, she showed maturity and sophistication when she acknowledged that leaving Iraq wouldn't be as easy as the other candidates think (or demagogue, more likely).

Thanks for listening.