Democratic Debate Highlights Reel

How amusing, Casey. I was about to post the UFO question to Dennis Kucinich via TPM.

Thanks for sharing the videos.

Regarding a lightening round, I prefer to think of lightening striking a few media networks around here--beginning with Faux News Network and striking the rest at each lie.

If there were only justice in this world that would have happened right after Clinton's first Presidential term because that was when the lies really became expertly propagandized.

Sex sells and apparently so do lighting rounds.

I got to watch the first part of the TPM version, and I thought HRC looked very good--on a nonverbal level. She seemed to be the most "in command" and she was relaxed about it.

Then I came across a lot of critical posts about how she answered questions at the end, so I will check out the second half later on tonight. We are off to the CodePink house for Halloween with the Freepers--they show up every Wednesday and tonight we expect they will be even more frightful than usual.

No costumes needed.

They show up every Wednesday? (hmmmm...after church?)

Karen, Hillary always looks relaxed and in command. She is a perfect model for regulating her voice, her body, and her posture. Even her answers sound sincere 90% of the time.

What makes the biggest difference is that she was more 'real' in 92 and during her first investigation into Healthcare than she is now. Nobody I know likes her 2007 Healthcare plan! Requiring people to have insurance is only a new way to allow for-profit insurance companies to milk us for more while not providing the means for us to PAY for those mandated policies.

So the body language she may not need to correct, but the policies she sure does!

My point about her body language is that she has improved, while others have not. And since she is likely to win the Democratic nomination, we need to be working on those policies--we need to make sure she gets every opportunity to listen and hear what the people are saying.

I wish the other candidates had been giving her more of a contest, believe me. But she has a formidable machine set up and it was always going to be difficult to move her along.

I want Obama, Edwards, Dodd, Richardson, Biden, and Dennis K. to keep pushing her as long as possible. She needs to listen to them because they are listening to the people, at least they are voicing much of what I think they are hearing.

And if she wins the Presidency, I fervently hope it is after a long hard battle, in which she has to come to the people, speak truth, and listen deeply.

OT, but yes, the Freepers were there tonight. What a sad, lonely, stupid little group they are. They leafletted the trick-or-treaters, telling the children who were getting candy from us that Code Pink steals food from the homeless.

I saw the last 90 minutes or so of the debate, and was appalled with the degree that Hillary was attempting to be all things to all people. The media has focused primarily on her Social Security and Immigration responses - but her comments about Joe Rangel's attempt to fix AMT were equally evasive. For instance, while she praised Rangel's plan, she also made a strong point of noting that she didn't agree with it all of it - yet refused to go on the record with her specific objections. Rangel's plan, among other things, involves raising taxes of really wealthy Americans to levels that approximate the Clinton era. There's nothing radical about it. But rather than have the courage to go on record and defend a small portion of the taxation policies of her husband's Administration, Hillary chose the politics of evasion. This is not leadership. It may be effective political trickery, but it is decidedly not leadership.

I don't know whether Hillary can be taken down at this late date, but I do well remember where Dean was four years ago. A lot can happen in two months.

I'm left in the same position in this primary that I was four years ago - torn between my heart and my head. My head tells me that Edwards and Obama are the only serious alternatives to Hillary, but my heart tells me that Kucinich or Joe Biden would do a much better job telling the truth to the American people. I certainly hope that Edwards has found his voice - because for a while I was definitely wondering if he were attempting a slick Southern strategy rather than an authentic truth-telling populist strategy.

And isn't it obvious that Bill Richardson is also running for Vice-President? This idea that you don't challenge repeated patterns of evasion is party-wise but democracy-foolish. There was no excuse for Hillary voting for that Iran resolution – none whatsoever, other than as an attempt to protect her butt in a general election. It was so 2002...but this is 2007. And by voting as she did, she gave the crazies driving American foreign policy more ammunition in support of a policy not that only will not make America safer, but will likely leave Americans in even greater peril. That vote is a demonstration of either appalling judgment or ambition run amok.

Regarding the Hillary discussion.

The Hillary campaign is a machine but if people don't like her it won't matter what her machine does, they will simply not vote. Hillary needs to be careful in her little two-stepping that she realizes that a lot of people just hate her for her name and her 'feminist' views. And she must realize that a lot of those on the other side (meaning Republicans) would walk across flaming hot coals to get her on the ballot because they think she is 'beatable'. So she better not throw the 'base' away.

We want: NO WAR, NO SPYING, NO EXECUTIVE ABUSE OF POWER, PUBLICLY FUNDED CAMPAIGNS, JOBS, UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE.

I believe the moderate Republicans and Democrats are more united on those than people give credit for.

BTW - if anyone is still reading this, I was quite impressed by Chris Dodd in this debate. I thought he was the best of the bunch - in the limited time he had.