Let the Debates Begin!
The Democratic candidates met tonight in Orangeburg, SC. The early buzz is that Edwards was the winner, although Dennis the K could claim top honors. What say you?
posted by West Ham Rising @ 9:35 PM
Lakenheath Old Boys
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Lakenheath Old Boys
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
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8 Comments:
Sorry lads, I blew the image on my post . . . it was supposed to be of Dennis K and his newest wife, Elizabeth Harper K . . .
Hey, Sir Trev. No problem with the image - I'll fix it. You beat me to the punch on this one, mate. I was thinking about blogging it, but then I had to hit a Graduate Student Council meeting and thought better of it. I haven't seen the whole yet, but I've been checking out the after-debate chat on MSNBC. Chris Matthews seemed to tip it toward Obama, Olberman toward Edwards. They both said that it was a fairly polite affair apart from an apparently rather unhinged Mike Gravel from Alaska (I admit I'd never heard of the guy before tonight - he sounds like a hoot and perhaps outflanked Kucinich on the left!) Definitely check out the following thread on Daily Kos - the commentary is quite good:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/26/191522/831
I'm definitely up for some serious blogging on the Repubs next Thursday night, Trev. Are you in?
I'm hearing from more and more websites that Brian Williams was a complete tool as a moderator. Did he really ask Edwards about his bloody $400 haircut. I ask you!
So who's your choice, mate? You know me, unless they find a way to regenerate Trotsky, the Dems will never find someone left enough to suit me. But I admit that Dennis the K is pretty cool. First vegan Prez? His wife is a conundrum too - as you can see from the image I posted, she's quite a looker, is a bloody giant and sounds maybe British or Aussie?
By buddy Joel's take . . .
Posted at 9:47 AM ET, 04/27/2007
Mike Gravel is Howard Beale
I watched the debate last night and have a couple of thoughts, starting with the obvious fact that Mike Gravel is the Howard Beale of the race -- mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. At one point I feared he might bite someone.
(By the way, there was a no-props rule, and when Kucinich brought out the Constitution that probably should have been punished with an immediate trapdooring into the pool of sharks.)
The winner: Edwards. Everyone else seemed a bit nervous. Edwards is trial-lawyer cool. And what a haircut! (I need to make the rounds to see what the buzz is, but fyi, I watched the debate with several savvy Washington insider-types and we all thought Edwards did quite well.)
Gravel livened up what was otherwise an oddly dull 90 minutes -- so many of the candidates either playing it safe (Clinton, Obama) or just unable, under the bang-bang keep-moving format, to strut their stuff (Dodd, Richardson). Biden's one-word answer to the question on his verbosity was so perfect you'd have thought he and Brian Williams had planned it out in advance. Obama wasn't well-miked and sounded as though he were speaking from inside a box (a shame since he has the world-class baritone). Hillary didn't know where to look -- at times she seemed to be searching desperately for her talking point. And Kucinich has to worry that Gravel stole his thunder-on-the-left.
Great stuff! "Network" is one of my favorite movies.
Karen has just remarked that the Kucinich and wife pic. looks like a bad portrait from a junior high school winter cotillion where the sweaty palmed 8th grader is hanging on to his (inevitably) much taller date. Hilarious!
I've finally had a chance to go back and finish watching Thursday night's debate. I decided to view the candidates statements as transcripts (without the distraction of appearance, speaking ability, poise, etc.) and judge them against the following rubric:
* Immediate withdrawal from Iraq (5 pts)
* Timetable for withdrawal (2 pts)
* Opposition to attacking Iran (5 pts)
* Opposition to NCLB. (5 pts)
* Open borders (2 pts)
* Pro choice (2 pts)
* Secularism (2 pts)
* Anti War on Terror (2 pts)
* Universal Health Care (2 pts)
* Statement on global warming (2 pts)
* Pro-Palestinian (2 pts)
* Progressive taxation (2 pts)
* Anti-corporate stance (2 pts)
* Anti death penalty (2 pts)
* Pro gay marriage (2 pts)
* Internationalism (2 pts)
* Anti-corruption (2 pts)
* Pro gun control (2 pts)
I also deducted points for statements that went the other way.
Here's how the candidates turned out:
1) Kucinich - 22 points
2) Gravel - 18 points
3) Edwards - 14 points
4) Biden - 6 points
5) Clinton - 3 points
6) Dodd - 0 points
7) Richardson - -2 points
8) Obama - -6 points
Some interesting results there. I consider a "0" score to be dead middle of the road in terms of Democratic Party political spectrum. No surprises that Dennis the K. was my favorite. What was shocking to me was how far to the right Barack Obama positioned himself. I think that he scores points for diversity's sake among my liberal and lefty friends and I don't think they're paying attention to what's actually coming out of his mouth. He lost points for right-wing statements on Iraq, Iran, Health care, the War on Terror (where he was by far the most beligerent), and being anti-Palestianian.
I'm going to use the same rubric next week for the Repubs and I suspect I'll get some real negative cricket scores!
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