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!
The Democrats tonight engage in a new debate format with questions fired in from the ether via YouTube. It's their fourth debate and, despite the protestations of the frontrunners, there are still eight candidates in the mix. It's getting close to make or break for the second tier, who will have to take on Hillary tonight.
posted by gatorbob @ 6:49 PM
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!
32 Comments:
I should've mentioned that they've taken the stage and are about to kick off starting at 7 p.m. on CNN. Anderson Cooper is reading the questions tonight. Should be fun.
I'm not sure that poking fun at the YouTube constituency is the best way to start this experiment, Anderson.
Apparently we're to see actual YouTube vids with questions and they're stressing that they'll be pressing candidates for real answers. Good luck.
Bad start with a "dude" who had obviously just handed the bong off to his girlfriend.
Nice one - a question for Dennis the K. right off the bat. And he seems up for it tonight, trying to distinguish himself immediately by taking on the hawks. Go Dennis!
Dennis is trying to work the "Strength through Peace" slogan. Not crazy about it.
Hillary gets a chance to follow up but doesn't take Dennis on, instead does the "unity" thing. Boooring.
Obama tries some demogoguing on campaign finance. Nice try, mate, but you're as dirty as all the others.
Another chance for Hills - she's asked to define the word "liberal." Decent answer - she prefers the word "progressive" and talks about the Progressive movement. Wow! A bit of history in there - didn't expect that.
I actually think that Hillary probably is a bit progressive in her private life but unfortunately she's running as a neo-liberal.
Cool, Mike Gravel's off on a tear ripping Barack a new one on the campaign finance issue. He's on the defensive and is having to hold the line. I'm sure we'll find the truth in the papers tomorrow. This could really hurt him.
Biden's turn now on a question about working in a non-partisan way and which Republican he'd pick as a running mate. He chooses Chuck Hagel and says he's have Dick Lugar in the candidate. Not bad, Joe.
Finally a chance for Edwards. He nods toward Chuck Hagel too. But I particularly like his populist leaning here and his use of the term "triangulation" to define Hillary and Barack.
Oh dear, they've asked the candidates to make YouTube style vids. Chris Dodd up first with one that gently pokes fun about his white hair. Har har.
I'm waiting for Hillary and Bill fighting each other with lasers.
Great questions about African American reparations. Edwards is bold by saying he's against it.
Kucinich is even bolder though saying he's for them.
I'm really liking this format because these YouTubers are actually asking questions that the media hacks aren't willing to ask such as whether Barack is Black enough, whether Hillary represents women and tricky issues like gay marriage and reparations.
And it's Kucinich who's distinguishing himself. If you're someone who wants reparations, wants troops out now and wants gay marriage, he's the one.
Interesting set of answer on Darfur, with Joe Biden particularly gung ho about sending troops in. Now what's the difference between sending U.S. soldiers into a civil war in Iraq and sending them into a civil war in the Sudan?
A question on whether the troops died in vain in Vietnam (and Iraq) produces a fiery response from Gravel and a waffle from Edwards.
Okay John, if troops aren't dying in vain in Iraq today, what are they dying for? The ugly reality is - and I realize that it's a tough thing for a candidate to say today - is that, far from protecting the country, the military has unwittingly placed us in more danger.
Interesting question there about how many of candidates have kids in Iraq today. Of course, the answer is none of them. If I'm right, the only Senator who currently has a kid over there is Webb of Virginia.
Here's Gravel's YouTube vid and it's a dark one for a change. Most of the candidates have been doing jokey ones but that one was reasonably good.
Good fiery stuff from Kucinich on Iraq, especially going after Obama on voting for the funding.
Wow, that's warmed my heart. A great question on No Child Left Behind and Richardson - usually on right on these issues - says he'd scrap it. And he gets a huge hand from the crowd in South Carolina.
And now Biden's saying scrap it! Wow!
Interesting question on whether to send kids to public or private school? Edwards says his kids were in public schools, Clinton says that Chelsea was in publics K-8 and then went into a private to stave off the press, and Obama taught and sent kids to the Lab School in Chicago.
Biden says his kids went to private school after his wife died. Kucinich stands up for public schools, Dodd's kids are in publics and Gravel has a mixed record.
I'm loving this - the next question is on sex education.
Edwards with a decent answer while Barack waffles on it.
The problem with some of these questions is that the goofy videos undercut the serious issues. The last one was on global warming from a snowball!
I'm waiting for the question on animal rights from that dog that rides the skateboard or the dramatic prairie dog.
Okay, Mike Gravel just lost my vote for stumping for a regressive "fair tax." Bye bye Mike.
These You Tube style videos are lame. Biden's was basically a political ad on You Tube. Lame.
Barack Obama's mentioned Reagan twice - wtf?
Hey, I had to turn it off for dinner here.
Did you really think that a party starved of dignity really should have done a YouTube sponsored event? Doesn't that feel a little desperate to you?
And exactly. They led off with a couple of really jokers that are just going to fire up the Fox noise machine about stoners and losers being the party base.
The question I want asked is this. Who among them really imagines that by the time January 29th 2009 comes around that the problems in Iraq/Iran/West Bank/Turkey/Afghanistan/Pakistan to say nothing of Venezuala or North Korea will have any possible solution at all? Isn't it their opinion that the Bush administration is planning to hand off the ball deep in the end zone on fourth and long with no time on the clock? And if so, why isn't anyone just beating the administration up about it? How dare they f**k abolutely everything up for 8 years and then expect any kind of hope for a solution after they're safe in their Haliburton/Bechtel safe-havens or just as bad, on the tube every night not being held responsible and allowed by the craven media to yap on and on about how f**ked up everything is "still?"
Re-reading your comments as a review is steaming me even more. This YouTube format was ill conceived and allowed the bong-hit-world-of-warcraft generation to tilt the debate. Sex-Ed, Gay-Rights, and Reparations??? Jesus Christ you morons, it's about Iraq and a generation of men and women getting their asses shot off and returning in boxes or so wounded that there's little hope of ever integrating them into a civilian work-force again. It's about militizing the rest of the world against us so that even if we could manage to see the carnage in Dafur no other nation on earth is in the mood to hear from us about a solution. And it's about falling away in the race to compete with China who are burying us in cheap crap that we used to make while using those profits to raise the price of a barrel of oil beyond what we can pay.
I flippin' despair. This is pointless.
Absolutely excellent commentary lads . . . I missed the debate, but having the chance to read your take was more valuable than hearing the candidates natter on. . . I share Gooner's outrage, for sure!
All due respect, but I have to differ. I've actually enjoyed the alternative formats of debates this time around, precisely because they've taken the control out of the hands of the media hacks such as Jim Lehrer, Brian Williams and Wolf Blitzer and given it over to ordinary sorts. Sure, some of the questions were lame and the videos were generally pretty goofy, but those YouTubers raised a number of questions that hadn't been raised in other discussions.
For example, last night's debate is the first time they've had any kind of discussion on education and No Child Left Behind. Sure, it may not be as key as foreign policy, but still, at any point from September to June, Monday to Friday, about a quarter of this country's population finds itself in a public school. And I was really heartened to find that all three asked about it - Richardson, Biden and Edwards - said they'd scrap it as President. Wow! Maybe after twenty five years of "standards" and "accountability," the tide is starting to turn. And while I still have misgivings about the top three Democratic candidates, I have to admit that there is a world of difference between them and the torture-happy, global warming deniers over in GOP land.
I was hoping to open the paper today to see what they said about the format, but the local rag farmed out the coverage to the AP wire service that just reported and did no analysis.
I'm stuck waaaay down in Dixie and can't get a read on how this played. I still really worry that this will be food for the Fox noise machine and that "wassup" tool and that idiot in the toilet will be the lasting image that they are able to paint the Democratic candidates with.
It's a reasonable fear but keep in mind that the GOP will have their own YouTube debate in September. Can you imagine how lame those vids will be?
Hope you're breathing easy down here in Dixie.
Oh yeah, otherwise it's warm breezes at the beach and my annual personal shrimp eradication program.
Did you catch the Daily Show tonight? Uh-huh, lots of bong-hit nation coverage and plenty of laughs at pandering to this youth format.
I can't for the life of me see what's in it for Tancredo and those f**kwads in the GOP. I'll lay you even money that it's managed so that you don't get the chick on on the toilet asking the "is Bush a great or is he the greatest?" type of question. That's all I'm saying, look like you can at least manage bong-hit nation ferchrissakes.
Keep in mind, as well, that this one was merely #4 in a scheduled 8,000 debates between now and January. That's got to grind down the frontrunners, especially Hillary Clinton, who would really just like to skip the next year and go straight to the convention at this point.
Here's the thing, though. A year ago I thought Hillary would sail through the primaries and then run aground in the final election with the GOP pulling out its Clinton playbook. Now, I don't know about that. I really didn't expect the GOP to completely implode the way that they have. Did you see the latest GOP poll? All of those chumps are running a distant second to "None of the Above." Ouch!
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