The Saturday Debate

I had forgotten it was on but I stumbled onto the beginning of the dual Gopper/Democratic debate on Saturday night. It is the first of the many (dozens?) of debates that I have seen.

First, I really liked the format and the duality of the debate. Having a Gopper debate and a Democratic debate, back-to-back, allowed viewers to see the difference between the two parties. The debate format, where the moderator raises a topic and then the candidates argue about it amongst themselves with little intervention allowed viewers to get a real feel for where the candidates stand. Yes, yes, each candidate was able to get in the core of their stump speeches, but when they actually had to engage each other and challenged each other on policies it was actually educational.

The one critcism I would have of the debates is that they were long. It took three hours to get in both debates. For a political junky like me it was manna. I suspect for most people it was just too much to take in at one time. And on a Saturday night??? Even Andrew Sullivan blogged that he was turning it off to do something else.

The debate didn’t change my perceptions of the various candidates or who I am supporting. I do have a couple of individual observations to point out.

McCain was having a generally good debate even if he was a little abrasive in attacking Romney on his flip flopping. But, we all know that McCain has a rep of not being a very nice guy to begin with. Where I thought McCain faltered was on immigration. Romney went on the attack and McCain just kept repeating himself and sounded as if he was sulking.

Romeny, he who is made of plastic, blew my mind with one statement. When discussing how to get health insurance for all citizens he said, in all seriousness, “Fourty-eight million Americans CHOOSE to not participate…” WHAT THE FUCK! I don’t know what bothers me more: that Mitt might actually believe it, that Goppers in general believe it, or that no body challenged Mitt. Sure, there are some people that choose not to have health insurance but most, and I believe that vast majority, of the 48m can not afford it.

I don’t know that I can be a good judge of the gopper debate since I support almost nothing they stand for.

On the Democratic side I think it was mostly a wash. No body got hurt too badly and no body really put themselves ahead. It was interesting watching Edwards join Obama in attacking Hilllary. (I’ve been told I can’t call it tag teaming Hillary any more and I agree).

The one statement that brought me up short was when Richardson effectively said that terrorist organizations have acquired nuclear weapons. And no one batted an eye. I’m pretty sure it was a slip of the tongue as Richardson was forming his thoughts as he was speaking so I really don’t hold that against him. (NOTE, it was clear to me that Romney meant what he said.)

One other note. Throughout the debate Hillary continued to use the phrase "make change." As in, "I've made change" and "I want to make change." It sounded very awkard.

This morning I see that Obama has a 10 point lead over Hillary. So maybe he did better in the debate than I’m giving him credit for. Or, conversely, Hillary did worse than I thought.