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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Democrats in Phila: Best Moments: Obama & Planet Earth, Edwards & Hillary Doubletalk

Two best moments in the Democratic debate in Philadelphia tonight, just concluded a few minutes ago on MSNBC:

1. John Edwards was by the far the best he's been in this campaign, and by far the most effective on the stage tonight, in taking on Hillary Clinton. He refused to back down down from his press release headline that Hillary Clinton double-talked, and gave ample examples - the most telling of which was her inexcusable vote for a bill that empowers the Bush administration to start going down a path that could well lead to war with Iraq. Others on the stage, including Obama, was not as clear or as passionate as was Edwards on this point.

2. But Obama had a moment when he was given a question near the end about whether he believed in life on other planets. He answered that he didn't know, but he did know that there was life here on Earth, and we needed to do more to take care of that. Fine answer - and I say this even as committed science fiction author...

Biden continues to impress with his toughness (especially on Giuliani tonight, and I give Kucinich credit for saying, yes, he once saw a UFO (even though I've seen no really convincing evidence myself). And Mike Gravel should have been there (MSNBC ruled him too low in the the polls and finances received to participate - bad move).

I thought this was the best Democratic so far, and I'm looking forward to more.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We must focus on the bigger picture! We all know Mr. Edwards nor Sen. Obama will not head the Democrats. We must unite and waste no time and money! The sooner we unite, the faster we can recover from the Bush disaster! I will see Mr. Edwards as a man without greed if he quits now and I will praise him. Mr. Edwards should spend more time with his Wife for she needs this precious moments. This same letter is intended for Sen. Obama as well!

Anonymous said...

The big picture is that Hillary isn't a Democrat, and we have a chance to elect one this year.

Josh said...

Wait, Obama should spend more time with Mrs. Edwards? I don't get it.

Hillary was awful in that debate, from what I saw of it. It was the kind of performance that must have Republican campaign operatives licking their chops. Even after 8 years of Bush, the American people would still rather elect someone who expresses a strong ideological stand on most issues than someone with a considered, nuanced point-of-view like John Kerry, or someone who apparently will say anything, regardless of what they believe, to get elected, like H. Clinton or Giuliani. If it's a choice between those two, I guess we can expect an extremely low voter turnout?

I spent a lot of this fall wishing Dennis Kucinich was in the race, but he's toast after that UFO business. I agree with Bill Maher that there was a politically feasible, but still honest way to answer that question. "Um, yes I saw a UFO," was not it.

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