The Democrats Debate

I guess I'll weigh in with my impressions of the first Democratic debate last night before my brain gets polluted with the views of the pundits. First, it came way too early. Second, I thought the biggest loser last night was Bill Richardson. He has such a good resume, I expected a lot more from him and got a lot less. I was also disappointed, though not as much so, with Obama. I just didn't think he was especially convincing. Further, I tended to disagree with some of his message, particularly those hawkish aspects challenged by Gravel. Hillary and Edwards performed pretty well, about as I expected, but neither really stole the show. Surprisingly, I thought Joe Biden, a man for whom I have little love, did a pretty good job, particularly with his one word answer. Chris Dodd also turned in a reasonable performance. I was glad to see most of the vitriol focused on the Bushies and not on each other.

Unfortunately, I found a good many of the questions predictably trite and many of the "why don't you stop beating your wife" type -- typical products of cable news. Nobody got to really explain his/her position in detail on any subject.

Ah well, what do you expect? It's the American media circus.

On the comic relief side, Gravel was an utter delight. He's obviously not a serious contender, but as a thorn in the side of the others, he was great.