The best part of the CNN/YouTube debates? The Silver Fox.
It’s late and I’m tired, so I’m not going to belabor my thoughts here. I watched the debate with some lovely Drinking Liberally folks, and a crew from The Daily Show did some filming and some interviews. Perhaps we’ll be on tomorrow or in the next few days; I’ll keep you all updated. I was, thankfully, not interviewed. But if you’re watching the show tomorrow and see a ponytailed brunette in an ivory sweater probably making dumb faces in the background of the footage, that is yours truly.
So, the debate:
1. Sen. Clinton won. She seemed the most presidential, and projected the most power. She was cool and articulate and on-message, and she didn’t trip up or seem uncomfortable. She came across as confident and experienced. I haven’t been a huge Hillary fan, but this debate pushed me slightly more towards her camp.
2. John Edwards’ comment about Hillary’s coat was quite possibly his Howard Dean Scream moment. It was simply terrible. It felt sleazy and rude and sexist, and I was really not a fan. It also, unfortunately, epitomized all of his weaknesses as a candidate — that (a) he’s smarmy and (b) that he’s too pretty. When he said it, someone in the room said, “He Queer-Eyed her!” And that’s exactly what it felt like. Not exactly presidential or even endearing.
Obama managed to save the moment by commenting that he liked her coat — and it made him come across as a thoughtful, gentlemanly person. I can’t find the video on YouTube yet, but if any of you come across it and want to post a link, I would be very grateful.
3. Anderson Cooper is amazing. Not only foxy — although let me say that he is SO foxy — but good at cutting the candidates off when they got off-topic and ranty. And was so on fire when he asked the candidates to raise their hands if they came to the debate via private or chartered jet.
4. What in God’s name was the Kucinich “text for peace” business? It kind of reminded me of this:
THE NINETEEN-SIXTIES
—Mr. President! Did you hear about Woodstock?
—Woo— Woodstock? What in God’s name is that?
—Apparently, young people hate the war so much they’re willing to participate in a musical sex festival as a protest against it.
—Oh, my God. They must really be serious about this whole thing.
—That’s not all. Some of them are threatening to join communes: places where they make their own clothing . . . and beat on drums.
—Stop the war.
—But, Mr. President!
—Stop all American wars!
—(sighs) Very well, sir. I’ll go tell the generals.
—Wow. It’s a good thing those kids decided to go hear music.
5. John Edwards sucked. He dodged questions really obviously. And, granted, there were some questions that he had to dodge — like the reparations question — but he did a piss-poor job at it. Obama, in contrast, side-stepped the question by saying that we need to see reparations in the form of better education for young people, especially low-income students and people of color. Edwards rambled on about big insurance companies and power being concentrated in Washington. Not good. He also blew it on the sex ed question — a thousand Edwards aides hung their heads in shame when their candidate used the phrase “bad touch.”*
I was an Edwards fan before this debate, but no longer.
6. Bill Richardson is boring, and there is no way in Hell we’re pulling all the troops out of Iraq in six months. I want the war to be over as much as anyone, but given that we’ve invaded a country, killed off a significant portion of its population, created the largest refugee population in the world, destroyed its infrastructure, enabled sectarian strife, emboldened terrorists and started a massive civil war, perhaps it’s not the greatest idea to just peace out. Not that we need to stick around and micro-manage every detail, but we do need to give the Iraqi people the tools to rebuild their own country, now that we’ve demolished it. Six months ain’t gonna do it.
7. Dennis Kucinich is a creep, especially given his whole wife contest. Biden is a creep too for commenting that the best thing about Kucinich is his wife.
8. Mike Gravel was, as usual, a crazy old coot. And God bless him, because if there’s one thing I love, it’s crazy old coots.
9. The best thing about the YouTube debate: It allowed reporters to put out questions that they otherwise couldn’t ask without being blacklisted by the candidates. The worst thing about the YouTube debate: It illustrated just how pathetic our media establishment is. Why should they need the buffer of the average dude asking basic (but tough, unapologetic and straight-forward) questions? Reporters shouldn’t have to establish adversarial relationships with politicians, but they shouldn’t be so polite and chummy that they render themselves unable to push the candidates hard when they need to be pushed. So I don’t think the YouTube debate was as much of a young-voters schtick as some commentators have made it out to be; instead, I think it served as a convenient space for reporters and media elite to put forward questions that they would have otherwise never asked. I’m glad those questions were asked. I’m disappointed that the people with the greatest media power and access aren’t asking them.
Perhaps I’ll have more to say tomorrow. Probably not. What did you all think?
*Or “inappropriate touching,” I don’t remember.