Debate This.
How many of you all saw the Democratic debates tonight?
So what did you think about the whole YouTube deal? I loved it. Anderson Cooper was the moderator, which was reason enough to watch in my book, but Anderson did not pose the questions.
The questions were asked by John Q. Public, the man on the street, everyman ... and everywoman, since I can't seem to find a gender-inclusive term.
People sent their questions via YouTube videos -- genius! Folks had some really creative video-questions. One guy asked about No Child Left Behind in music video format using a big flip-pad on which he'd written things. His last page said, Scrap it or completely revise it? (Bill Richardson, first off the block, spoke plainly: "I'd scrap it.")
One video had two women, I believe from NY, who basically said, "Hi, I'm Mary, and she's Jen. Our question is if you were elected President of the United States, would you support us being married ...... to each other?" They then looked at each other and back at the camera a couple of times like, "Well? Let's hear it!", drawing a laugh from the audience. (Only Kucinich stepped up as supporting actual marriage -- and strongly.)
There was a snowman asking about global warming. The scene cut to a much smaller snowman, while the narrator asked something like, "What will you do to make sure my son leads a long and full life?"
One guy with a guitar wrote a little ditty about taxes.
A veteran who had burial flags for his father, grandfather and eldest son asked what the candidates would do to make sure he doesn't collect a flag for his youngest son.
One guy specifically asked Senators Obama and Clinton how they will address the critics who say they are not "black enough" or "feminine enough". (Barack Obama: "You know, when I'm catching a cab in Manhattan, I believe I'm given my credentials,")
A Southern Baptist (I believe) pastor asked John Edwards to address the fact that he used his Southern Baptist faith to justify his stance on gay marriage (against it, for civil unions), and did Edwards think it was right to consider faith when making policy decisions. (Edwards: his faith influences his personal beliefs, but he does not believe in basing political decisions on faith.)
One smug and smarmy guy pointedly addressed Senator Clinton as "Mrs. Clinton", and asked her if she considered herself a liberal, and to define the term. (Clinton: considers herself a progressive, not a liberal)
One guy asked if any of the candidates supported reparations for African-Americans, and went on to say that he knew the question would probably have the candidates "dippin' and dodging". (Again, only Kucinich came out in favor of actual reparations.)
One woman asked about health care, and making preventative care more available and affordable. She said she hoped to be a future breast cancer survivor, and pulled a wig off of her bald head.
One young man asked how the candidates would represent athiests and agnostics.
Anyway, I really liked it. The questions were real questions about the things every day folks think about. Things like social security, health care, uneven tax burdens, Iraq, minimum wage, education. The candidates, not knowing what questions were coming, had to stay on their toes.
Some of them seemed nervous. One of them, Mike Gravel, (I'm sorry, who?) was just ... odd. One of the CNN people (Carol somebody) said he "looked kind of like your kooky uncle at Thanksgiving dinner".
That's pretty accurate. Dude was just weird. Very combative, and said things like, "You can now go to Hanoi and get a Baskin-Robbins ice cream cone! That's what you can do!" (That during a ranting comparison of Vietnam and Iraq)
I have to say that Senator Clinton was all about cool confidence. She came across as a leader, especially when one guy -- a soldier in Okinawa, I believe -- asked how she'd expect to be taken seriously as President when Muslim countries would "see her as a second class citizen". She listed high-level people in Arab/Muslim countries with whom she's met, and said something like, "I don't think there's much doubt in anyone's mind that I can be taken seriously," Her delivery was spot on. I believed her.
My thought on that is that this is our country; we're not electing a president to please folks in other countries, we're electing a president to run our country. And to hopefully fix our shit.
Senator Obama did great as well. He seemed to connect easily, and came across as strong and confident. At one point, he started off a sentence saying, "As president, I would ... " and I popped out in goosebumps.
I also have to say, flaming leftwinger that I am, some of Dennis Kucinich's answers kicked ass. I think he's too far left to get elected, by a long shot, but I personally was liking his answers.
Biden talked tough and straight, but ... I don't know. Eh.
It pissed me off though, when candidates would occasionally try to go all sound-bitey, despite Anderson's efforts to get them to answer the damn question or stay on topic. Please guys, we're instantly aware when you switch from answering a fresh question to falling back on your pat self-serving plugs. Even candidates I like and respect did this. Annoying.
Also, giving the "expected answer". Boring. Someone asked if they'd each be willing to do their jobs for minimum wage. Please. All of them tried to sound believable while giving off a chipper "Yes!" or "Sure!". WhatEVER.
Senator Obama finally said it's easy for them all to say yes, because they all have money, but the question is should the average person be living off minimum wage. One of them (Biden, I think) tried to say something about not having Obama's kind of money, and Obama came back with, "You do all right, Joe,"
(And I'm sorry, Joe, but Obama made his money himself, he sure wasn't born into it, and he spent a lot of years as a community activist, working for beans.)
Also, they had to bring up Senator Clinton's clothes. Please! She's damned either way. She was recently called into question for not being "feminine enough". WTF? OK, first people have a problem with a woman president, then she's not feminine enough? If she wears "feminine clothes", that must be commented on. If she showed up in a dark skirt suit in keeping with The Boys, she'd be accused of trying to dress like a man.
Shoot, they'd probably accuse her of being a man.
I'm sorry, but why don't we hear reporters debating whether Kucinich is masculine enough? Well? I mean, come on, people, he's not exactly butching it up, now. Seriously, I have never heard of a male candidate's masculinity being debated.
Bastards.
Well, I had more to say, but it's late, and I'm tired, and the Male Offspring just said he wanted to "tell me stuff" about his night with his friends -- gotta take those when you can get them -- so I'm out of here for tonight.
I liked this YouTube debate format, though. I hope they keep it. The right may have FOX, but looks like the interneters are making their voice heard in a big way.
Group photo: AP/Charles Dharapak
16 comments:
I didn't hear this was happening until it was too late. I'll have to watch when the Republicans do it. (That should be a hoot).
I do think it is a terrific idea...real people asking real questions? Concept.
Excellent excellent re-cap! I watched it as well and you totally nailed it.
"My thought on that is that this is our country; we're not electing a president to please folks in other countries, we're electing a president to run our country. And to hopefully fix our shit."
YAY and YIPPIE!
I think Obama had the most consistently strong retorts and was hands down the most at ease. Clinton did okay. I was shocked at how well Kucinich did and greatly disappointed at how poorly Edwards did 'on the fly'.
And as for the whole fashion debate - just wait 'til the first openly gay man runs. Trust me, I think all eyes will be watching to see just how he 'mans' it up.
Oh this was a glorious post.
GLORIOUS! (clicks heels)
Lorraine: you might be able to watch it online -- it's worth seeing. Yes, I too am waiting to see how the Republicans respond on the fly. I have a feeling they won't be so down with the people...
Hat: Yeah, it pisses me off that the gender thing is always a big focus with Clinton. I mean, race and gender are both issues with this election, but with Obama, it's more about overtly racist folks having a problem with an African-American as president, period, based on prejudice, not so much questioning his ABILITY solely on the grounds of blackness. It's just the blackness, period. It's about "SHOULD an African-American lead the country?"
With Clinton, there's the same prejudice about women as there is w/ the race thing, but there is also the added question of CAN a woman lead the country. Is she ABLE? Will she be "taken seriously"? Will she be able to negotiate with world leaders? Can she succeed as Commander in Chief? Her ability is questioned solely on the grounds of her femaleness, and then, on top of that, she's got the regular questions that they all face about their INDIVIDUAL abilities.
I was disappointed in Edwards too, and I lost count of the times he said, "I think I speak for everyone on this stage..." No, John, you don't, you speak for yourself. Stop it. He got sound-bitey a lot, too. Like that deal he threw in about "First off, let me say, that if someone doesn't vote for Senators Obama & Clinton because he's black, or she's a woman, I do not want their vote!" all the while, Anderson is like, "Answer the question!" Sound bite. Please. He'd take the votes. Easy to say, because there's no way to prove it.
Too bad Kucinich doesn't have more of a chance. Not that I'd vote for him -- I have questions about his ability with international relations, we need some strength there. I would like to see him in the administration somewhere though, I like his ideas.
Didn't watch, can't get the tube because of the hamsters and all...I think Obama needs to wear a Jerry Garcia tie and Hil needs BIG hoop earrings and she should start chewing gum. The Repubs? Need to take those little squiggley hairs outta their teeth and off their faces.
Ratz..I missed it.
But that's okay.Because the internets IS becoming a force to be reckoned with.
R: ewww!
Sling: to quote our Clueless Leader: Will the highways of the Internet become more few?
~G.W. Bush.
(at least he got the singular usage right that time.)
Wow, I got here via Gina's blog. You write some great stuff! I go on and off on politics - sometimes I'm all gungho and can shoot the shit with anyone and cite things here and quote things there, but then sometimes I just can't be bothered... I'm in the middle off such times. I had no idea this was even happening! It doesn't help that one of my favorite bloggers and the only I checked every single day, Steve Gilliard, died earlier this year. Kinda put a big frowny face on the whole political opinion scene.
Anyway, I'm sooo not a huge fan of H.Clinton, but it's good to hear she had some reasonable answers to such a uniquely styled debate. Sad to hear Edwards didn't shine. He came on DKos a few times and wrote some really great things, even taking on questions asked by the millions of posters. He's been my fav choice so far, along with Kucinich, but it's looking like it's either Clinton or Obama.
It also bugs me how Clinton is criticized for her fashion and general femininity. There are plenty of reasons to dislike Clinton (warbling on Iraq War, banning 'bad language' video games, etc), so there's no need to get personal or bring her gender into it.
Hi Sara, thanks for stopping by! I'm the same w/ the politics thing. Actually I think/talk about it more than it shows up here on the blog. I always feel that if I'm writing about a "real issue", I need to make sure I have my facts straight, which usually involves researching something or other, then I get pulled in even more, and who has time for that.
yes -- if you don't like Clinton, dislike her for the issues, not because she has breasts. Same with Obama. Uh, meaning ethnicity, not breasts. It seriously pisses me off that the men do not have to walk this fine line with their masculinity -- it is never even brought up. It's a non-issue, but with Clinton, it's this huge thing. Like that has anything to do with running the damn country.
Gret summary. I am also sick of the race/gender questions. Why not ask:
"Now that our military has been decimated and our international credibility has been destroyed, do you think foreign leaders will take you seriously? If not, how will you fix it?"
Allan: right. I mean, come on -- how many international leaders are taking George Bush seriously?
Here's what we do. Impeach Cheney and Bush and then Nancy Pelosi is President. Voila! We've had a woman president, a woman can lead, blah blah. Next.
Lorraine: Watch out. Now that you've written that, the terror police could show up at both our doors. Seriously, follow the logic:
--If you're not for him, you're against him.
--If you're against him, you're unpatriotic.
--If you're unpatriotic, you're unamerican.
--If you're unamerican, you're probably a terrorist.
--If you're probably a terrorist, the place to find out for sure is Guantanamo.
And it's all downhill from there.
The crazy bone connected to the brain bone. The brain bone connected to the gun bone. EVERYBODY! Oh the gun bone connected to the hand bone, the hand bone connected to the money bone, the money bone connected to the oil bone...
tra la la
My Dear Hat: fully automatic military grade weapons don't kill people; people kill people.
I'm showing up rather late to the party, but I did watch, and I thought it was a great format, too. Obama did well, but I am getting closer and closer to DECLARING my support for Hillary. I know that she's "divisive" and lots of folks don't like her, but every time I see her, I think this is the person I trust to be the next president. I love Barack Obama, but I just think he's too green, and the whole would-you-meet-with-Chavez-and-Castro question pretty much nailed that down for me.
By the way, it was Chris Dodd who complained about not being in Obama's financial "league." Whatever, white boy.
I don't know if I'll be able to get through the GOP version without throwing up just a little, but I'll try.
Eric: Yes! I thought Clinton's answer on that question (would you meet with Cuba/Korea/Venez./etc) was spot on, because it wasn't the expected yes-man answer. Everyone else was like, "Sure!" because they didn't want to come across as unwilling to try diplomacy, but her answer showed 1)she's willing to take a risk 2)she's thinking for herself and doesn't need to follow the crowd, and 3) strength.
I'm really in the Obama court, so far, but damn the primaries are coming fast (next month here) and Clinton keeps giving me the impression that I would feel ... I don't know, safe for a change, with her as president. Kind of like that feeling you have a little kid when you know you don't reallyhave to worry too much, because your folks have everything under control.
Post a Comment