September 05, 2003

The First Debate

Quick thoughts (I wish I had time for more) on the first Democratic debate last night, and on the nine candidates in general. I'll rank the nine in reverse order, counting up to my favorite.

9. Joe Lieberman. Why is he still a Democrat? It seemed painful for him to criticize Bush, and his weak attack at Dean was swatted aside pretty easily.

8. Al Sharpton. Daily Kos said it best:

This guy's entire candidacy is based on attending candidate forums and hurling vicious barbs at Bush's direction. Missing last night's debate must've nearly killed him.

7. Bob Graham. He seems like a decent man, but there's no fire there. Even when he was delivering his money lines, he didn't get the crowd excited.

6. John Kerry. He looked confident in the debate (who wouldn't, with a face that looks like it was chiseled off a coin?), but he reminds me way too much of Al Gore; he'll say anything, anytime, to anybody, if he thinks there might be a vote in it for him.

5. Carol Moseley Braun. Calm, confident and steady, she looked really sharp in the debate. And her "Osama bin Missing" line was great.

4. John Edwards. I liked him more than I expected; he seems to have a decent approximation of Clinton's smoothness and command of the issues.

3. Dick Gephardt. Really surprised me with his fire; I can't say how much of it is genuine, but it was the angriest anti-Bush speech we saw last night. I feel like even if his candidacy doesn't survive long, his "miserable failure" line should and will.

2. Dennis Kucinich. I still like to think of myself as an idealist. But even though Kucinich makes me nod my head in agreement with most everything he says, I just can't see him actually being President. My hope is that he takes his passion, and his ideas, into a high-level position with the next Administration.

1. Howard Dean. He didn't blow the room away like I'd hoped, but he kept to his message, he deflected Lieberman's feeble shots, and he seemed to warm up as the night went on (though he still looks too uncomfortable in a small, camera-driven setting). Part of me wants him to be a little more spontaneous -- he didn't answer some of the questions directly last night, and went into more prepared statements -- but he does have to counter the (false) image that he's a loose cannon. And hell, it's not like Bush got elected* by giving nuanced, thoughful answers to debate questions.

I just wish we didn't have to wait 6 months for this all to start counting.

Comments

I like the summary :) And, yeah.. Kerry is a little too Gore for his own good.

Posted by: aldahlia at September 8, 2003 11:20 PM

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