I taped the debates Oy!

[Cheswick2.0]

To start with the beggining was bullshit. The only candidates who did not piss me off duing the endorsement section were Carol, Wesley and Kucinich.... and I think perhaps Edwards (can't remember what he said). Dean got points for sticking up for Gore in the manner he did.

Kucinich slapped Ted Koppel several times on polls and dropping out and where the media is taking the debate in this country. Sharpton redeemed himself after his assinine boss statement when he talked about not dropping out of the race and why. Kerry won points with his slap down on the polls question.

When is it okay to lie to the american people? Dean's answer was lame, but then so was the question.

Gephardt was great talking about the unfunded mandates such as special education and smaller classroom size. Teacher Corp! Great idea since I am about to graduate with a degree in education and 20k of student loans.

Clark was great on military information. He clearly knows his business with defense and international strategy. This is a real advantage he has over Dean and some of the others.

I thought Kerry sounded intelligent and well spoken. Dean was right about getting our troops out of Iraq and I appreciated that he and Kerry were able to say several times they agreed with each other.

Leiberman tried to take on Rev Al with a quip about talking to God and asking AL to mention him to God. Al said he already did and he would tell him Joe God's response in private. I literally LOLed at that exchange and to give Lieberman credit he genuinely laughed too. Then he totally lost my attention when he was talking on how great the war in Iraq is.

Clark was great in talking about his plan for getting out of Iraq. I may not agree with him on all his points but he knew what he was talking about. He also said we should not be occupying foreign countries to extract their natural resources. That is a DU statement. Who can disagree with that?

Carol Mosely Braun was very impressive talking about preemptive war and the responsiblity of congress to make those decisions rather than signing resolutions signing that power over to the president.

Dean was great bringing the debate back to domestic issues. He talked about jobs and healthcare, education. Edwards hit the idea of corporations running the whitehouse and how wrong that was. Gephardt talked about making college affordable.

They dissed Sharpton. They did not give him equal time.

So who won? I think they all did well. I think the winners, and by that I mean candidates who made people take another look at them, even if very low in the polls, were Clark, Dean and Carol Mosely Braun. She sounded the most mature and experienced on all issues combined, though Dean and Clark were great in their respective strengths...Dean on domestics, Clark on foreign affairs.

I would vote for any of the candidates including Joe.

[FrankBooth]

1. I would as well

"I would vote for any of the candidates including Joe."

[pruner]

2. I'd vote for Joe… but I'd volunteer for Bush

;)

[Cheswick2.0]

3. LOL, you would not

You would not volunteer for Bush I mean. I am glad to hear you would vote for Joe. Not that I am a fan of his, but I think he is much better than bush.
I enjoyed the debate mostly because the candidates smacked the pundits down for their stupid questions.

PS... I expect this thread will get locked if it comes back to the front because I used a bad word. No problem I was not thinking of the rules.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

4. Braun stood up for the Constitution while that corporate whore interrupted

I don't understand why pathetic washed up actors like Ted Kophole thinks it's okay to interrupt Braun while she was defending our Constitution - specifically the fact that the law requires Congress to declare war. The actor then proceeded to mock her by acting like following the Constitution is somehow out of fashion - and Braun stood up for democracy and said "Congress should be decided on war because they are responsible to their constituents when they send our men and women abroad.

Please fire the pathetic losers in the Democratic party that choose to put our debates on FOX, and hire b-rated actors like Ted Copel to ask asinine and insulting question. And kudos to Dennis Kucinich for openly calling out the media for trying to discredit the candidates and avoid the important issues - DK got the loudest and longest applause of the entire debate when he said that.

[Cheswick2.0]

6. yes we have to give several of the candidates credit, in particular DK

I do think that the party has to control the format of the debates. It seems to me that debates were better a decade ago. They have gotten incredibly stupid. But I don't think you are going to find any particular "losers" in the party to blame it on. I think the candidates are doing a good job of fighting the trend towards greater stupidity in the debates. Maybe they can get together and make some changes.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

8. Actually, I'm beginning to think that having the debates on FOX was...

...a shrewd political move. How better to get the votes of the conservative and moderate voters who watch FOX all the time but are rapidly losing confidence in the NeoCon Junta?

[Unknown Known]

9. Amen - yes, the media is the BIGGEST problem

Love that you called Ted Kophole an "ACTOR" - yes, that's just what they are.

Until the media changes, the Dems will always be made to look like clowns - begging for crumbs.

McAuliffe is probably behind these debate structures. It's also time to get rid of Terry.

I was VERY heartened that Gore is really straying from the DLC pack now by the Dean endorsement. This gives me hope that the party is going to change. One big reason I have always liked Al Gore is that he is a visionary and changer. The speech he gave during the endorsement was passionate and inspiring. It made me feel hopeful. The leash has been removed.

If anyone will help change the media - it will be Al Gore. He gave us the internet, didn't he:toast:

[Cheswick2.0]

5. To anyone reading this...forgive me

I wrote in what is the middle of the night for me. I never checked my spelling etc.... I used BS right there in the first sentence. I just wanted to express that I was pleased with the overall tone of the debate after the initial anti endorsement gripe-fest was over.

[Ficus]

7. Dennis rocked

Kucinich blew the roof off that joint when he told Koppel "Sorry if my opinions are not convienent to the media." or something along those lines. That firmly cemented my support for him, and I'm going to contribute again.