My Review of the MSNBC Democratic Presidential Debate

just some notes...

Published on April 27, 2007 By Sean Conners aka SConn1 In Democrat

Last night, the 8 democratic candidates took center stage in South Carolina. They took part in a 90 minute, introduce yourself to america kind of debate. While nothing will be won or lost from this debate, in all likelihood, some did well and could see some poll bumps. Others, might see some numbers slip. And of course, for the lower tiered candidates, slipping much lower could cause their ability to compete down the road, unless you're Mike Gravel, who seems to be running the "make some points at the debates but don't really campaign" candidacy.

the following is how I saw each candidate's performance last night. This isn't so much about their positions but their performance....

Hillary Clinton - Impressive. Senator Clinton reminded us just how good she is. She's the front runner, and will probably keep that feather in her cap, at least for now.

John Edwards - Surprisingly, I didn't think Edwards was as good as he was in 2004. And his "punt" of the hedge fund question was a poor dodge. Edwards came off to me as a bit disingenuous overall. Last night won't help his poll numbers in my view.

Barack Obama - The after debate talk was very positive about him. I wasn't as impressed. Barack stumbled a little bit, and I thought lacked the ability to show more depth. Fortunately for him, his base is rabid for him and shouldn't suffer there. But i'm not so sure his numbers will go up. Maybe a small move in either direction. Barack should hope to improve upon his debut here. His best line of the night was the one about the reality that democrats are 1 vote away from losing their majority, and 16 votes away from ending this war.

Joe Biden - My pick for the best of the night on the grounds of substance. If Biden doesn't get a bump out of this, something is wrong and he should think about hanging it up, lol. Senator Biden was articulate and clean. He was gracious and brief. He was Presidential. He also had the best line of the night when asked about his critics charges of his pompous bloviation. When asked whether he could be trusted to not be that way, Joe's answer was "yes."

Bill Richardson - I had high hopes for bill going in. And some of what he said was good. But Bill apparantly has a hearing problem. from the opening bell, he kept leaning over, brow furrowed, straining to hear questions directed at him in a silent room. He repeated the exercize in his post debate interviewed. every time, looking like a confused old man who just got rudely awakened and is cursing out whomever he sees as responsible.

Dennis Kucinich - The Ohio Congressman and former Cleveland mayor once again proved why he will never be president. Outside of his children scaring appearance, making him the "steve forbes" of the left, After Kucinich says something people can sign onto he would continuously over reach. Fortunately for Dennis, he had 2 things going for him. 1, Mike Gravel's rants made him look mainstream and moderate. And 2nd, his wife a Bombshell (and note the capital

and I for one hope that Dennis does well enough that she comes back.

Mike Gravel - Speaking of bombs, the evenings biggest and most explosive bombs came from Kucinich's left, in the form of Mike Gravel. Gravel suggested the ideas that Congress should make Bush a felon for invading Iraq and are pussies if they don't. He also ranted that everyone else is itching to nuke everyone. Al Sharpton, he's not...but he tried.

Christopher Dodd - dodd is a decent Senator and a decent guy in my view. A career politician, and son of a Senator, Dodd showed the nation that he is not the man for the job. Nothing special, nothing even memorable from his performance except for the fact that he and his family are embedded in washington. and in a climate of outsiders, new faces and change...unless he raises a ton of money real fast, i don't see his candidacy as gaining any traction. Dodd could have revealed his fluency in spanish last night, upstaging hispanic bill richardson's self described inherent base, but not even that.

That's what I saw, in a nutshell...overall, the debate was entertaining and not much of a blood bath. We'll see what the GOP has to offer on May 3rd.

Comments

Sean Conners aka SConn1

on May 02, 2007

gratuitous and shameless bump...

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