The YouTube Debate
by Ryan Sager
Mon, 23 Jul 2007 at 7:00 PM
updated Mon, 23 Jul 2007 at 7:07 PM
7:01: First comment comes from... snippy effeminate guy with a silly goatee and a hat! This is ... promising.
7:04: First question comes from Zach something, who has a very grating speaking style. He also has a completely content-less question: Will you be different than other politicians and actually get something done?
7:05: Chris Dodd gives an equally substance-less answer.
7:07: A question specifically for Dennis Kucinich... great. Why would he be better than Hillary or any other candidate? [These questions are REALLY vapid so far.]
7:08: He'd be different because he didn't vote for the war and continuing it. Big surprise.
7:10: Finally, a good question: How do you define liberal? And are you one?
Hillary takes it, says she's a "progressive," a "modern progressive." Interesting. Liberal used to mean in favor of freedom and standing up to powerful interests, she says. Now, liberal means big government, she says. So she's a modern progressive.
7:12: Mike Gravel uses the liberal question to attack Barack Obama for accepting lobbyist money. Off topic...
7:14: Another good question: If you had to pick a Republican running mate, who would it be?
7:15: Senator Biden says Senator Hagel (they have to pick anti-war Republicans, so it's a small universe). John Edwards says Mr. Hagel, too.
7:16: A question on race ... "Is African Americans ever gonna get reparations?"
7:17: Mr. Edwards is against reparations. He mentions black South Carolinians paying too much for mortgages. Senator Obama doesn't specifically say he opposes reparations, but says the reparations we need are (is) investment in our public schools. This sounds, as always, like code for giving more money to teachers unions.
7:19: A very dumb question about Hurrican Katrina: Does Senator Dodd (why Mr. Dodd???) think race affected the response to Katrina. [I say this is stupid because we already know what the candidates will say.]
7:20: Mr. Dodd says it. Bill Richardson says it, too.
7:22: A question for Clinton and Obama ... How do you response to people say you're not black enough or not feminine enough?
7:23: Mr. Obama uses a line I believe I've heard him use before ... that when he tries to hail a cab in New York, he's treated as black. Now, I don't doubt that there's a kernel of truth in there ... but in its specifics it rings quite false to me.
7:28: A lesbian couple from Brooklyn (Park Slope?), asks whether the candidates would support gay marriage.
7:29: For some reason, Mr. Kucinich got the question. He says yes. But who cares what Kucinich thinks... let's hear from the real candidates...
7:30: Dodd is in favor of civil unions, not marriage.
7:30: Richardson says he's for what's achievable: civil unions and hate-crimes laws. Does this mean he supports, ideally, full marriage rights?
7:30: None of the major candidates has been forced to deal with the gay-marriage question.
7:31: A black southern Baptist minister who supports gay marriage — now that's a find — asks Mr. Edwards why he uses religion to justify opposing gay marriage (comparing it to the use of religion to justify anti-miscegenation laws).
7:32: Mr. Edwards talks about his "personal journey" on the issue. Mr. Obama also has to deal with the question. Essentially, the Big Three all support civil unions and oppose gay marriage.
7:34: During this first commercial break, let me agree with John Podhoretz: I came in skeptical, but this is a really good format so far. It's had far better questions than the other Democratic debates.
7:39: Onto Darfur...
7:40: Bill Richardson and Joe Biden are impatient to get U.S. troops into Darfur. Clinton is finally forced by Anderson Cooper to say she doesn't want U.S. troops in Darfur (just NATO, UN). She thinks we need to focus on Iraq and Afghanistan.
7:45: Onto Iraq...
7:52: The differences are sharp, but they're the same ones that have existed for a while ... Biden doesn't want withdrawal, he wants partition ... Richardson wants immediate withdrawal.
7:56: Chris Dodd gets the question: Should women also have to register for selective service.
7:57: Dodd says yes. Clinton says yes. Both say it's only fair, but they oppose a draft.
8:00: A soldier asks Mrs. Clinton how she can be taken seriously by the Arab world when they have such disrespect for women and treat them like second-class citizens.
8:01: Clinton refers to her meetings with foreign leaders as first lady as proof that she's qualified. [I'm not sure that's the best tactic.]
8:02: A question asks whether the candidates would meet face to face with the leaders of countries such as Iran, Syria, North Korea, etc. in their first year in office.
8:03: Obama makes a serious misstep, saying that he would meet with them.
8:04: Clinton mops the floor with Obama's inexperience, saying that she would not promise such high-level meetings without first laying a tremendous amount of groundwork.
8:05: Edwards oddly seconds both Obama and Clinton — who contradicted each other. Not a very coherent response.
8:15: A question back from the second break: Who was your favorite teacher and why? [Gag me with a spoon...]
8:16: Gravel whines more about not getting questions ... good lord...
8:18: A very annoying video with music and bad graphics asks whether the candidates would get rid of NCLB or just revise it.
8:19: Richardson says he'd scrap it. [That's a pretty good idea. The whole thing is a massive government boondoggle and one of the worst errors of the Bush administration — domestically, at least. Richardson's other suggestions, however, such as a minimum wage for teachers, are pretty useless.]
8:20: Q: Would you send your kids to public school or private school.
8:22: Clinton makes a big show of the fact that Chelsea went to public school in Little Rock and then says it was a very difficult decision to send her to private high school in D.C. to protect her privacy. Obama makes the good point that of course a U.S. senator could get their kid into a good public school, so it's no great feat to do so — the problem is there aren't enough good schools for everyone else.
8:28: A question from a snow man — a low point for democracy, but also pretty funny.
8:28: For God's sake, stop directing questions to Kucinich.
8:32: A question asks whether we should use more nuclear power...
8:33: Edwards says no. Obama says yes.
8:41: A questions asks whether the candidates would work for minimum wage. Obama once again defuses the false populism on the stage, saying, essentially, we're all rich so we can afford to say yes. This is a tick of his that I find quite charming.
8:47: Finally, we get to the sick people (and their families) asking questions about health care. CNN couldn't possibly resist, could it? And not just one or two — three so far.
8:48: Four.
8:49: Obama: Drug and insurance companies can have a seat at the table, but they "can't buy every single chair." That's a heck of a soundbite.
8:50: Edwards: tells an anecdote.
8:52: Hillary says universal coverage is an American value.
8:54: Hillary is asked whether two families should dominate the executive branch (Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton) for 28 years. Hillary has a great response: "I think it is a problem that Bush was elected in 2000. [huge applaus] ... I actually thought someone else was elected in that election."
8:55: No one else will really touch the question, though it's pretty darn legitimate.
8:57: Onto God and guns...
8:58: A question from a gun owner... Richardson sounds a note of respect for gun owners. Joe Biden questions the mental health of the questioner for owning his gun ... That's not the image the Democrats of the last few years have wanted to project — gun-hating, out-of-touch liberal.
Related Topics: Dem Primary
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