More Debate Coverage

The Democrats were in New Hampshire tonight for their latest debate. CNN's coverage was loaded with second-rate commentary. Really contrasted poorly with MSNBC's coverage of their hosted debate. However, the questions to the candidates were better than previous debates. They wasted less time, relatively speaking, with assinine questions. Here is a brief synopsis, by candidate:

Hillary- She faced a lot of jabs tonight. Everyone seemed prepared to take their shot. She did reasonably well considering. As the frontrunner she appropriately played it safe. The only thing Hillary said that made me curse at the TV was a reiteration of her whole "I didn't make a mistake authorizing force in Iraq but if I knew then what I know now..." That's balderdash. "The Skeptic" does not get national intelligence breifings, nor does he have a staff of fact-checkers, yet he still would have told you invading Iraq was a bad idea at the time. Why? Mostly common sense. So either she has bad judgement or voted as she did in pure political calculation, which is worse. She also likes to claim that no one thought Bush would use the authorized force because he claimed he would let inspectors finish their work. So she is a bad judge of character to boot.

Obama- He fared better in the debate format that he previously appeared uncomfortable with. He spoke eloquently yet offers no real leadership. He's done very little to distinquish his positions from Hillary's.

Edwards- He was aggressive. He attacked Hillary. He mixed it up with Obama. Well done. I appreciate the fact he admitted more than once he was wrong to vote for Iraq war authorization. It's an easy dig at Hillary but nonetheless refreshing. They never even covered Edwards' big issue- poverty.

Biden- Did a lot to help himself tonight. He spoke forcefully about Darfur. Appeared passionate about the issues generally. Biden is likable and intelligent yet doesn't offer much beyond foreign policy experience. In this crowd you could do a lot worse than Biden.

Richardson- Likeable but not the least bit presidential. No longer worthy of consideration.

Dodd- yawn

Kucinich- "The Skeptic" loves the fact that this guy doesn't pander. Someone in the audience asked a question about what we can do to rebuild the military, which was directed to him. Part of his answer was that we should reduce defense spending. Overall, it seemed he, along with Biden and Edwards, fared the best tonight.

Gravel- Vitriolic as ever, Gravel continued throwing bombs. I'm sure, beyond this election cycle, the parties will find a way to exclude guys like Gravel or Kucinich or Ron Paul from future debates. That would be a shame. You'll hear more truth spoken by these fringe candidates then all the others combined.