Tuesday, July 24, 2007

That was a fun good debate


Words I thought didn't belong together - fun, good, debate. CNN debate site.

The AP's Nedra Pickler gives the Republican slant on the debate. Shouldn't this be listed in newspapers as analysis by the infamously biased Pickler?

Edwards Praised At Debate For Leading On The Issues.

The debate questions on YouTube.

The Raw Story has some of the interaction in printed form.

Josh is just too old-fashioned and didn't like all the music and fun video questions, although he did think overall it was fairly good.

Nice Polite Republican radio thought that video question submitters were "freaks, conspiracy theorists, and self-promoters....
...full disclosure, most of the questions were serious and I had to wade through hundreds of questions to find the wacky ones..."

Who does CNN give time to? Not Gravel and Kucinich. Time clock here.

Who won the debate? - Personally I was impressed with Clinton. Gravel was the only one I would not vote for. A focus group in New Hampshire thought that Obama won. This was reported just after a CNN commentator said he lost.

On Fox News their analysis was that only Biden and Clinton were serious candidates on Iraq. They had that someone in the Clinton camp's opinion was that Obama was inexperienced and lacked substance but Fox's focus group showed Obama winning the debate.

Some live blogging comments from left field.

The Moderate Voice - debate a huge success.

Changing Minds: There was a Survey USA before and after polled panel - Biden had the most improved perception as a candidate - up a whopping 38 points. (This would be among all voters, GOP included, most of whom knew little about the candidates.) Clinton (50), Obama (41), Edwards (38), and Biden (32) have the highest positive perceptions after the debate. Kucinich and Gravel are in negative territory.

Women and Work - "Even though tonight’s debate was enjoyable, fast-moving, snappy…there was definitely a wall between the giant YouTube screen and the candidates.
Only Hillary broke this barrier."

More opinions - Inside Google: debate "worked out pretty decently." Someone at The Drudge Retort thought CNN's question picking sucked. The Gun-Toting Liberal thought it was "entertaining and informative."

As an aside, Use Your Tax Money To Buy Me Guns - A Houston conservative blogger recently wrote that tax dollars should be used to buy me and everyone else a gun. I am wondering if seeing a group of us liberals happily chortling at all the Republicans getting blown away in The Shooter as occurred the other night would make him think twice.

Freepers are shocked and outraged that in a Democratic debate they show mostly liberals who ask progressive questions.

A lot of non-Hillary supporters on Kos were impressed with her performance. I was. I can really see a tough President Hillary Clinton now. She may have been the real winner tonight.

I do not like her as a candidate. She is too much in the pocket of corporations and is not the change in direction we need. I also think that having her at the top of the ticket would not help the Democratic Party in the red states rebuild.

It is too bad, giving all my misgivings, that I was very impressed with her confidence and wit and presence at the debate. I can now easily see a tough strong Hillary as president.

In that sense Hillary won.

Gravel lost. Edwards and Obama held their own, Biden perhaps moved up to 3-4% support.

ADDED - Another Texas blogger thinks all candidates for federal office should undergo this form of questioning.

Edward's best moment.

Jill hated Edwards' performance and is getting closer to being a Hillary fan. Jill is way over the top, what Edward's said when asked to find something bad to say about Hillary was "I'm not sure about that coat." For that Jill wants to string him up. By contrast, Roger Simon - John Edwards best debate yet.

Blue Bloggin in Texas loved the format.

Transcripts.

NYT - Novel Debate Format, but Same Old Candidates

WP - Public Voice Adds Edge to Debate

Blame CNN for wasting opportunity.

Debate mixes traditional talk with nontraditional trappings

YouTube steals the Dem debate
The medium and the questions are called the message

Hardball and some oddballs as the people run presidential debate

Voters Challenge Democrats
Sometimes, the questions get as much attention as the answers.

"an interesting sort of town hall"

YouTube presidential debate blazes trail
everything from global warming to the birds and the bees

Captain Kirk Wannabe didn't like: "The only question YouTube missed was "boxers or briefs". (I can answer that - right now I'm wearing both. I'm covered.)

Digby on the debate.

Edwards is back.
The people who are powerful in Washington - big insurance companies, big drug companies, big oil companies - they are not going to negotiate. They are not going to give away their power. The only way that they're going to give away their power is if we take it away from them.
Four different panel polls, three different debate winners. The mystery pollster on focus group "winners."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh man... no, I don't have any desire to string Edwards up. I was leaning strongly towards Edwards before the debates, so no, I don't want to see him taken down. I've just been really disappointed in his performance. And I think the coat moment was particularly bad because, like I said in the post, it combined a lot of his perceived weaknesses into one soundbite -- the masculinity thing, the political sheister thing, etc. He has issues with being too pretty, and he has issues with shaping his political beliefs to fit whatever mold will get him elected. The jacket comment encapsulated many of his weak spots. That's why I thought it was bad, not because I want to see him strung up.

And I do think it's silly and unfortunate that so many political commentators seem to be caught up on Edwards' masculinity issues or his haircut or whatever. But they are. And it does irritate me to no end that the clothing choices of female politicians are constantly critiqued. So I was a little peeved to see Edwards doing that, especially in a formal debate setting. Dones't mean I want to see him go down, though.