debates

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Last night was the second debate between Barack Obama and John McCain and boy was it awful. A "town hall" that wasn't thanks in part to the campaigns negotiating terms in which nobody can ask follow up questions and/or have a true conversation that may have their candidates veer from the pre-approved script.

In other words, a world of political crap. Well, almost.

If anything, last night's debate was a night of contrast and compare of demeanors, poise and class between the two candidates. Guess who lost. Yup, the white guy :

[ Senator McCain ] By the way, my friends, I know you grow a little weary with this back-and-forth. It was an energy bill on the floor of the Senate loaded down with goodies, billions for the oil companies, and it was sponsored by Bush and Cheney.

You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one. You know who voted against it? Me. I have fought time after time against these pork barrel -- these bills that come to the floor and they have all kinds of goodies and all kinds of things in them for everybody and they buy off the votes.

A lot of people had a "WTF?!?!" moment over McCain's uttered contempt for Obama. You just could smell the hate seeping through the TV screen.

You know who am rooting for. Just follow me at http://twitter.com/blogdiva

John Edwards told us 7 months ago why he would never endorse Hillary Clinton. I had forgotten about this rebuke until I found it looking for a clip of last night's endorsement.

It shows Edwards at the top of his litigation game --brutal yet never a moment emotional lost in the violence of his words. I've watched this now several times and I have to say, it is one of the most breath taking moments in political history.

It is without a doubt what cross many people's minds when the rumor about him getting an Attorney General nod in the Obama administration was floated earlier this year. Rumor or not, I have to say, chalk me in for making it a reality. John Edwards for United States Attorney General would wipe away the tortureful memories of John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales' tenures as USAGs.

Photo:AP

First of all, I came in half way into the debates, so I missed Jorge Ramos "espeekeng espanish". What did you all think? I'd so hit that 1000 days to Monday. Oh, and he's a fantastic anchorman and journalist.

I can see he dealt with the issue of immigration. When reading the transcript, I actually think both candidates were really great addressing the immigration issue.

Second, here's the link to the debate's transcript : The CNN Democratic presidential debate in Texas.

Third, moving along ...

Obama knocked it out of the park more times than Hillary, but she definitely had her moment at the end and, I have to give it to her, she closed the debate in a refreshingly classy note.

I think that the best Obama moment dealt with the issue of "silliness" in the recent rash of dirty politics :

OBAMA: Well, look, the -- first of all, it's not a lot of speeches. There are two lines in speeches that I've been giving over the last couple of weeks.

I've been campaigning now for the last two years. Deval is a national co-chairman of my campaign, and suggested an argument that I share, that words are important. Words matter. And the implication that they don't I think diminishes how important it is to speak to the American people directly about making America as good as its promise. Barbara Jordan understood this as well as anybody.

I was thinking of alcohol. Like massive amounts of rum or tequila, but I am afraid I may fall asleep faster than you say Al-Qaeda, so I am actually doing a double espresso with a shot of milk ... un cortado as we say in the isla.

What about you? Come on over to the chat room and tell us all about it.

Finally the Nevada Democrats have realized that it is not a good idea to work with a company that routinely lies, advocates bombing American cities and killing Supreme Court justices. Barak Obama has been refusing to deal with Fox Propoganda. John Edwards flatly said he would refuse to participate in a debate hosted by Fox Propoganda. And apparantly the Nevada Democrats got a real earful about how foolish it would be to give Fox the chance to call even some of the shots. According to Daily Kos, the Nevada Democrats have turned down Fox. This is from a letter sent from the Nevada Democrats to Fox:

A month ago, the Nevada Democratic Party entered into a good faith agreement with FOX News to co-sponsor a presidential debate in August. This was done because the Nevada Democratic Party is reaching out to new voters and we strongly believe that a Democrat will not win Nevada unless we find new ways to talk to new people.

To say the least, this was not a popular decision. But it is one that the Democratic Party stood by. However, comments made last night by FOX News President Roger Ailes in reference to one of our presidential candidates went too far. We cannot, as good Democrats, put our party in a position to defend such comments.

In light of his comments, we have concluded that it is not possible to hold a Presidential debate that will focus on our candidates and are therefore canceling our August debate. We take no pleasure in this, but it is the only course of action.