Presidential Debates: Take Me Out To The Ball Game

I watched both presidential debates on CNN last week. About 85% of my rationale behind giving up four hours of my time to do so was the intention to write a really nice analysis on this blog. It's getting too far from the debates for it to be worthwhile, though, and I didn't want it to roll off into the land of draft posts. I've had a post comparing the Spanish-American War to the war in Iraq in my draft folder for over a month now. That's unfortunately the fate of most of my intelligent posts because I care about them, whereas the posts that actually get posted are just dribble about what's going on in my life.

Anyway, just so that I can get off this one subject, I'm just going to do a bullet-point analysis with no real organization:

• I found it interesting how much effort John Edwards put into tearing down Hillary and comparing himself to Obama. I'm positive that he's looking for an Edwards-Obama ticket.
• Sen. Biden knows his stuff. He was by far the best informed of the Democratic crowd. I'm sure this is due to the long time he's spent in the political arena. I loved when Hillary said "Because he's been around longer than any of us have in the Congress," then realized how that could be taken and quickly added, "He's a young man. He started young."
• My favorite of the underdog candidates is Ron Paul. I knew next to nothing about him pre-debate, but was fairly impressed. A good ol' fashioned small-government Republican who disagrees with messing around in other countries' business and is the only true Reaganomics follower of the crowd (all of them, of course, invoked the spirit of Reagan on their side almost as much as they invoked God, but this doesn't mean anything other than confirms that they are Republicans). I've always had a soft-spot for libertarians.
• I liked that Kucinich wore a pink tie.
• Tancredo is so conservative it hurts to listen to him. I will never agree with those that are super harsh on immigration. This is something I could go off on, but won't right now.
• Huckabee was more impressive than I expected. One of the strongest answers in the debate was his response to evolution questions:
  
  I think he'd be a strong vice-presidential candidate.
• Romney was mediocre. He's smart. He looks presidential. But he's one of those blah candidates. He said what you expect him to say and it works, but it doesn't inspire by any means. And a little too on the political side for my tastes.
• Hillary was surprisingly the funniest. The funniest thing that happened was, of course, the Guliani bit that you'll find next bullet down, but I was amazed that Hillary was pulling out humour better than anyone else. She was Charming Hillary and it was refreshing after so much of Programmed Hillary in the past.
• And this favorite:
  
  I'm sure there are people out there that believe that really was God sending a message. Brilliant.
• President Bush seems to be still getting less and less popular. Major Bush bashing on both sides.
• I hated the bringing up of ridiculous things that aren't high on anybody's priority lists but are emotional things. Gays in the military took up way too much time. And boycotting the Olympics in China? Should not have been an issue at all. The issue was Sudan, remember? There's no way that the Olympics would do much to change that.
• I'm guessing Hillary's outfit was designed to look like a man's suit from a far distance. I didn't think it was an especially good outfit, but I suppose for a presidential candidate who wants to be taken seriously it was doable. But still, as a woman she ought to be in something that has at least a bit of style to it and isn't so bland.
• My mind is constantly back and forth on the best way to end the Iraq war. Kucinich's arguments that cutting off funding was the only way to get out of there seem plausible, but I think Biden had a very strong argument against it (I couldn't find a clip of just the Biden bit, so you're going to have to go to 3:40-1:35 left for what I'm talking about):
  
  I want to get out of Iraq as soon as possible. Everyone does, I suppose, even the Republicans, though some on that side still think the war is winnable, which I disagree with. I just don't know what's best method to get out soon. Either way you're losing American and Iraqi lives.
• I was disappointed with Obama in general. I expected more of the idealism that we're all used to hearing from him and instead he was...less than stirring. I probably hold the standard higher for him because I know he can move me (unlike, say, Guliani, who may say things I agree with but can never get an ounce of emotion out of me).
• Elizabeth Edwards was on Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me a while back and when they asked her for something juicy on her husband she revealed that he doesn't use any sort of hair product whatsoever, doesn't even shampoo it. I was a little preoccupied watching his hair whenever he spoke trying to see if I could tell that he doesn't use product. I'm not sure if I believe Elizabeth or not.
• McCain's Iraq stance is his political undoing.
• I have to call Hillary "Hillary" even though I write about everyone else by last name, because when I say "Clinton" I think of Bill. Don't think I'm sexist.
• This is going to be such a long campaign. Everyone's going to be tired of everyone by the end. And there's no way to predict what will happen. Remember how even much closer to the primaries in '04 everybody thought Howard Dean was going to be the Democrat's nominee?

I probably forgot something important I was going to say, but I got Kucinich's tie and Edward's hair in, so I'm good enough here.