The Texas Debate

I finally got the chance to watch the Texas debate on YouTube the other day. (Yes, I'm aware that the Ohio one has already taken place. I plan to watch it today.) I don't have cable, so I'm at the mercy of the good people at YouTube who eventually tend to get around to posting videos of the debates, which can take a day or two. It does take a while, but I'm glad it's a service that's available; it's great that the debates are posted where a wider – and largely younger – audience has access to them.

If you haven't seen the debate yet, here's the first part of it:

My overall impression of the debate is that Obama will beat the pants off of McCain when the two of them match up in front of the cameras. He's a substantive speaker, very good at getting his point across, and he comes off as more confident than McCain has seemed in previous Republican debates. Plus, as everyone knows, he's a much more inspiring speaker.

Hillary Clinton made a lot of big blunders during the debate. For one, she re-used an argument that I've read a lot on message boards lately – she implied that Barack Obama's supporters are delusional, fooled by his oratory and unable to see with her wisdom and clarity the empty package that lies beneath. The problem with this argument is that right now, Hillary needs to sway some of Obama's supporters to her side, and she's not going to convince anyone of anything by calling them simpletons and idiots. Is it any wonder that she got booed when she brought up the damn plagiarism thing again?

Another one of her big mistakes came when she started talking about her proposed moratorium on home foreclosures. In what I assume was a misguided attempt to indicate in an amusing way that even an idiot would agree with her plan, she mentioned that George Bush thought it was a good idea. Let me tell you, if George Bush thought any plan of mine was a good idea, I'd re-think it. He thought Iraq was a good idea, and the tax cuts were a good idea, and Michael "Brownie" Brown was a good idea. He's like a bizarro idea man, and his approval is not something that anyone in their right mind should be bragging about.

Which isn't to say that Obama didn't annoy me as well. Both candidates persisted to debate on health care long after the moderators tried to change the topic; candidates breaking the rules during a debate annoys me to no end, and I wish that there was some way to stop them from doing so. It shows a disrespect to the news organizations who are giving them the media coverage that they so crave. Worse, the two of them were just making the same arguments over and over – Hillary repeating the same stupid allegations, and Obama repeatedly denying them. Granted, she started the whole exchange, but Obama could have chosen not to continue it, and he didn't.

I did notice an interesting tactic that Hillary Clinton used during the debate -- other than the 'tactic' of constant attacks against Obama. She made several referrals to tactile relations between herself and the people that she met on the campaign trail. I caught two or three times when she described women 'grabbing her hand'. She should have used that kind of imagery a lot earlier in the primary season; it was very effective.

All in all, Obama won the debate hands down. He stayed positive, talked about ideas and what could be fixed and how to do it, and he refrained from attacks, except when he was attacking John McCain. He came off as someone so fit for the job that he didn't have to tear anyone down to rise above.

Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle

A combination of too little sleep, too much work, and a cold that I've been fending off but that I can't quite seem to beat have made me a little dizzy in the head today. I tried writing a couple of times, and what I saw when I came back to my "brilliance" looked more like the ravings of a lunatic teenager.

So rather than wax philosophical, I bring you a little bit of weekend political levity:

Barack Obama is your new bicycle.

(Click on the link when the page opens to see more things that Barak Obama does for you!)

I try and make myself look like a hard-hitting political pundit, but the truth is that I'm someone who will sit and smile from ear to ear while refreshing that page all over again. (Barack Obama smiled when someone mentioned my name! And he gave me a puppy!)

Monday Morning Quarterbacking

Well, the election results are in, and you all know how they turned out, I'm sure. (All one of you.) (Hi, dad!) I'm still sifting through the articles and trying to get a sense of the subtleties of what happened.

I Was Right, After All

The thing that surprised me before the primaries was that the polls were showing that Romney and Obama had leads in California, the exact opposite of what I had been expecting. My expectation had been that the California Republicrats would break heavily towards McCain, and that Hillary Clinton's connection with Latino voters, Unions, and community organizers in this state would play to her favor. The polls were showing that the opposite was true -- Obama and Romney were pulling ahead. And while I could understand more or less why that might be, it surprised me.

Well, turns out I shouldn't have doubted my judgment, because the dust has cleared, and it turned out I was right all along.

Obama Stays in the Race

While McCain has solidified his lead among the republicans, the democratic fight soldiers on, still too close to call. Obama didn't manage to leave Hillary in the dust (no one expected that he would), but he did manage to stay in the race. This works to his advantage, because his principle problem thusfar has been that 90% of voters don't give a crap about politics, and don't even know who he is in more than the vaguest terms, whereas they know all about Hillary Clinton. Since Obama's charisma is such an important part of his candidacy, he needs people to get to know him and see him in action to get their support. With all of the primaries on Super Tuesday, he hasn't had time to do that. But now, with the rest of the primaries more spread out, he's going to have time, and that's going to help him build support. Even so, there's every chance that we might wind up with a brokered convention, and that's going to hurt whoever comes out of the fray still standing.

Where In the World Is Bill Richardson?

Leading up to Super Tuesday, I was hearing a lot of baffling speculation that Bill Richardson was going to endorse Barack Obama. When Obama went to make the rounds in New Mexico, a lot of people were saying that Richardson was going to make an appearance and take the chance to make his endorsement. I started searching news sites for some indication of what I must have missed -- why the hell should anyone believe this? All of Richardson's ties are to the Clintons. He worked for Bill Clinton, for crying out loud. Bill Clinton practically MADE him. They watched the superbowl together!

But Richardson didn't endorse Hillary Clinton either, and let's face it, if he was gonna do it, he was gonna do it before Super Tuesday. I'm pretty sure that, like Edwards, he's expecting that there's a good chance that he'll be tapped by SOMEONE for the VP spot on a ticket. Since the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama looks too close to call, and since an endorsement of the losing party would rule him out of getting jack from whoever gets the nomination, I think he'll sit on the fence until the victor has already been anointed -- or until he can have a good chance at anointing the victor with his endorsement. Of course, he doesn't have anything by way of delegates to contribute, but he may be counting on his popularity with Latino voters.

In fact, Richardson would be a good running mate for Barack Obama. He's not very charismatic, but Obama's got enough charisma to make up for ten Bill Richardsons, never mind one. Obama's weakest areas seem to be the established democrats, Latino voters, and his inexperience, especially with regards to foreign policy -- all things that Richardson could make up for. Obama could dispatch Richardson, as VP, to do most of the foreign policy negotiations, and Richardson has already proven that not only does he have the contacts to be effective, he IS effective.

I prefer not to think about the possibility of a Clinton/Richardson ticket. The cognitive dissonance hurts my brain. I would desperately like to see Richardson in power, because he seems to know what he's doing, even if I don't agree with every single one of his policy opinions. But I cannot, absolutely cannot, bring myself to vote for Hillary Clinton. The idea of rewarding her behavior with my vote is repugnant to me. I have no idea what I'd do.