Monday, July 23, 2007

CNN/YouTube Debate Aftermath


I thought Mike Gravel had some of his best moments of the campaign tonight. They came whenever one of the way-too-many questioners who acted like it was Open Mic Night At The Yuk-Yuk Club would start riffing and Gravel would be shown grimacing and casing the crowd like he was looking for a baby to eat. I'm feelin' ya, Mike. If anything, not having the questioners there in person gave the candidates more latitude to work in their predetermined talking points, making poor Anderson Cooper look like Nick Cage trying to wrangle all the babies in Raising Arizona. It was different for sure...but, for my money, not a big success. And if you think the Democratic questioners were insufferable, wait until you get a load of all the wannabe Rushes and Hannitys cracking wise when CNN and YouTube do this again for the Republicans in September.

So...if it's a night of recited and recycled talking points, you know it's going to be a good night for Hillary Clinton. If the other candidates don't blunt her commandeering of the stage and painting the rest of the field as The Pips to her Gladys Knight, those poll numbers of hers are going to solidify. My man Obama, though he got the pimp slot with the campaign videos...going last, just seems cowed by her at times. Maybe it's strategy. Maybe he feels like he doesn't have to engage her now because it's inevitably going to come down to the two of them. But the crowd is still popping louder for him than any other Dem right now. He just needs to give them a proper reason to go nuts.

It was yet another evening as a third wheel for Edwards. Unless he comes up with a compelling rationale for his candidacy, all the Democratic oxygen is just going to continue to be sucked up by Hillary and Obama. I did like his "Hair" video and the way he dissed Hillary's jacket, though. Bill Richardson jumped on my "Joe Biden for Secretary of State" bandwagon, Biden himself expressed admiration for Dennis Kucinich's impossibly hot wife, and Kucinich once again spent most of the night trying to work his elfin magic and get noticed. Unfortunately, Chris Dodd was unable to attend the debate.

What? Wait...you mean he was there?

Still, the whole thing could've been salvaged with a question from Obama Girl. [Debate pic courtesy of CNN.com]

3 comments:

TVJ said...

I enjoyed what I saw of the debate. I made the mistake of checking my online program guide to see if it would broadcast live on the West coast, and of course, the online guide didn't show the debate at all. I think I missed the first 20 minutes or so.

Truthfully, I thought Hillary came of very well last night. I'm not a Hillary supporter, by any means, but I thought she looked like an excellent candidate last night. I also thought Obama had a couple of stumbles that I wouldn't have expected from him. I also liked much of what Edwards had to say.

In the end, the debate did nothing more than widen the divide between the top 3 and the rest of the crowd for me.

Although I did enjoy the jab from Biden at the guy who called his assault rifle his 'baby'.

Mike-El said...

Hillary has been my second choice from the beginning...mainly due to my Clinton brand-name loyalty. I'm trying to figure out whether I'm actually starting to warm up to her lately or if I'm just coming to grips with her seeming inevitability.

Biden always seems to come up with one "Hell, yeah!" moment during these debates.

Anonymous said...

We didnt watch it and we are "leabers" or undecideds. What we did see of it, I agree (hey how many times am i going to say that here???) with you about the clownishness of the questioners.