New School Politics

MSNBC Democratic Debate Reaction

Eftychis | 26 04 2007

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This is just a brief conservative reaction to tonight’s Democratic Debate on MSNBC.
Let me start out by saying what candidates do not stand a chance of earning the nomination. While Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) is well spoken and he has ideas that fall along the party lines, he is simply unelectable. There is nothing about him that makes him to stand out of the crowd and he is ultimately too boring of a candidate. Also, when he attempted to interrupt Barrack Obama during Obama’s thirty-second rebuttal he seemed childish and in fact I felt that he made Obama look like a powerful, mature, and experienced politician. Joe Biden is known to be crude and does not come off with the unflappable nature that can be seen in Hillary Clinton, in fact his most impressive performance occurred during a one on one with Chris Mathews after the debate, however most people will not have seen this. In general, Biden and Chris Dodd (S. CT) are not enticing and it is doubtful that either would even carry their own states in a general election, let alone the primary states next January. There is always one Howard Dean in the political arena and in this debate it was clearly Mike Gravel. He is far too radical to even get a percentage in the general election, but there are many democratic primary voters who would love to see him in the oval office. Come early Super Tuesday, Biden, Dodd will be out and while many in the far left would love to vote for Gravel they will vote for one of the front-runers to ensure they have the best chance at winning the white house.

I still stand by my belief that Bill Richardson (Gov, NM) is currently the premier vice presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. Richardson’s responses on foreign policy were some of the strongest of the night and he was honest in his beliefs on Alberto Gonzalez. For instance, when he was questioned about an Iraq withdrawal he utilized his previous foreign policy experience as a UN ambassador to explain how the international community can come together to stabilize Iraq. I also thought the fact that he is favored by the NRA will help to gain a number of western votes who like his executive experience and his stance on not raising taxes. It is important to note that he is the only governor running on the Democratic side and given that it is almost certain the Democratic presidential candidate will be a senator they will need someone on their ticket with proven executing experience.

John Edward’s has a nice southern drawl, but unless the primary voters in New Hampshire and states of the like decide they think that a woman or a black man are not capable of being elected, he will not get the nomination. John Edward’s two Americas speaks to many people and does recognize the gross divide between the rich and even the middle class in this country. However, Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama actually gave a better explanation on how they would enact universal health care and actually I agreed with several of the points they mentioned such as allowing Americans to buy into a nation wide pool for healthcare along with Hillary Clinton’s statement that we have to fix the outrageous costs for people who even now have healthcare before we spend more money on another program. Edwards is a looser in this debate because he was not a winner. To clarify, he is trailing Clinton and Obama in the polls and he had to do something tonight to separate himself from the pack so that he can make some headway; he failed to do so and so while he didn’t loose altogether, he didn’t say anything to further his campaign. As the primary season approaches more democrats will move their support from Edwards and towards either Clinton or Obama.

Hillary Clinton did what she had too do, not stir a controversy and more importantly, maintain her composure. She made good points tonight and she also succeeded in not coming off as overly aggressive. Her answers were rehearsed but they didn’t sound practiced and memorized, which made her seem much more likeable. Her position in the race did not change.

Obama did very well tonight. He has to clarify on policy, but as Chris Mathew’s observed he gave multiple part answers to the questions he was asked and he came off as being knowledgably on foreign policy and willing to conduct diplomacy, and also he clarified that his pro-Israel stance (which he needed to do) and he came off as hawkish on the topic of Iran (a popular position in the US and even in Europe). The most impressive part of the entire debate was when Obama was asked to give a rebuttal to Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich attempted to interrupt Obama multiple times and it made Obama appear stronger, more mature, and even more experience. It put Obama in a position of power and he came off with an air of authority and a hue of gravitas that I believe a lot of people noticed.

As predicted, I do not think this debate did anything to change the landscape of the field for the democratic primary. Obama shinned, but not brightly enough to black out Hillary Clinton, and neither of them delivered any significant blow to Edwards that would remove him from the race. The damage done to Dodd, Kucinich, and Gravel were self inflicted, and Richardson made it even more apparent in his coherent arguments that he is the vice presidential candidate.