Democratic Presidential Debate Liveblog

I will be liveblogging the Democratic debate tonight from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM.  Enjoy!

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So to wrap up, my quick letter-grade take:

Clinton: B-plus.  If people notice the tearing up, then maybe lower.  But better than expected.

Obama: A-minus.  Solid.  Took a good solid shot from Gravel and Kucinich and threw it back with some english on it.

Edwards: B.  Didn’t really stand out.  Had a few good lines. 

Richardson: C-minus.  He’s a dull technocrat.  And it showed.

Biden: B-plus.  Had the best word of the night.

Kucinich: C-minus.  Angry, troll-like, and overshadowed by Gravel. 

Dodd: I dunno, B or C or something.  I’m already starting to forget him.

Gravel: As a candidate, F, but as a crazy bomb-thrower, A.  He’s the Al Sharpton of 2008!

Brian Williams: F-minus.  Democrats may want to boycott MSNBC and go to Fox.  They’d get fairer questions.

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7:29–If the Democrats lose, isn’t your party doomed?  Can any of you win?

Biden: For God’s sake, do you read polls?  Yeah, most of us can, including Hillary Clinton.  (Ooh!  Stalking horse for Hillary!)

And we’re done!  Thank God!

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7:26–John Edwards, who is your moral leader?

Edwards: [Long, long pause]…okay, I’ve got nothing.  God, my wife, my dad, who do you want me to say? 

(Wrong answer.  Correct answer: Oprah.)

Williams: Wal-Mart, good or evil?

Clinton: A mixed blessing.  They provide cheap goods, and that’s good, but they’re not good to their employees.  Corporate America doesn’t see middle-class folks, and this administration doesn’t see or care.

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7:24–Kucinich: Barack Obama, when did you stop wanting to invade Iran?

Obama: Guess what, Iran is a threat.  Let’s take that seriously, and recognize that.

Gravel: We’ve sanctioned them for a quarter-century, and the President says they’re evil, and the US is the greatest violator of the Non-proliferation treaty, and who the Hell are we gonna nuke?

Obama: Nobody, crazy.

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7:22–What do you do to help the world?

Obama: Well, I organized 3,000 people….

Williams:  I mean, did you change light bulbs, or buy a Prius, or something?

Obama: You’re a really stupid guy.

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7:17–A difference between gay marriage and civil unions?

Dodd: How would you want your kids to be treated?  I’d want mine to be treated fairly.  I don’t support gay marriage, but I support civil unions, because…well, just because.

Williams: Thomas Friedman quotes a cab driver who agrees with him on global warming.  Who’s going to actually do something about it?

Biden: Barack Obama and I are working on this.  (Interesting.  Is Biden a stalking horse for Obama?  It makes more sense than thinking he actually could win.)

Williams: Fidel Castro is still alive.  You’re Latino.  So?

Richardson: Wait a second–if two of our cities blow up, I’m gonna blow stuff up too!  Also, let’s look at how we can prepare for post-Castro Cuba.

Williams: Is the US behind in its use of nuclear?

Gravel: No.  By the way, I worked to end the draft, and also built the Alaska Pipeline.  And created the Northern Lights.  And we can’t stop terrorism.  And I’m Angry!  ANGRY!!!!

Get this man a diary on Daily Kos!

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7:15–Who wants to impeach Dick Cheney?

Only Kucinich!  (Not Clinton.  Why could that be?)

Kucinich: Hey, I’ve got a pocket copy of the Constitution I picked up at 7-11.  And I say that Dick Cheney stands not just against quick and tasty foodstuffs, but against our very nation!

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7:07–Rudy Giuliani says you Democrats are a bunch of pussies.  Why are you such pussies?  Hillary?

Clinton: I’ve been working hard on this, as a Senator from New York.  This administration has sold fear while making America less safe.  “I hope we can put that myth to rest.”

Dodd: A myth!  A myth!  (Yeth?)  Stateless terrorism–bad!  Multinational organizations–good?

Williams: Do you believe in the Global War on Terror?

Kucinich: No.  It’s a pretext for aggressive war.  Let’s reconnect with the other nations of the world.  Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now.

Brian Williams: If tonight as we were speaking two American cities were blown up by al Qaeda, what would you do about it?

Obama: Well, first, we’d make sure that FEMA wasn’t as clueless as the GOP was in New Orleans.  We need intelligence as well.  We can’t alienate the world community based on faulty intelligence.  We need to make sure that we’re talking to our friends.  We need to strengthen our intelligence relationships with them.

(Why two simultaneous attacks?)

Edwards: I’d act swiftly and strongly.  Also, look to see where we screwed up that this happened.

Clinton: I’d blow something up.  But not just anything.

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7:00–Who are our most important allies?

Obama: The European Union.  They’re helping in Afghanistan, which I will tie to Iraq, despite the fact that you said not to tie this to Iraq.

Brian Williams: You didn’t mention Israel!  You hate Israel, don’t you?

Obama: No, I don’t.

Who is the biggest threat?

Biden: North Korea, Iran, and Russia.  Get rid of preemption.  Talk before things get bad.  Work on conduct change, not regime change.

Gravel: We have no enemies.  Who are we afraid of?  I fear no man!  Bring it on!  Military-industrial complex! 

Williams: Russia, friend or foe?

Edwards: Well, they’re an autocracy now.  The question should be, how to change the underlying dynamic?  We need to be a force for good again, not evil.

Williams: Bush looked into Putin’s soul.  Bill Richardson, what will you look into?

Richardson: Being stubborn isn’t a foreign policy.  I would focus on dealing with international terror and nuclear proliferation.  And Darfur?  Hello?!?
6:58–What do you do on the first day on the job?

Richardson: Get us out of Iraq.  (That may take more than one day.)

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6:54–Why do you all support amnesty?

Clinton: I support comprehensive immigration reform.

Sen. Biden, what about brain drain?

Biden: Smaller class sizes.

Sen. Dodd: Why shouldn’t welfare recipients be tested for drugs?

Dodd: You have to have rules, but depriving addicts of help because they have an illness seems dumb.

Sen. Edwards, why is gasoline getting more expensive?

Edwards: Increasing demand, which is why we need to make a change in what they’re doing.  Cap and trade, carbon sequestration, anti-global warming. And ask Americans to be patriotic about something other than war.  Good line.

Rep. Kucinich, what will you do to help with health care?

Kucinich: I own a cheap house.  Single payer!

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6:52–Brian Williams: John Edwards, you say you’d increase taxes to provide health care.  Which ones?  (I bet they’re not hedge-fund related!)

Edwards: Don’t renew the Bush tax cuts.  By the way, I actually have a substantive plan here, you know.

Obama: National pool for people to buy into if they have no health insurance.  Control costs.  Black infant mortality is going up–that’s shameful.

Clinton: All of the options on the left are important.  I have the experience of being filleted slowly by the vast right-wing media conspiracy, and guess what?  That sucked, but I’ll try again.  Control costs, people can’t afford insurance.  Improve quality.  Save money within the existing system.

Brian Williams: Bill Richardson, you say you don’t want to raise taxes to pay for health care.  How is that possible?

Richardson: I’m a governor.  I oppose bureaucracy.  Focus on prevention.  Find a magic pony. 

Okay, I’m taking a brief break to get my daughter a new DVD.  God bless television’s ability to babysit.

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6:43–Show of hands: Who has guns?

Gravel, Kucinich, Edwards, Richardson…I think. 

Brian Williams: So, guns?

Biden: Assault weapons ban good, gun show loophole bad.

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6:40–Brian Williams: Did the government fail people in Virginia Tech?

Clinton: Yes.  The end of the assault weapons ban–a Clinton administration  issue–

And Clinton tears up!  Clinton tears up!

Does that hurt her?  I say it helps her.  She’s got a hard image.

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Brian Williams: Your model Supreme Court Justice?

Richardson: Byron “Whizzer” White.

Williams: Living?

Richardson: Ginsburg.

Dodd: Ginsburg.

Edwards: Ginsburg or Breyer.

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Brian Williams: Most Americans don’t like partial birth abortion, but you all would like to kill babies.  Right?

Edwards: No, this is an indication that abortion rights are threatened gravely.  I believe in a woman’s right to choose, but D&C is a tough issue.  Women should have the right to make those decisions themselves.

Obama: This is a profoundly difficult issue.  I trust women to make these decisions with the help of their family.  Specific procedures can sound creepy, but the broader issue is do women have the right to choose?  They should.

Also, let’s reduce teen pregnancy.  Let’s work together on that. 

Brian WIlliams: Biden, would you have the litmus test?

Biden: Basically, yes.  The people who I’d appoint would share my values.  I fought Bork, and thank God he lost.  This is a stealth assault on Roe.

Brian Williams: You voted to confirm Roberts, no?

Dodd: Yeah, and I don’t regret it, but abortion should be rare, safe, and legal.  And also boilerplate statements on abortion.

Kucinich: Pay no attention to the fact that I used to be pro-life.  I love Roe!

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6:17–And now, baseless attacks!  Barack Obama, you know someone who did bad things once.  Don’t you suck?

Obama: Uh…no.  Take a look at the fact that I’m taking no money from lobbyists and PACs. 

Brian Williams: Hey, Roger Simon says that you, John Edwards, are a rich, rich man!

Edwards: Well, I shouldn’t have paid for a $400 haircut.  But hey, look, I’ve made money.  Great.  My dad worked in the textile mills.  He couldn’t afford to take us to restaurants.

Brian Williams: And you have worked with hedge funds!

Edwards: Oky doky, crazy guy.

Okay, an aside here.  Does anyone who doesn’t manage a hedge fund know what a hedge fund is?  I don’t, and don’t lie, you don’t either. 

Brian Williams: You identify with Alberto Gonzales because he’s Hispanic!

Richardson: Yes, I do.  Because…I’m Hispanic.  Surprise!

Brian Williams: Chris Dodd, your dad was a Senator.  Doesn’t that prove you love Washington insiders and hate Freedom?

Dodd: Not really. 

Brian Williams: Dennis Kucinich, why won’t anyone vote for you?

Kucinich: Because when I say that this debate will turn that around, everyone in America knows it won’t.

Brian Williams: Joe Biden, you won’t shut up, ever.  Can you prove you’ll shut up?

Biden: “Yes.”  And nothing more.  Best moment of the debate so far.

Brian Williams: Mike Gravel, you’re crazy, aren’t you?

Gravel: Yes.  I am. 

Joe Biden, you’re arrogant!

Look, Gravel would make a really good blogger.  A candidate?  Not so much.  But he should be entertaining.

Brian Williams: Why does the GOP want to run against you, Hillary?

Clinton: Because America wants change, and what says change like a woman who was first lady ten years ago?

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6:15–Question two from a Marine’s wife: what does the end of the war look like?

Obama: We’re awfully close, the President needs to sign this bill.  If Bush won’t sign, GOP needs to help us override.

Clinton: Yeah.  What Obama said.

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6:04–First question comes from Fox News: Harry Reid, defeatocrat or dhimmicrat? 

Clinton: Bobs and weaves, but says “this war is not ours to win or lose.”  Good line.

Biden: Bush policy is “fundamentally flawed,” this is “no game show.”  But–but–lightning round!

Obama: I opposed this war from the start.  So eat it, Clinton!  Also need to give our solders what they need.  “The American people have said it’s time to end this war.”

Oh, snap!  It’s an anecdote about an aunt in New Hampshire!  I don’t know how Gravel tops that.

Brian Williams: John Edwards, when you apologized for your screw-up in voting for the war, weren’t you attacking Hillary?

Edwards:  Of course not!  I mean, people just need to search their consciences.  Their guilty, guilty consciences.

Nice job noting that Bush is too resolute.

Williams: Hillary, don’t you suck?

Clinton: “If I knew then what I now know, I would not have voted that way.”  That–that seems pretty darn like a repudiation.  “When I am President, we’ll get out” of Iraq.

Kucinich: Remember what I said four years ago?  Yeah, that.  No war, UN in so the US out.

Richardson: Pull out all troops including residual troops by 12/31/07.  That might put him to the left of Kucinich.  Partition Iraq, talk to Iran and Syria, international peacekeeping.

Dodd: Hi, I’m Chris Dodd.  Who am I, and Why Am I Here?

Gravel: This war was lost the day that George W. Bush invaded Iraq on a fraudulent basis.  “Embarrassed” about congress.  Actually sounds a little bit like an angry blogger–wants to make the war a felony.  And…well, angry bloggers don’t make for Presidential timber.

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6:03–Thank heavens, they’re going to have the audience refrain from expressing their affection for their candidate.  Because let’s be honest, nobody wants to see a PDA with Dennis Kucinich.

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6:02–We’ve got a moderator from South Carolina, and a “lightning round,” where the dollars are double–but so is the danger!

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6:00–Hey, people died at South Carolina during the Civil Rights Era!  On that happy note, let’s get it on!