Viewers are losers in CNN debate
Posted on November 16th, 2007 at 1:54 pm by Contributor ArchiveIs Wolf Blitzer the worst debate moderator in history? Raise your hand if you think so. Blitzer practically reenacted that pathetic hand-raising system that he pioneered several debates ago. He said he wouldn’t interrupt anyone, but warned candidates that they’d all be “on the honor system.” Honor system? These are politicians! No matter how funny it is to watch Blitzer on celebrity Jeopardy!, the waves of boos cascading from the audience should really be a wake up call to CNN to get serious. Moderators are like umpires - if they are doing their jobs well, you don’t notice them.
As for the main event…
Despite being the one with a platform on licenses for illegal immigrants, Barack Obama tripped up in his words amid the two-person debate with Hillary Clinton that was drawing boos from people who came to see all the candidates, well, except for the absent Mike Gravel. Hillary gave the same meaningless non-talking points, so pundits will say she did much better, despite her failure to answer questions, which is really what should decide the winner in a debate.
John Edwards continued to call out Clinton for flip flopping on issues such as the war in Iraq and Social Security. Dennis Kucinich rightly restated that his fellow Democrats share the blame for the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act, as they had voted for them. Kucinich got cheers when he said he didn’t vote for the Patriot Act, “because I read it,” but he then devolved into thornless calls for impeachment.
Joe Biden kept up his platform of plans for Iraq, Pakistan, etc, maintaining his candidacy for Secretary of State, while Bill Richardson continued his ongoing bid for VP on Hillary’s ticket. Chris Dodd, invisible in the polls, began a response partially in Spanish, and, impressively, without too much of a gringo accent, and he garnered some applause for his efforts.
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Wolf loves Yes and No answers, scenarios and everything to goad the speaker. If him and Jeannie Moos retired, I shed no tears.
I actually enjoyed the debate, I thought that Wolf did a decent job of making Hillary answer the questions. He did a better job than Anderson Cooper will do in the GOP YouTube Debate. Dodd and Richardson had the best performances. Biden did the worst. Hillary and Obama marginalized each other, and Edwards didn’t capitalize.
I def raise my hand…I thought the worst part was “which is more important, “national security or human rights?” Is that a presidential debate question or an SAT essay topic? also, if richardson is running to be hillary’s veep, what the hell does dodd think he’s going for? hillary’s ambassador to the dominican republic?
Dodd appears to be burning his bridge wih his home state. He moved his family to Iowa to campaign there. There have been articles that the some of the people of CT are getting upset with this. If he runs again for Senator, will the people of CT have payback after getting rid of Lieberman?
I don’t really pay attention to a debate when the lead canidate doesn’t answer a simple yes or no question.
Loved Gravel’s answers… Oh… He wasn’t there? Sorry.
Reminds me of the old adage: “Better to shut your mouth and appear the fool than open it and erase all doubt”. Now, who’s for illegals having driver’s licenses?
JPS
Gravel had his own debate! Makes the rock ad look tame.
http://ustream.tv/channel/senator-mike-gravels-alternative-democratic-debat
This link has the whole Gravel debate. Seeing him looking at a big screen ad giving comments is truly surreal..
http://ustream.tv/recorded/ztVYPlXr,vbe28t4f1GYX00MZvteE4Pm
It looks like the all the undecided voters were related to Democratic Party!
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2007/11/cnn-plant
s-questions-to-protect-hillary.html
In a nutshell, CNN’s six “undecided voters” were:
A Democratic Party bigwig
An antiwar activist
A Union official
An Islamic leader
A Harry Reid staffer
A radical Chicano separatist