CNN Democratic Debate (2/21/2008)

[Wretched Excess]

How can Barack complain about the cost of the military operations in Iraq when he's already spent three quarters of a trillion dollars and hasn't even gotten the nomination?  What balls.

because it's money that he can't squander on idiotic and incentive destroying social programs.

[Chris_]

Uh oh.  Hillary is going after BHO's "change" dreck.

I wonder if they told her to do that dreamy, far-away sound while she talks.  You know she hired a speech coach?

[Wretched Excess]

the thing I hate the most about liberalism, and you see examples of it all the time;  the substitution, or at least the equation, of the federal government for the family.

hillary just ended the debate with exactly that formulation.

[Wretched Excess]

the thing I hate the most about liberalism, and you see examples of it all the time;  the substitution, or at least the equation, of the federal government for the family.

hillary just ended the debate with exactly that formulation.

oh, and she got a standing ovation.

[Rebel]

Doesn't matter who it is, McCain is going to eat their lunch when they actually have to answer one of their dumbass positions.

[Wretched Excess]

Doesn't matter who it is, McCain is going to eat their lunch when they actually have to answer one of their dumbass positions.

they have successfully managed to chase each other into extreme leftist positions that will be difficult to explain in the general election.  that is one thing we get from such a close dem race (aided by what turns out to be the silly "proportional allocation" of convention delegates).  but The BarackStar! is a phenomenon.  there is no telling where it will go, or how long it will last.

[Duke Nukum]

Doesn't matter who it is, McCain is going to eat their lunch when they actually have to answer one of their dumbass positions.

they have successfully managed to chase each other into extreme leftist positions that will be difficult to explain in the general election.  that is one thing we get from such a close dem race (aided by what turns out to be the silly "proportional allocation" of convention delegates).  but The BarackStar! is a phenomenon.  there is no telling where it will go, or how long it will last.

Barrock has the Andrew Sullivan wing of the Republican party all sewn up.  I'm surprised McCain hasn't stopped his campaign in support of Obama yet.  One of McCain's guys say he wont attack Obama if it is McCain v. Obama in the fall.

[Chris_]

Six months until the general election.  Do you think he can keep up the hype?

[Chris_]

Six months until the general election.  Do you think he can keep up the hype?

I doubt it.

[Wretched Excess]

Six months until the general election.  Do you think he can keep up the hype?

I think that the only thing that may save us is that, as a culture, we are stricken with a severe case of attention deficit disorder;  we get tired of the things we get enamored with fairly quickly.  The BarackStar! is peaking now, which probably isn't great news for him.

from now until november, he will only seem more and more like a normal human being. 

[Duke Nukum]

Six months until the general election.  Do you think he can keep up the hype?

I think the media is already getting bored with him.  But things tend to move in waves.  He could go down and then peak again.  But who knows.

[Chris_]

Six months until the general election.  Do you think he can keep up the hype?

I think the media is already getting bored with him.  But things tend to move in waves.  He could go down and then peak again.  But who knows.

Six months is a long time.  Six months ago, Giuliani was at the top of the heap and McCain was broke. 

[Duke Nukum]

Six months until the general election.  Do you think he can keep up the hype?

I think the media is already getting bored with him.  But things tend to move in waves.  He could go down and then peak again.  But who knows.

Six months is a long time.  Six months ago, Giuliani was at the top of the heap and McCain was broke. 

Yeah, six months from now, we could build the space ship to Alpha Centauri and win the game of Civilization making elections obsolete 

[Wretched Excess]

I missed the first part of the debate, and the rebroadcast doesn't air until midnight, but I was surfing for
debate discussion, and ran across this quote:

    OBAMA: You know, I've heard from an Army captain who was the head of a
    rifle platoon — supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon.  Ended up
    being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been
    sent to Iraq. 

    And as a consequence, they didn't have enough ammunition,
    they didn't have enough Humvees.  They were actually capturing Taliban
    weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for
    them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief. 

did The BarackStar! actually say that?

[Odin's Hand]

That is pretty stupid. For one, a Captain would be commanding a company not a platoon, generally.

[Wretched Excess]

the rebroadcast is coming on CNN now . . . .  and it's starting pleasantly enough

[Wretched Excess]

I swear, I heard a woman yell "I want to have your baby, Barack!" when he walked on stage . . . 

[Lacarnut]

That is pretty stupid. For one, a Captain would be commanding a company not a platoon, generally.

I am surprised the dumb ass did not say a General.

[Wretched Excess]

That is pretty stupid. For one, a Captain would be commanding a company not a platoon, generally.

I am surprised the dumb ass did not say a General.

or, "some guy wearing green".

[Wretched Excess]

The BarackStar! is sooooooooooo playing it safe.  20 minutes in, he is simply rewording hillary's answers.

[Wretched Excess]

this is a freaking lovefest. hillary should be going for the jugular.

[Wretched Excess]

hillary : "end george bush's war on science"

[Wretched Excess]

it's ironic that hillary is getting killed by this guy.  it's a given that she is completely wrong on the issues, she at least knows the issues inside and out;  he clearly does not.  The BarackStar! is much better on the stump, where he can read his (mostly stolen) poetry, than on the debate stage, where he really does need to say something with some substance to it, but can't.

[Wretched Excess]

The BarackStar! (paraphrased) : "it isn't about policy positions, it's about inspiring people to rise above themselves . . . . or nothing will change in washington."

jeeebuss.  does he have any idea what he is talking about?  he wants a job where he has to maintain the everyone in the country's inspiration for four years?  he wants his administration to rely on THAT?  if he does get elected, this is going to be entertaining beyond words.

on edit : the point being that he is all but admitting that he will have to maintain this level of euphoria among The BarackStar! zombies, or he will utterly fail.

and I wonder how the democrat congressional leadership is going to take being demonized by their standard bearer in the general election.  nancy and stretch have notoriously thin skin.

[Wretched Excess]

I missed the first part of the debate, and the rebroadcast doesn't air until midnight, but I was surfing for
debate discussion, and ran across this quote:

    OBAMA: You know, I've heard from an Army captain who was the head of a
    rifle platoon — supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon.  Ended up
    being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been
    sent to Iraq. 

    And as a consequence, they didn't have enough ammunition,
    they didn't have enough Humvees.  They were actually capturing Taliban
    weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for
    them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief. 

did The BarackStar! actually say that?

yep.  I caught it this time.  he said it.  but he sort of hesitated and stumbled through it, and his eyes darted and blinked a bit;  all indications that we was either exaggerating or making the whole damn thing up out of whole cloth.

oh, and he pronounced "taliban" with what I suspect is the authentic pronunciation. (tall-ee-bon).  that struck me as odd.  it was as though he was going out of his way to get that one word right.