Blogging the "Forum"

Through Commercial Break #1: Dodd can't complete a response without bringing up some piece of legislation that he has supported and exactly when he supported it. Hillary's answer to NAFTA was saved at the last minute by her invective against Republicans. BTW, I am tired of her line about Democrats fighting each other. On the one hand, Edwards seems like he is trying to fit pre-defined answers into any question and, on the other, Obama seems ill-prepared and hesitant on all of his answers (and, a stadium!!! that's your solution for economic development!?!? granted, it plays well to the trades unions, but GOOD LORD!). Kucinich knows how to get the crowd going but needs to never mention another bill number. Richardson can't give a concise answer and really, talking about getting money - that's not going to help. Did I forget any one? Oh, and Olbermann's the man.

Round 2: Damn it - NO "THREE POINT PLANS" HILLARY!!! Did you notice that KERRY LOST!!! Maybe you were too busy drinking your "no attacking Democrats" Kool-Aid. Breathe...in...out...in...out... alright, I'm good now.

None of these clowns has a good plan for Iraq. Although, I can't believe that I am saying this, Hillary sounds the best ^[1]. I think that both Dodd and Biden are literally sucking up to Clinton for the VP. She doesn't have to attack anyone because she has those two doing it for her.

Finally, a knock-out punch for Obama. Well done defending yourself. Dodd and Hillary look petty - and she got her well-deserved boos. Bringing up the American people and "not Washington-insiders" was nice.

Round Three: Can Joe Biden sound any more insincere and then talk about Pakistan when the wife of a dead coal miner is bringing up her husband? What the hell!!! Kucinich is a IATSE member? No Bill, his town is in Michigan. Don't say that his town is someone else's town. Man, if Dean got criticized for not having any beside manner, then these fools must have the emotions of a rock. He asked about his job - not his VA healthcare, Bill. Dodd has offered legislation!!! I couldn't guess that answer was coming.

If Republicans can't look at that man who just talked about losing his pension, I don't understand how they can honestly talk about workers being selfish in this country.

Edwards knocked that response out of the park! That was an amazing answer. And, telling Olbermann to shut up was awesome. I think that he and Kucinich seem to be the only two who really understand the dynamic in the stadium.

Biden is not helping himself talking about his illness and age. And, btw, if he forgot, Edwards is from a right to work state. Kucinich needs to stop quoting bill numbers. Oh, wait, I already said that. Edwards believe in one America now. Too bad, I liked his "Two Americas" speech. No scabs - nice touch. Biden looks angry and just got booed - nice job Biden, you have succeeded in sticking your foot in your mouth again.

"Green collar" and Hillary can't remember the names of anyone. Although she did a pretty good job with NCLB.

I'm bored round: Richardson doesn't make any sense on this VP candidate - although that was a nice touch saying that any of the members on stage would be a good VP. "Lobbyists are people, too" huh? Hillary didn't answer the question. Nice stance, Obama, not taking money from lobbyists. Nice explanation of "lobbying" and noting the difference between big corporations and big labor. And Hillary and John: LIGHTNING ROUND!!! Keep your response to 30 seconds. And Joe, stop talking down to people. Chris, you need to finish a sentence - particularly if it is one that doesn't answer the question you were asked. 30 SECONDS!!! Kucinich and his bills - I don't want to hear about that, I want to know about the message, not the bills. Nice job talking about the promise to remove the troops. 30 SECONDS - I'M BORED!!! Who cares about Barry Bonds? What a stupid question. Nice answer, Barack. Nice response for Hillary...until the 10 POINT PLAN. NO PLANS. Talk about the issues, not the plans. 455 days? Damn, I don't think that I can stand it?

Bill doesn't make any sense. And he's boring. Yes, we elect governors in this country - we also elect Representatives and Senators as well. I see Barack's next swing is going to be "Washington insiders." I like the fact that he is talking about organizing. Nice answer, Joe. Now don't ruin it. Wow, he didn't. Hillary had a pretty good initial answer, but she is so policy-wonky; hasn't the DLC focus-grouped this. And, Hillary, you have been the Washington insider. You can't be both an insider and an outsider when it suits you. 30 SECONDS!!! Nice answer regarding political financing and we DO need to stop playing nice. Dennis = Seabiscuit. I can guarantee you, Dennis, if you do that, people will be running against you.

Chris Matthews round: SHUT UP!!! Why don't you talk about Edward's response to the "most powerful" moment. You already told us who did well, why would you need to ask anyone else.

P.S. I love Eugene Robinson. I want to be Eugene Robinson when I grow up.

^[1]That doesn't mean that I think that she would be the best; only that she sounds the best.[return]

A New Ronald Reagan?

I was going to write something about Fred Thompson being compared as the next Ronald Reagan and how faulty that comparison is. However, Richard Cohen at the Washington Post has been there, and done that.

Watching the video from Fred Thompson's appearance on Jay Leno last night, something else impressed me about Thompson. The man is so much more measured and thoughtful than any of the current Republican nominees. In response to Leno's question about Iran, Thompson responds:

Iran's a difficult problem, and, you have to have all of the facts before you make a final decision about it. We've got a lot of friends among the Iranian people. The Iranian economy is in bad shape. If we handle it right, and use our intelligence services and our propaganda possibilities correctly, part of that problem might take care of itself, so let's not get ahead of ourselves on that.

While I may disagree with the ways in which he would "use our intelligence services and our propoganda possibilities," this is an incredibly measured response that really looks at the issue itself and doesn't buy into the cheap one-liner. Compare this to Mitt Romney's ignorance about basic facts on Iraq, Rudi Giuliani's revisionist 9/11, and even John McCain, who is by all accounts the foremost of all the candidates on foreign policy is making light of bombing Iran. Of course Thompson has the benefit of not actually being in the race and not having to demean himself by hand-raising straw polls, as he points out, but the amazingly stark contrast between his position and all of the other Republican candidates (except Ron Paul), is noticeable.

What I find interesting is that there is a similar movement afoot in the Democratic party to get Al Gore to run. On their website, the folks at Draft Gore call Al Gore "The Conscience of the Democratic Party" in no small part because he is eloquent and intelligent and, except for his concern about global warming, is not really an activist-type politician. I discussed this more in relation to Eugene Robinson's column.

I don't think that Thompson and Gore are the same and are, in fact, less alike than Thompson is from Reagan; but, what I do think is that Cohen, or even Robinson, glaze over the underlying sense from the strength of these two candidates. People are tired of politics, not for politics' sake — Al Gore has certainly been talking about politics little "p" and big "P" the past couple of years, but the deeply partisan "horse-race" politics reported by CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, NYT, etc. The left wants President Bartlet and the right wants D.A. Arthur Branch. Why? Because these are the consummate thoughtful, intelligent decision-makers who put the country and law in front of themselves; I mean, Aaron Spelling and Dick Wolf created the characters precisely because that is what people want in their elected leaders — and is also precisely why they are fictional.

What is not so fictional, however, is the mess that our country is in. We have a disaster in Iraq, a dismal world opinion, a global climate problem, millions of uninsured citizens, personal and national debt problems and a failing infrastructure that is going to need serious investment in the next twenty years. Al Gore to the left and Fred Thompson to the right have created themselves (both, I should say through the use of Hollywood), to be the characters that we all create in our minds and recreate (through those Hollywood images) to put their face on those characters so that we imagine them as type-cast for the role of President. I'm not exactly sure what this postmodern mirror means in terms of real politics, policies or the health of our country, but looking at the field I can honestly say that we could do a lot worse than Al Gore and Fred Thompson as the race in 2008.

Braniacs for President (and Columnists) 2008!

To all three loyal readers out there, you may have noticed my hiatus. This past week, I flew to California to attend the wedding of a good friend from college and to spent some time with the parental units since I don't get to see them much seeing as how the entire continent divides us. I have been woefully oblivious of the news except for the Rosie/Elizabeth dust-up on The View (my mom watches the show and is, therefore, intrigued by this broohaha) and the lost whales in the San Fransisco Bay. I don't fault myself too much for being an un-knowledgeable citizen shirking my civil society responsibilities; after all, this is why there is vacation.

But, alas, vacations are not always truly vacations. In the process of waiting for one of my committee members to call me back about a paper that I am writing, I looked up what was going on in the world at the Washington Post. Luckily for me, today is Eugene Robinson's column in the post. For all of you who have never read his work, I believe that he is one of the smartest columnists in America and often writes about stories that other columnists ignore or writes about the more "common sense" angles of stories that other columnists treat as "horse-race" analyses.

Today, Robinson chose to write about the buzz surrounding Al Gore's run for office. Rather than focusing on Al Gore's weight as a factor about whether he would run, Robinson &mdash shock of all shocks &mdash decided to focus instead on his intelligence. I mean why would any one want to focus on that? Unfortunately, because intelligent people will have a difficult time getting elected:

Al Gore has been in town launching his new book, "The Assault on Reason," and you could have predicted the buzz: Is he about to jump into the race? What you probably wouldn't have predicted is the counter-buzz that Gore, poor fellow, is just too ostentatiously smart to be elected president.

While the entire column is worth the read, here is the part that I found particularly important:

Leave aside the question of whether Gore is even thinking about another presidential run, or how he would stack up against the other candidates. I'm making a more general point: One thing that should be clear to anyone who's been paying attention these past few years is that we need to go out and get ourselves the smartest president we can find. We need a brainiac president, a regular Mister or Miss Smarty-Pants. We need to elect the kid you hated in high school, the teacher's pet with perfect grades.

When I look at what the next president will have to deal with, I don't see much that can be solved with just a winning smile, a firm handshake and a ton of resolve. I see conundrums, dilemmas, quandaries, impasses, gnarly thickets of fateful possibility with no obvious way out. Iraq is the obvious place he or she will have to start; I want a president smart enough to figure out how to minimize the damage.

Huh, what an interesting concept...It would also seem to apply to columnists in the nation's papers of record &mdash too bad Eugene Robinson doesn't have the same notoriety as Maureen Dowd or Thomas Friedman.

UPDATE:While Maureen Dowd certainly deserves much criticism, I must also be fair and acknowledge that she has a very intellegent and well-written column [sub. required] this week on why President Bush can no longer be trusted on the war in Iraq.