Russert Moderates a Pretty Bad Debate. As Usual.
Yuck. What a terrible debate. Not really my style. Thanks, MSNBC. NOT.
Typical Russert "toughness": Grill'em with bad questions and demand a straight answer. What a moron.
It's almost impossible for me to convey the damage Tim Russert and Brian Williams are doing to the republic this evening. So far, the questioning has gone something like: "Hillary, are you a racist?" "Barack, are you a scary black man who will continually remind us that we are racists?" "Senator Obama, why are you such a dick?" "Senator Clinton, would you like to comment on Senator Obama's past drug use?" "Senator Obama, you say you want to move us forward, but your press people have released documents mentioning Hillary Clinton. Please explain."
It's literally the worst moderation I've yet seen. It's not moderation. It's trivialization. 28 minutes in, there's not been a question about any issue, any cause, any problem. The only possible upside is it gives me an excuse to link to Matthew Yglesias's devastating takedown of Tim Russert. Read it and weep
.
Do read the Yglesias link. A masterpiece.
Megan McArdle also chimes in saying her ears hurt :
Barack Obama just actually explained that he is not a muslim. That he goes to church. That he wasn't schooled in a Madrassah. That he rejects Lewis Farrakhan's weird version of anti-semitic race-based politics. That he knows nothing about the Watergate break-ins . . . sorry, wrong scandal.
I am ashamed to live in a country where this was actually a question in the debate.
Amen, sister.
Any thoughts on your candidates, Blue Bars (and Blue Bars in multicolor clothing)?
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Comments :
The first half hour was just pathetic
The heckler was the highlight.
It improved after that and they actually started to talk about issues of substance instead of the meaningless crap they were being asked about in the beginning.
qui tacet consentire
yeah,
I think I missed the good stuff. I kinda tuned out and started changing channels after the first 35 minutes or so and then came back toward the end.
you may laugh about this but ....
You think its funny that the rumor is being circulated re. Obama being a Muslim etc... but my husb's workmate made the comment the other day , ( and she is a college educated Christian woman ) " Oh I could never vote for a non Christian candidate ,,, when asked who that was , the answer was " Obama , because he is a Muslim " ,
these people get this from their churches , they pick it up in the ether,,, its just out there . For people not in day to day contact with politics , these stories hit home at some level. .
How can you doubt the power of repititon and propaganda when we see how many people conflated the 9/11 attacks with Saddam Hussein . Even when the rumor is debunked the smell remains ......
sligowoman
Isn't that great?
For all the care that goes into crafting policy and political messages, it's the really random stuff that sticks. If I were to ask my (Republican) dad to say the first thing that comes to mind when I read off a list of the Democratic candidates, it'd go roughly something like: Obama = Muslim; Edwards = trial lawyer; Clinton = (unprintable); Kucinich = who? Sadly I'm not sure my uninterested-in-politics Democrat friends could do much better...
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
the crafting is done
specifically so that random stuff sticks. The candidates pollsters count on it.
It is the economy, stupid.
That's true, although hard to predict:
who'd have thunk a couple of tears would help swing a primary?
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
Saw it in my classroom
I teach in a local high school and we spent a lot of time last week with many of the students asserting that Obama was a Muslim. If they were confronted with glaring evidence to the contrary - a quick google search - they backtracked into the "yeah, he acts all Christian but its just a cover to get elected" tactic. Doesn't matter what the facts are some people will have already made up their minds and will always find some excuse to justify their opinion.
That's depressing
I would hope high school students would be more savvy than their parents with rumors like that.
You're probably right, people are just looking to justify the decision they've already made, for whatever other reason.
By the way, nice to see you here...
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
This reminds me a quick chat with my GF the other day
She's also a teacher and was talking presidential politics with a colleague at school.
The colleague told my GF ( Obama supporter) that she could never vote for a someone with Hussein in his name and who was black on top of that! Oh dear! hahahaha.
My GF was shocked. I wasn't.
I told her that there are two kinds of people in politics and they are on both sides:
You have cosmopolitan people who don't look at race and religion as important traits. They are also very open to other cultures and foreigners in general.
examples include most libertarians, urban liberals, wall street types and socially moderate to liberal fiscal conservative republicans.
Then you have old fashioned, culturally conservative, Middle-American populists.
examples include people in both parties from small town America with old fashioned values and a strong sense of tradtitional red, white and blue Americana.
Lots of Dems, despite what some liberals may think, are like this. Security moms, soccer moms, blue collar union guys and generally old fashioned FDR-New Deal types who think and talk a lot like Huckabee even though they are Dems.
Heck, a dem friend of mine is a big populist, union guy who is also somewhat racist and old-fashioned.
Socially conservative Dems are a large block of the party.
The GOP side of this well known.
again the 'rednecks'
used to be pro-union, until Reagan and Bush came along and told them all that they needed to do was stick a vote values sign in their yard, and that the right to assemble and organize for a fair wage was akin to treason. :)
That is exactly why Huckabee appeals to redneck Republicans. Suddenly they are figuring out that somewhere along the way they got screwed.
It is the economy, stupid.
Potential
The bit where the candidates got to ask each other their own questions had potential, but in practice, it was just a waste. After being told each candidate would get to ask one question of each candidate, the moderators backtracked and said, nah, just one question from each of you. (They'd probably wasted too much time on all the stupidity that they opened the debate with.) Edwards got off one decent question, Obama got screwed out of his question by the silliness of Brian Williams' moderation, and Clinton used her "question" to talk about herself.
I got a little sick to my stomach in the post-debate "analysis" watching Chris Matthews profess his undying love for Hillary, so only watched about 20 seconds of that. I don't think any of the three were remarkably good or remarkably bad.
We are the environment. There is no distinction. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. —David Suzuki
Me too.
What the hell is wrong with him...... Chris Matthews I mean. Is he on steroids er what. The tone of the debate was adult and Chris comes in like a screaming monkey with his assessment that I thought was way off the mark, and irrelevant.
I excercised my freedom by shutting off the TeeVee. I wish they would have let KO speak first.
I thought that for a debate it was decent, because none of them are that good.
I definitely noticed that Clinton said "I" about a thousand times. I thought Edwards did farily well with his passionate dedication. I appreciated Obama's thoughtful and deliberate answers.
IN my view Clinton would try and regulate/legislate things to death, which is something I would like to see the Dems turn away from.
It is the economy, stupid.
It needed to be aired out
I frankly applaud the moderators for asking these questions.
Are you suggesting that it would have been better to ignore this topic that has been raging all week and bury your head in the sand? Isn't that a bit childish?
If it hurts your ears too bad.
The damage was NOT being done by the moderators questions, it was being done by campaign surrogates looking for political advantage ripping open old racist stereotypes (are you black enough) and out and out lies, (shhhh, did you know HE's a muslim, which is a blatant lie ).
While some may have found it uncomfortable to listen well, iodine stings.
Racial and religious biggotry exist here in America.
There are some that still revile and despise Martin Luther King, that arrogant Negro that stirred up so much trouble.
How can you possibly enlighten people to the truth without discussing it and without asking hard questions.
The whole uncomfortable and difficult issue was handled well, cleared the air, and allowed for a reasonably adult discussion after.
I was disappointed that Obama didn't get to ask his one question to another candidate. :) I wonder what it was.
It is the economy, stupid.
One Debate 3 Winners
Three Winners.
Clinton from Arianna Huffington
Obama
from TNR
Edwards
from Daily Kos
It is the economy, stupid.
This is werid
broken link.
sorry.
It is the economy, stupid.