I was watching the debate at 11:30 PM last night on abcnews.com but around 12:30 AM it suddenly cut out, with over half an hour left, and never came back online. This after I had to jump through hoops and sign up for a RealOne Premium trial offer just to see this public event. What a rip off. Some premium service. If they don't want to pay for the bandwidth, don't buy the rights to a public event and then only air it in a few dozen cities. I heard this morning it did air in New York City after all, at 5:30 AM. How irresponsible to the American public can they get? This from the same people who cut into prime time coverage on Thursday for a staged half hour Bush reelection campaign event. Give me a break.
Anyway, in my view, here are the results from this debate, assuming anyone tunes in to C-SPAN today and watches it. Here are the winners:
1-Al Sharpton: Made Dean and Kerry look like lightweights and had a few good lines. Other than agreeing with Gephardt's health plan and calling to cancel future tax cuts, he avoided talking policy so he kept from looking too extreme.
2-John Edwards: Perhaps my personal preference colors my judgement, as it did with Gore vs. Bush in the 2000 debates. Nonetheless, I thought that Edwards sounded the most reasonable, professional, and charismatic of all the candidates, while at the same time displaying his firm convictions, policy awareness, and ability to explain his positions clearly. I was disappointed he did not honor Stephanopoulos' question on his policy depth with a direct response, but his overall performance is probably all the response he needed.
3-Bob Graham: Four of the nine asked their open question of Graham, and all four worked out for his benefit. He had a few good lines, and I was suprised by his reason for opposing the war resolution: that it did not go far enough to target Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as Iraq.
4-Joe Lieberman: I wasn't that impressed with his performance, but I never am, and the pundits are saying that he did a good job positioning himself. I guess I have to agree with them there. He especially emphasized the point that national security will be key to winning in 2004. It will.
Losers:
1-Richard Gephardt: While his healthcare plan sure got a lot of attention, none of it was good. All but Sharpton came out against it. Edwards and Lieberman in particular crushed most of his arguments and the rested seemed to agree.
2-Howard Dean: He and Kerry looked silly, and Dean the silliest sniping at each other from the very start of the debate. Would have been a perfect chance to try to push the issue aside and focus on George W. Bush. Opposing the war as strongly as he does after the fact shows convinction but does not bode well for his chances in 2004.
3-John Kerry: Same goes for Kerry but to a lesser degree. He did make several good points.
Irrelevant:
1-Dennis Kucinich: Message so out of line you wonder if he is running as a Democrat or a representative of the IWW.
2-Carole Mosely-Braun: Did not say much of note. At all. As usual.