Watching the Democratic debate on CNN the other evening, along with 4.3 million other viewers, a few things struck us. Firstly, and before things even got started, our pundit experts predicted that Hillary could stumble a few more poll notches, mostly from her flip-flopping over driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants in New York State. Not only did this not happen, most would have to agree that she performed as the confident front runner she is.
The armchair quarterbacks complained that Hillary got off lightly on this issue, but the thought occurred to us that this was simply clever politics. That she pre-empted the issue before the debate began and reversed what was clearly, rightly or wrongly, a losing position. Isn’t this refreshing considering the stubborn, arrogant, never wrong, decider BS we’ve suffered through the past 6+ years? We should point out that we have no dog in this hunt and consider all the Democratic candidates more than qualified even considering the low bar they face.
The next thing that caught our attention was the booing when Obama and Edwards tried an early assault on Hillary. No question she handled these attacks with ease on her own, but we were somewhat surprised that our expert pundits, not happy with her anti-witch slapping, suggested she had plants in the audience to throw her opponents off their game. Even if this were true, and you can get away with it, hey, politics is a compact sport. Compare this with the swift boat tactics of the Republican party whether they’re sliming the Democrats or eating their own. And again, even if this were true, we’re sure the other dem candidates are castigating their advisers because they didn’t think of this too.
Our tiny troupe of political junkies is so anxious to donkey kick the Republicans elephant dung off White House front porch, that we applaud any and all signs of fighting back. We want a scrapper, someone who will kick back with a lead boot, someone who could care less about the niceties considering what we’re up against. The Republicans have demonstrated for decades that they have no respect for the Queensbury rules of political discourse, so why should we? The difference is that when the Republicans gain power, they can’t govern crap, and can only follow the direction of their masters, the military industrial complex aided and abetted by the religiously insane who get their asses in a knot over gays and abortion.
Which brings up another difference we noticed in this debate, that none of the Democrats took any crap from the CNN moderators. Well done Democrats.
Now let’s see how the Republicans fare on the Fox friendly – You Tube debate later this month. Any bets Rudy will be asked his favorite passage in the Bible?