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I saw most of the South Carolina debate tonight. However, I just had gotten home, was eating dinner, and cleaning up while it was on. Here is my feelings on how the debate went:
I was impressed with the questions that were asked by Brian Williams. These weren't at all softball questions. With 8 candidates however, it was hard for them to get very in depth on the answers during the 90 minute debate. The yes/no, raise your hand, and 1 sentence answers were dumb. Just ask the question, give them a time limit, and let the candidates go.
As for how the candidates performed, I think Biden did very well. He came across as knowledgable and personable. Gravel made some good points. At least he had some fire, though he will probably be known as the crazy old guy from now own. He and Kucinich probably had too much time. Obama's charisma showed on the debate stage and it was interesting to see Kucinich and Gravel go after him about being anti-war. Edwards and Clinton all did well enough and didn't hurt themselves at all.
I was disapointed with Richardson. He hogged all the time and every answer had at least 3 or 4 parts before they cut him off. Note to Richardson: we aren't looking for 12 point plans, we are looking for someone to lead based on principles. We can get to the details later on.
Was Dodd even there?
Here are my rankings of their performance during the debate...
1. Joe Biden
2. Barack Obama
3. John Edwards
4. Hillary Clinton
5. Mike Gravel
6. Dennis Kucinich
7. Chris Dodd
8. Bill Richardson
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Thoughts on the South Carolina Presidential Debate
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2 comments:
Looks like we're on the same page as far as performance rankings went tonight. I had the same top three in the same order; Biden, Obama, and Edwards. Biden did an excellent job fielding the questions,was succinct, and had conviction behind his words. When he simply answered "Yes" to the overly verbose question, that was classic. Obama and Edwards held their own.
I thought the rest of the candidates held their own as well, meaning no major miscues or political blunders; although Gravel's emergence from beneath the rock he said he's been hiding underneath the past ten years did add an entertaining facet. He did make some viable points, but his delivery was over the top. Kucinich had a nice jab at Hillary about her decision to relinquish her power to Bush.
I agree, the only candidate I was unimpresssed with was Richardson, at least as far as my expectations go It felt like he was trying too hard to get in as much policy as possible and did encroach on others' time. I was surprised the moderators didn't take more of an active role.
I thought Biden was better than usual; the time limit definitely helped him. He still seemed to get tangled up in his answers, though. I thought Obama did well enough, but he dodged a lot of questions. My wife (who is undecided between Edwards, Clinton, and Obama) actually said "Answer the question!" out loud at one point.
Clinton did about as I expected - a solid performance. Richardson was awful. He rambled and he looked uncomfortable, like the whole thing was hard for him to follow. At one point he said his biggest problem was that he was "too aggressive", not something you want to hear from a presidential candidate. Dodd did OK, but didn't get anything memorable in there.
I thought Edwards did well. He was relaxed, reasonably detailed without being too wonky, and he really had some good answers on foreign policy. "We have more tools than bombs" was a pretty good line. I was a little perturbed that he took so long to answer the moral leader question, but at the same time, I'm glad he actually gave his answer some thought, instead of just saying "Gandhi" or "Jesus" automatically.
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