With all due respect, Kucinich was god-awful tonight

[Paragon]

Does he see himself carrying only the anti-war crowd? He diverted just about every issue back to Iraq.

Al Sharpton was sorely missed. And Clark couldn't bother?

[askew]

1. I am not sure why Al Sharpton missed the debate.

But, I believe Clark missed the debate, because his grandson was supposed to be born around today (but was born in late Dec.) and did not want to crash the debate at the last minute. Clark was one of the candidates who voted against allowing Lieberman to attend the NH debate at the last minute, so I don't think he could try to attend this one.

As for DK, I thought he did better than Kerry and Lieberman today. I don't agree with his plan for withdrawing the troops out of Iraq in 90 days, as I feel it is unrealistic and could be viewed as arrogant to our allies and the UN. However, he did talk about other issues besides Iraq. He did debate single-payer healthcare with Dean. I think Dean has the right side of this issue, but DK did a good job defining his side of the issue. And I am sure he discussed other issues, but since I wasn't very impressed with him, I don't remember. But, I am sure someone else does.

[La_Serpiente]

2. Clark is not competing in the Iowa primaries.

[slinkerwink]

15. Lieberman isn't competing in IA either, but he still showed up to debate

[SahaleArm]

16. Dean probably wished he weren't there n/t

[JNelson6563]

20. Dean was glad to be there

he made good use of many opportunities.

I think his chosen question for his fellow candidates was brilliant. :-)

Julie

[corporatewhore]

4. Dk told me he wants the un in

because ihe will use it to help rebuild the bridges w burnt w/ the international community and that Iraq is being privatised left and right by our provisional gov and to end haliburtons reign

[Toucano]

9. Question about his plan.

Did Dennis indicate the he's sure the U.N. will go in even if concessions are made?

I haven't seen any indication that they are interested in going in while Iraq is so unsafe. I imagine it would be a hard sell for members back home, even with the concessions.

Congratulations on the breakfast!

[corporatewhore]

3. When i had breakfast with dk said

that every dollar spent on bombs is robbing the american people (he quoted someone forgot who) and said that iraq is a domestic issue because look how much we spent on bushs bushit war and how much we spent on schools healthcare and that it still affects the soliders who are dying there and the ones who come back maimed
(just had to rub in that had brakfast w/dk again)

[cryofan]

5. Exactly,,,and you can see the results in the Euro social democracies

That is why in countries like Canada and Netherlands and Sweden and Denmark, etc etc, people can get 2 or more years of unemployment, healthcare for all completely or nearly completely funded by taxes, and daycare funded by taxes, and universities funded almost totally by taxes. Those countries have just enough of a military to take care of problems, but not enough of one to engage in corporate imperialism. This is an accounting issue, not rocket science.

[JVS]

7. Sounds like he might have been quoting Eisenhower

let me go look for the quote

[La_Serpiente]

8. Dennis Kucinich gets it exactly

that every dollar spent on bombs is robbing the american people (he quoted someone forgot who) and said that iraq is a domestic issue

Iraq is a domestic issue. Most Americans do not see it that way, but it is. America's tax dollars are heading in that direction, and our soldiers are being killed there as well.

When * went to war, Democrats should have been making that case that the Iraq war was a domestic issue as well. Whenever America goes into large operations like the Iraq war, it drains a ton of resources from our citizens over here.

That is how Democrats should present the Iraq occupation issue this year. They should present it as a domestic issue, not just a foreign policy issue.

[Desertrose]

6. Seems to me the connection is very obvious....

war in Iraq...billions diverted there....to what purpose?
To secure deals for corporations like Halliburton, Bechtel and so forth.
These corps are not putting any $$ back tothe US people- if you think that I have some sweet swampland for ya.

This is way far beyond anti-war...this is about the US going broke to secure obscene profits for bush/cheney cronies.
Who suffers?? besides the soldiers and Iraqi people...well hold your hat honey- I got news for you...its all the rest of us folks here in the good old US of A.

Its about the people in this country getting shortchanged and screwed over.
If you can't see that , well, no wonder we have what we have and will get more of the same.
Dennis seems to be the only one who understands that all things really do come back to this illegal and misbegotten war/occupation.....and ALL the others are content to take us down the same road we went down with Viet Nam.

Wake the F up !

Peace
DR

[CWebster]

10. I thought Kucinich was pretty funny

when he addressed the "unelectible" meme and when he told the story about firing the police chief.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

17. the police chief story was hilarious

He did very well last night.

[maddezmom]

18. I thought so, too!

:)

[Dookus]

11. I disagree..

I thought Kucinich was very good.

While I disagree with him vehemently on about 2 or 3 key issues, I think he's a brilliant, personable spokesman for his side. He was even better today than usual.

Plus, his hair was better ;)

[incapsulated]

12. Heh..

You noticed the hair improvment too? I thought it was me. :)

[corporatewhore]

13. Its from hanging out w/lots o rockstars in austin

[Dookus]

14. hehe..

I hate to discuss these kinds of shallow issues, but yes, his hair looked better.

I always thought he wore a toupee, and he still might. But it looked ok.

I also though Kerry found a decent lion tamer for HIS hair.

Ahh.. primaries are so fun.

[LWolf]

19. Kucinich was fine.

Edwards/CMB were very good, IMO.

Kerry, while good in places, seems to be faltering.

Dean didn't hurt himself, and had some good moments. I liked his question.

Gep did ok.

Even Lieberman did well. :puke:

I can't say I liked what he said, but he did stick to his message and appeal to the right wing of the democratic party.

No one was god-awful. I thought Dennis did fine with the questions he was given. I keep wondering where he gets his energy and focus, participating in a presidential debate in Iowa the day after he was singing on state with Willie in Austin, a few days after he stayed up taking calls from donors 'til 3AM.

[blm]

24. I thought DK was great. Edwards, too.

Kerry was just fine, even though he was getting raspy again.

[sandnsea]

21. I'm glad Sharpton wasn't there

The debate had a much more professional feel to it and I think it was because Sharpton wasn't there. I like him and everything, but it just really seemed like everybody got more into the meat of the issues. And I thought Dennis did very well and made alot of sense. And his police chief story was hilarious, I like his humility.

[giantrobot_2000]

22. ...

Are you sure you're not just being politcally correct? Sharpton's an embezzler and a liar.

Kuchinich, CMB and Sharpton should drop out at this point.

[sandnsea]

23. I've donated to Sharpton

He has taken it straight to Bush on several occasions and I like that. He was good to a point, but now it's time to stop the slogans and get to the solutions. And for a while, it's good to have the full range of actual solutions presented. From the Kucinch and Braun point of view, all the way to the Lieberman side. I think people are able to see the differences and decide where they fit in and then shift allegiances as necessary.

[adamrsilva]

25. Kucinich is helpful is making Dean seem moderate.

Hell, Braun seemed moderate compared to Dennis.

From Slate:

6. Dennis, more! I have two questions for the Dean campaign. First, are you paying Dennis Kucinich to stay in the race? And second, why not? He's gold for you every time he opens his mouth. In this forum, Kucinich took three shots at Dean. He rebuked Dean for refusing to pull out of NAFTA and the WTO. Then he forced Dean to explain why Dean would leave U.S. troops in Iraq rather than pull out immediately. (Answer: to keep Iraq from falling into chaos and becoming an al-Qaida nest.) Then he demanded to know why Dean was proposing a pragmatic, politically viable health-insurance program instead of a utopian one. Perhaps for a small payment Kucinich could be persuaded to attack Dean for opposing gay marriage, supporting the death penalty, and accepting the divinity of Jesus.

[Cocoa]

26. Kucinich got the most applause

I thought that was interesting, and I also noticed that other candidates were giving him credit for things. I liked hearing that.