dirty dems debate

the dems met tonight, in anticipation of south carolina's primary election tomorrow. the fact that today is martin luther king day (and a misquote by cnn, as well as hottie dan abrams, that today is mlk's birthday (his actual birthday was january 15th)) came up a hundred times, almost as often as the concept of change itself. tonight's was probably the most interesting debate of the season, for a lot of reasons, but mostly because it was either really boring or really dirty (and i thought cnn and wolf did a crappy job of coordinating and moderating the event).

youch! i'll tell ya, barack and hillary really went at it. they spent the majority of tonight's standing debate slinging shit at one another, while desperedwards sat in the corner wishing for some airtime. punch for punch, i thought barack and hillary were pretty even, but i thought barack took the beating much better than hillary. she did not keep her cool very well and often looked and sounded condescending. despards (desperedwards is just too long to keep typing) did a pretty good job of taking advantage of the bickering candidates to show himself as the only grown up, but it did nothing for me. i still think the debate would have been more interesting had he not shown up at all. and i sorta hope he drops out before the next one because as unlikely as it is, a barack vs. hillary showdown is must-see-tv at my house. i want to see them go at each other again, and this time without the white guy in the corner. considering that this entire campaign revolves around the candidates as people (the differences in their solutions to our problems is so slight, it barely matters), i'd like to see our front-runners go head to head, but with a moderator with the balls to handle it.

It's interesting to listen to the candidates spin their responses. i never feel like they've answered any of the questions asked, but have instead skipped their way to the most applicable stock answer they've been practicing. i thought hillary did a great job of standing strong and sounding good on the economy, healthcare, and god i love it when she says, "green collar", but she has a real problem keeping her cool (and that is something she's going to have to work on). barack didn't seem to be very focused and i didn't know what the hell he was talking about or why, at least half the time. further, barack is really going to have to work on better responding to the issues that concern americans. believe me, i'm hope's biggest advocate and the world's best advertisement for the sale and use of rose-colored glasses. even i realize that hope can only carry us so far. at some point, he's going to have to show me why i should keep hoping with him.