The Early Debates

On consecutive Thursdays I've watched 8 Democratic and 10 Republican declared presidential candidates "debate" the issues on MSNBC. (A better term than debate might be...outlined their stump speeches?) Lots of takeaways and impressions. In no particular order:

-Everyone should donate $20 to Mike Gravel's campaign. Of course he has no chance of winning, but where else are you going to see James Stockdale melded into Peter Finch and saying "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more! Now, if I could only remember why I'm mad as hell!!"

-Dennis Kucinich was looking at Mike Gravel going off and a big smile crossed his face. I know what he was thinking: “I’m not finishing last THIS time!”

-Mitt Romney looks and sounds like the perfect Republican candidate. Which is why he has no chance of getting elected, unless he's running against Hillary Clinton.

-HRC will beat no one in a general election. She exudes smarmy and drips with venom, no matter how nicely she talks. Her latest accent, a hard-core northeastern clip she has developed, is emblematic of the distrustworthiness and charade of her entire being. It's quite amazing to me how she has been able to go from Chicago nasal to Arkansas drawl to midwestern accentless to New York in very short periods of time. And no one seems to notice. (But then, no one else seemed to notice what a low-class hoodlum Michael Vick was until now, either.) Trust me on this one, folks: she won't be your next president.

-The pundits at MSNBC don't want Guiliani to win for some reason that I haven't yet figured out. I'll bet his poll numbers don't take a hit after this debate, though, which tells me the rest of those paying attention don't share their reasoning.

-Bill Richardson was a major disappointment. He seemed largely ill-prepared. When he did give confident answers, he came off as naïve and simplistic. Definitely not presidential.

-Obama is able to hold himself in a debate. I no longer doubt his ability to sway opinions to many of his points-of-view.

-John Edwards is much better prepared than he was 4 years ago. Which makes sense since that’s the only reason he has even been in politics is to run for president. Again…I don’t think he’s electable, especially since his message is to those ‘disadavantaged’ in America. Oops…they don’t vote in large numbers.

Joe Biden would be very electable if he weren’t so arrogant and played loose with facts. Alas…

I still see nothing that sways me from my early prediction of Guiliani vs. Obama.