UPDATE — I’m done. But Michelle Malkin is still at it. Her half time report is comparable to mine:

9:17pm Eastern. Commercial break for some stage furniture rearranging. Here’s my halftime summary. The boys have failed their mission. Hillary is untouched. Obama’s in miserable shape. The audience seems ready to drag Edwards off the stage. And it’s way past time to vote Denny K and Bill Kumbaya Richardson off the island, along with Dodd and Biden, the Spongebob twins.

_______

I’ll try to keep up until I can no longer stand it:

7:07 — First Question to HRC — about illegal immigration, asking her about taking a firm stance on controversial topics.

Hillary — she deflects, refuses to take a firm stance on the question.

7:12 — HRC on Obama: Sen. Obama talks about stepping up, but he never actually does so.

7:14 — Now back to Obama.

So far it’s all Barack and Hillary. Nobody else has spoken in the first 8 minutes.

7:15 — Barack actually looked and sounded a bit rattled by Hillary.

7:16 — Finally a question for Edwards. Who first of all admits he’s not perfect.

Did he really need to point out the obvious.

He then immediately goes into attacking Hillary and her voting record. First use of “neo-cons”.

He says her proposed system is broken, rigged, and is corrupt.

7:17 — Hillary is being beat up early and often. She accuses Edwards and Barack of taking talking points right out of the Republican play book in attacking her.

7:20 — Biden finally gets in on the act. Makes a joke about finally getting to speak.

Admits that Americans don’t really care about what’s going on up on the stage right now.

He’s right.

Plays up his 35 years of experience compared to the other “Big 3 who always get to talk the most at these things”.

7:22 — JOHN ROBERTS — first question goes to Edwards about HRC’s record and the hits she’s taking from Edwards.

Roberts turns it around on Edwards and points out his flip-flop record.

Ouch.

7:23 — Edwards wonders when his party is finally going to show some backbone, and strength, and courage.

I’m betting on “Never”.

7:25 — They wake up Dodd and give him a minute to finally join the debate (20 minutes in).

I can’t take my eyes off his ugly tie though.

He just wasted his 1-minute, as I have no idea what he was talking about.

7:27 — Over to Bill Richardson — Makes a joke introducing himself to those who don’t know him.

He might have been joking, but there were probably a lot of people who needed that intro.

He really does sound like he’s running for Hillary’s VP (asking others to stop slinging mud at Hillary)

ARE YOU READY TO COMMIT TO SUPPORTING THE NOMINEE, NO MATTER WHO IT IS?
Edwards — Yes.
Kucinich — qualifies his answer.
Biden makes a joke that he wouldn’t vote for any of them. I don’t think he’s really joking.
7:30 — Obama on immigration — asked about him supporting programs for illegals.

Where does he draw the line?

Obama blames Bush.

Sigh.

7:32 — To Obama — Do you support licenses for Illegal aliens. He basically said yes. But he’s trying to dance around actually saying the word “yes”. But yeah. He supports it.

Wolf asking everybody the same question about licenses for illegals:

Edwards — No, but…(then he loses me)

Dodd — Won’t give a yes or no. Finally says no. Sort of.

Obama — Yes. (wow, he just said it)

Hillary — No. (are you sure?)

Kucinich — I take issue with the term “illegal”. What an idiot.

Bill Richardson — Yes. “And I did it.”

Biden — No. (Biden answers the question directly and without qualification. Just a simple one answer word to a Yes/No question. I like Biden more than any of these other dolts already).

7:37 — Kucinich — Strong union supporter. Asked about teachers unions, and if there is anything about unions that he disagrees with.

He doesn’t answer the question. Just goes on about how much he loves unions. Calls himself the candidate of workers.

This guy should just go home now. Seriously.

OK — now he finally admits he opposed the Teamsters drilling in Alaska.

7:38 — Richardson wants to be the “Education President”. Yeah. Education is a State issue. I’d prefer my President to be a little more concerned with the bigger problems facing our nation today: Islamic terrorism and illegal immigration.

7:40 — Back to Clinton — hmmm. She’s actually been quiet for a while. Which is a good thing for her in this debate. She seems to really shine when she’s not talking and when people aren’t talking about her.

7:41 — Biden (who’s wife is a teacher) — problem with merit pay for teachers: “Who makes those decisions about who gets the merit pay?”

Ok.

I’m completely bored with this questioning about merit pay for teachers.

Let’s move on.

7:43 — Back to Biden on Pakistan — This guy actually sounds reasonable, intelligent, and has some solid ideas. Are we sure he’s a Democrat?

Hah. Biden apologies for actually answering a question fully and on point.

(I’ll probably stop watching this at 8:00, ’cause I’ve got to switch over to My Name is Earl.)

7:49 — Is human rights more important than American National Security — Once again, Obama won’t answer the question.

As he seems to always do, he reframes the question into a completely different talking point without actually answering the original question.

Same question to Dodd — Bashes President Bush instead of answering the question. Has anybody told Dodd that Bush isn’t running again.

To his credit, he finally answers the question directly — and sides with National Security, because that’s what the President is sworn to do.

7:51 — Over to Hillary, who agrees with Dodd. She just admitted that the President’s firt job is to protect and defend the USA.

And then she goes into directly bashing President Bush for doing exactly that after 9/11.

7:54 — JOHN ROBERTS question to Bill — about Nevada National Guard on 3rd Tour of Duty and the affect of troop increases in Iraq.

Is Gen. Petreaus correct about the success of the surge?

Richards says the surge is NOT working, despite the fact that…well…it is.

Says he’ll pull all troops out immediately. No residual force.

He should go back to talking about being the education president. ‘Cause he doesn’t know shit about National Defense.

7:56 — Kucinich — is Troop surge working? You knew he was going to say No (he did). Wants to completely defund the war now and impeach Bush. Today.

Of all the candidates on the stage, Kucinich is the only one I feel like punching in the face every time he opens his pie-hole.

7:57 — Obama — Is surge working? He thinks the overall strategy has failed. Kind of like Obama’s campaign.

7:59 — CAMPBELL BROWN — to Kucinich — talking about toys from China and trade relations.

Sorry, I can’t listen to him anymore. Such an angry little dwarf-like man.

8:02 — HRC: your vote to normalize trade relations with China. Was it a mistake?:

Wolf just asked her if her husband was wrong back in 1993 on NAFTA. She of course won’t actually answer the question.

8:04— Was NAFTA a mistake? Hillary admits it was. Bill just slapped his girlfriend from where ever he’s watching tonight (Canada?)

8:05 — Someone just woke Dodd up again. I don’t think he heard the question, because he’s talking about contaminated breakfast cereal.

Biden is talking again. Making sense again. Basically telling people to enforce our current laws and agreements.

8:08— Obama: question about supporting nuclear energy and what to do with the waste (if not in your backyard, where?)

Doesn’t answer the question. Starts talking about capping greenhouse gases and pollution instead.

Wolf re-directs him back to the question. Obama still doesn’t answer it. I trust Obama less than anybody on the stage. And considering that Hillary and Koo-coo-Kucinich are up there, that’s saying something.

8:10 — Same question to Bill Richardson: talking about renewable energy instead. Thinks we should study how and where to store nuclear energy. But doesn’t really answer where he thinks current wastes should go.

Uh oh. Bill just asked us to sacrifice. I think I saw Edwards throw up a little in his mouth.

8:12 — Is Hillary exploiting gender? Hillary denies it. “They’re not attacking me because I’m a woman. They’re attacking me because I’m ahead”.

Her best line of the night. Still doesn’t diminish the fact that her hubby did play the gender card for her (perhaps the most honorable and husband-like thing he’s done for his political business life partner wife since they’ve been in the public eye).
8:16 — “Boys” get to respond as to whether Hillary is playing the gender card:

Edwards — thinks that Hillary is not being held to the same standard as the boys. Edwards is being booed by the audience for bashing Hillary.

Cut to commercial before the other “boys” can agree that HRC is just a big sissy girl.

8:16 — They’re going to a break. And I’m going to end this here and switch over to Earl.

Overall Impression

Hillary — She started out shaky going back and forth with Obama. She looked angry. At Obama. I like her best when she’s not talking. She is still the main focus for Obama and Edwards campaigns.

Obama — Can not. Will not. Directly answer a question. Hillary has him pegged on all talk, no action.

Hillary lost all the mo-jo last week, and Obama picked it up. There was an exact reversal of that this week. Hillary came out on top mostly by keeping her trap shut. Their directive to Wolf to stop picking on her worked. Maybe Team Clinton will give Blitzer his balls back…

Edwards — His lips were moving, but I wasn’t really getting anything other than, “Please don’t vote for Hillary. She’s evil. I’m less evil. And look at how nice my hair looks.”

Kucinich — that is one angry, unhinged little man. No wonder the Nutroots love him so much.

Dodds — Reminds me of other dinosaurs in the Dem party like Sen. Kennedy, Rep. Murtha, and Rep. Byrd. Men whose time has long since passed, but their tiny brains just haven’t caught up to reality yet. And probably never will.
Richardson — talks out of his ass about education and being the Education President. He sounded like an idiot even about that though. And that’s his strongest point

Biden — seems like a real person. Of anybody on the stage tonight, I would probably most enjoy sitting at a bar and having a few beers with Biden.

Am I missing anybody? No?

In that case, I officially proclaim Joe Biden the winner. Hillary placed, and the rest of the herd was in a miserable tie for irrelevancy.

Posted by Robbie Cooper on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 | Trackback |