Do you think the moderators are going to try to stir up a brawl just to keep things interesting?
About The Author

BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Nah, I think they are going to stick solely to the issues and not delve into any of the nasty sniping or mudslinging that has become such a huge part of our political process. Tonight, CNN will be a paragon of journalistic integrity, giving us an unparalleled display of…
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AHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Sorry, I just couldn’t keep going.
And be served up Wolfie and the black haired lady who doesn’t move her neck or mouth when she talks?
The moderator is that woman from the morning show. Campbell Brown or something, I think. She isn’t a gotcha questioner. Along with John King and that guy from Univision Jorge Ramos.
who is she married to?
wikipedia is my friend.
look a little deeper.
Well, his page there shows ties to Carlyle Group, Spence Abraham, and perhaps most interestingly Paul Bremer.
A quick google shows he was the foreign policy adviser for Mittens during his campaign.
That’s about as far as I’m going for now. Man, Republican careers are so incestuous.
Don’t know.
Dan Senor, one of ex whack jobs from the bush administration..who now has his own investment firm and ha ha is writing a book on the Middle East.
Maybe we’ll have another “Oh Campbell …” moment.
This is what tvguide.com has to say:
I doubt they’ll have to
I have a hard time watching CNN anymore. Lou Dobbs. Whack job. Wolf Blitzer. Attack chihuahua.
Can’t wait.
because I had something else to do. But the ice storm here canceled everything.
I have to admit I’m not too excited about yet-another-debate. I feel like I can say their answers before they even open their mouths.
I’m waiting to see what they wear … 🙂
the most boring pantsuit yet. Very disappointing.
I know! I was hoping for cowboy boots. And a Silver Belt Buckle. At the least.
or at least a lariat.
I don’t have my TV on. What’s Clinton wearing?
Basic Black. But her lapels have a bit of gold trim.
a frumpy black pantsuit with cream trim. It’s the worst outfit she’s worn. She usually dresses very well and better suited for her figure.
It made her thighs look like melted lumps of chocolate.
As for Barack, he’ll looking like a jr. aide on the Hill tonight.
How many times do you think Barack will work in a “Si se puede” tonight? I’ll say 3.
oops
I’ll take two
A sitting debate. Obama does better when he’s sitting.
Maybe Obama can mention that Molly Ivins was not too impressed with Hillary.
she looks good and relaxed.
What is that necklace thing? Very distracting.
or is that her lapels? I have to watch the stream so I can’t tell.
the necklace? what about that collar? it looks like two white hairs are poking out of her chest
Yep, her collar looks terrible.
Also, I’d like to take a moment to curse whoever decided that Presidential debates should be televised in HD. The Democrats are still much better than the Republicans, but these people just really don’t need to be displayed in high def.
We looked and CNNHD isn’t going.
I’m watching it on CNNHD. It’s on here.
Trust me, you don’t want it.
But my husband has watched the Flipper movie 5 times just because it was in HD. That’s where he’s at in regard to HD. Me? I’d rather not see King’s craters in larger-than-life format.
It’s great for movies and sports, but nothing where you actually have to look at people up close. Maybe someday they will figure this out.
Isn’t everything going to be HD next year? They keep having commercials about how old TV’s won’t work – hence the need to run out and buy a new one.
No, everything is going to switch to be transmitted digitally. That’s a separate beast from HD. Digital transmission is just the way that the signal will travel from the cable company to your box and doesn’t have to do with the picture quality. HD means higher picture quality (and it is transmitted digitally).
Broadcast signals will change to digital.
If you have cable, you’re ok. If you use an antenna, you need a convertor box, which you can get a discount for from the FCC(?)
Retail stores are making a lot of money off of this information deficit.
When I said you have cable you’re ok, I should have been clearer–I believe most providers will give you a box, maybe for a very small fee.
The cable companies wrote that legislation so that only they make money. You just get you a nice fat monthly cable bill for digital cable and you’re set.
Won’t really affect me. I don’t have cable.
I’m guessing you must have satellite, but to avoid confusion for anyone reading this thread, if you pick up your television stations over the air (with an antenna) you will be affected.
Nope I have rabbit ears.
Oh.
In that case, you’re affected.
yeah, that’s what it was. The angle made it look like they were extensions of the necklace.
Te yellow trim on the collar is distracting.
Hillary gets in the first mention of Barbara Jordan.
And Ann Richards.
What about Molly Ivins???
nice intro, she’s hitting a lot of important talking points.
I know it’s her style and I’m not exactly a Hillary fan, but she’s seriously putting me to sleep.
yeah…it was blah, blah, blah
HRC: let me get my sheroes in–not that I find ANY instance of mentioning the great Barbara Jordan or Ann Richards is a bad thing.
BHO: Talking about actual people. LOVE that.
I know most of these people haven’t heard his stump speech, but he’s boring me to death.
he swiveled his head a lot too
Coo-bah.
Hillary sticks to the same old policy. They have to demonstrate change before she talks to him. But she’ll help to create momentum.
Cuba. Good question.
First real question: What are the chances that Fred Thompson’s cigar prices will go down with you as President?
Good for Hillary to give Raul a chance, not that he deserves one…but the Cuban people deserve one.
Is Lou Dobbs a/b to keel over, or was he given a valium earlier?
Bad answer, Hillary.
Cuba has a huge oil discovery so things will change.
I think Clinton’s answer on Cuba is satisfactory.
Same answer she gave once before with respect to Castro.
I think Obama says he’ll meet. we’ll see.
Maybe if we normalize relations with Cuba we can figure out what’s going on at that Guantanamo Bay place.
<snark>
Mr. AP said the same thing! Almost verbatim! Heh. Great minds and all that.
Excellent 😉 I remember we were of the same mind in several of our discussions last January too. Say hi for me!
I’ll show him. Unfortunately, he has a fever 🙁 but he’s staying awake for the debate.
Actually, he just said “Hi!” too. At some point, he’s gonna stop lurking. 🙂
Damn, seems like everyone is getting sick. I think a quarter of my company was out with some flu.
Of course, we also just changed our time off policy to include 6 free use-them-or-lose-them sick days, so maybe that’s exacerbating things 😉
I’ll look forward to the de-lurk. Is the username “UP” taken?
I’m actually getting over my upper respiratory crap that I call pre-bronchitis. The medicine was the same as it was when I had the full-blown bronchitis. It still hurts when I cough. But Mr. AP’s fever is really starting to worry me.
Obama has a good answer. What is not spoken is that US has $2.7 billion trade in agriculture with Cuba each year.
US is losing ground in Cuba to other countries. China, Canada, Venezuela, Spain, EU and Russia.
They both seem to have stuck to their previous answers under Fidel.
Campbell’s gotcha moment didn’t work.
I don’t think it will translate well. It’s Bush’s attitute toward people we don’t like.
Good answer, Barack. Drop the travel ban. Drop the money transfer ban. Good faith measures. Perfect answer. Meet without pre-conditions. Negotiate from there. That’s what I wanted to hear.
I think Obama’s answer but he should make reciprocal acts by Cuba a condition of a sit-down.
He already said “no preconditions” so he can’t backtrack on that. Nuance it, but not backtrack on it.
I agree with Hillary here, but I actually think Obama just failed to be clear.
I actually agree with Obama – that we need to take a humbler (MY word) stance with the world community and not insist they come to us first, as Hillary is essentially saying.
Btw – did you see – Hillary just called Obama President Kennedy, by mistake! She quoted Obama after saying “As President Kennedy said”. Wild!
Preparation is important in campaigns, too.
Economy question.
soft-pedaling anti-Nafta for a Texas audience.
Nice selling of Democratic party. He needed to do that all along.
she’s not answering the specific ?
A trade prosecutor? WTF is that? People to go after the same ones that worked for Billary in the 90s? Seriously?
I wondered the same thing. It was a great idea to say it though. It means nothing but sounds good.
And the war on science. That was good. Have to admit it. This admim needs to be horsewhipped on that issue alone.
yep, she gets points for that one.
Especially good saying it at a University.
So she’s staying nice, and positive. This works better for her than attacking him, I think. I wonder if this tone will continue.
She’s raising her voice though, and she’s not even been confronted yet. She sounds overly aggressive, I think.
When she attacks she comes across as shrill – gender-specific critique, to be sure, but that is how she comes across. She needs to come across as strong and prepared without crossing into shrill territory, and so far she seems to be walking that line pretty well.
It’s unfair, it really is, but she should try to stay an octave lower.
She’s name dropping, and pratically screaming, “Like me, please!”. It’s actually kind of embarrassing.
I think she looks really good tonight. So far, she’s helping herself.
Why did they cut her off? She got less time than Obama.
There’s no time limits so there will be a time imbalance, but they shouldn’t cut the candidates off.
HRC flub the ready on day one question.
how’s it she has 2 questions in a row.
She didn’t even answer it!
But there’s no stuttering. He’s on his game tonight and I guess having 14 million previous debates can do that to a person.
It’s a much better and clearer explanation than it was a few months ago.
yep. And the part about fixing the legal system goes over well. Especially if part of the plan is to make people go to the back of the line.
good point on the Immigration backlog and fees.
hillary learned that the wall is stupid last night.
I can’t believe she’s telling the truth that she just learned this. I knew about the Brownsville campus months ago.
Texans hate the fence.
Hillary points out that “he voted for it too!!!”
we’ll see what he answers.
Don’t try to cover it up in “technology”. She wants to hire more border control.
New Thread!!