I realize it is early in the election cycle, but WTF! The American voter prefers McBush concerning the economy. Where have they been for the past seven years? Heads in the sand, I guess.

I am not bitter -- but I am saddened and disappointed with the moral bankruptcy of the people in power and all that they have wrought in seven and half years in power. The American people deserve better and hopefully Americans who have felt fearful of asserting themselves will, in this election cycle, hold their government more accountable and begin to elect the kind of leaders who will put the needs of American people ahead of corporate interests. I just hope that we are able to close "pandora's box" and bring our moral compass back into alignment.

That having been said, I am personally very happy, and live each day with a joy at being alive.

The "bitter" debates are so monumentally moronic it's a sad commentary on America that they still have an affect. It's about controlling the public dialog.

Just going with the supposed fundamental common man, everyday person logic that's claimed by these sort of "issues," I was reminded of a goofy concession on Coney Island's boardwalk. It's called "Shoot the Freak." The idea is that, for a fee, you get the chance to try to shoot, with a paint ball gun, some guy running around in a small lot just below and next to the boardwalk.

Now consider, in unbitter America, some enterprising entrepreneur setting up a similar sort of sideshow freak out. But instead of shooting a paint ball gun at some guy running around, or swinging a big hammer at a pivot with a weight on the other end on a track leading up a pole to a bell, you get a chance to kick George W. Bush in the ass. Call it "Kick the Ass!"

Tell me, with a straight face, that concession, even at ten bucks a booty pop, wouldn't have people lining up for miles to take a good swift kick.

Really! Bitter! A major American semantics issue! Murdoch's Fox network had the smarts to come up with a response to the popular "Cosby Show." It was called "Married with Children." Is the real problem here that some Dr. Huxtable is showing empathy for Al Bundy? Is it reverse "uppity?" Downity?

comment. I love the irony. Reverse uppity. Wonderful. OT...my husband made a comment this evening after viewing a picture of George W and the pope together: "look, it's the father and the furher." Cracked me up.

...watch the debate? Was it as bad as the boards say it was?

No Whining About the Media

By David Brooks

Three quick points on the Democratic debate tonight:

First, Democrats, and especially Obama supporters, are going to jump all over ABC for the choice of topics: too many gaffe questions, not enough policy questions.

I understand the complaints, but I thought the questions were excellent. The journalist’s job is to make politicians uncomfortable, to explore evasions, contradictions and vulnerabilities. Almost every question tonight did that. The candidates each looked foolish at times, but that’s their own fault.

We may not like it, but issues like Jeremiah Wright, flag lapels and the Tuzla airport will be important in the fall. Remember how George H.W. Bush toured flag factories to expose Michael Dukakis. It’s legitimate to see how the candidates will respond to these sorts of symbolic issues.

The middle section of the debate, meanwhile, was stupendous. Those could be the most important 30 minutes of this entire campaign, for reasons I will explain in point two:

Second, Obama and Clinton were completely irresponsible. As the first President Bush discovered, it is simply irresponsible statesmanship (and stupid politics) to make blanket pledges to win votes. Both candidates did that on vital issues.

Both promised to not raise taxes on those making less than $200,000 or $250,000 a year. They both just emasculated their domestic programs. Returning the rich to their Clinton-era tax rates will yield, at best, $40 billion a year in revenue. It’s impossible to fund a health care plan, let alone anything else, with that kind of money. The consequences are clear: if elected they will have to break their pledge, and thus destroy their credibility, or run a minimalist administration.

The second pledge was just as bad. Nobody knows what the situation in Iraq will be like. To pledge an automatic withdrawal is just insane. A mature politician would’ve been honest and said: I fully intend to withdraw, but I want to know what the reality is at that moment.

The third point concerns electability. The Democrats have a problem. All the signs point to a big Democratic year, and I still wouldn’t bet against Obama winning the White House, but his background as a Hyde Park liberal is going to continue to dog him. No issue is crushing on its own, but it all adds up. For the life of me I can’t figure out why he didn’t have better answers on Wright and on the “bitter” comments. The superdelegates cannot have been comforted by his performance.

Final grades:

ABC: A
Clinton: B
Obama: D+

Oklahoma Gazette - April 16
Sally and the prophet - by Robin Meyers

http://zuma.vip.warped.com/meyers-kernwright.jpg

god, i hate our media!

... and didn't get a chance to see the debate, or I prolly would have watched at least some of it. But I have been reading about it.

Apparently, and anecdotally, it breaks down to this; Obama supporters saying it was an awful debate, and Hillary supporters saying it was ok. Generally. Exceptions exist.

There are the professional pooh-pooh'ers who pan the entire mess saying it was the worst debate ever, or, like Shales, feel that: "...the most fascinating aspect was waiting to see how low he and Stephanopoulos would go, and then being appalled at the answer."

I find this rather predictable and humorous. The toobz have bulged for weeks with slams hurled in each direction. In this time between primaries Dems have proved themselves every bit as shallow, stubborn, and cruel as any Republican that walked the earth. (I know, they choose to be that way. right.)

And now, the whining. Perfect. "The debate didn't get to any policy questions for 45 minutes! The Slackards! The Hacks!" Gibson and Steph rolled all the previous weeks mud slinging into the opening Q&A and people are shocked, shocked I tell you.

I read somewhere that we, the electorate deserved better. I disagree. It sounds like we got exactly what we deserve. Given all that has occurred in the last seven years and the complete lack of any meaningful response from the citizens of this great nation, it would appear we deserved Bush too. In this way our next President will also fit the bill; exactly the wrong person for the job will attain it.

Our great leaders have come to us by accident or happenstance. These 'debates' underscore the point. Whine all you want. We'll make more.

"...cunning, baffling, powerful."

i'm not bitter. i am filled with a white hot rage at what is happening to my country. if i had a clocktower and a rifle, i'd be a real menace.

as it is, i'm only an internal menace to myself as my blood pressure shoots with each new exposed atrocity of the bush administration.

Last evening, on the Disney-owned ABC television network, in what appeared to be a stage set hybrid of an old fashioned surgical operating theatre with a set borrowed from the NBC network's "American Gladiators" show, U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama was subjected to a mock lynching carried out by Hillary Dillary, counsel representing Clinton, Inc., and two of Disney's ABC dwarves, Doc and Grumpy.

Rather than offer an adult discussion similar to the previous twenty Democratic Party debates hosted by various media corporations, universities and civic organizations - in which candidates were asked questions about issues such as the economy, the war, housing, education and even race relations, all typically American topics - Disney chose a tag team wrestling match format. Except that the teams were somewhat lopsidedly arranged, a set up that seems to delight viewers hungry for entertainment.

In the opening credits we were treated to a look at smiling First Daughter, Chelsea, bathed in golden light from above, as the ringmaster shouted out Mrs Dillary's name. When Mr Obama's name was intoned, the camera panned a vast dark space, unlit and populated by blank human faces. No sign of supporting family or even friends.

Hillary Dillary, U.S. senator from New York and also candidate for the job once held by her husband, Dick, went on the attack from her opening lines. Issues of trustworthiness, street smarts and choice of pastor were thrown across the mat at Mr Obama, who responded with irrelevancies such as, Why don't we discuss the issues?

Next, Grumpy and Doc joined in, raising questions about Mr Obama's patriotism - why, for example, doesn't he wear a U.S. flag pin on his lapel? - and Obama's readiness for the presidency.

Even the Republican Party candidate, John McBush, joined the fray via video, adding his voice to the chorus mocking Mr Obama's audacity and hopefulness.

In the end, if we are to believe the media talking heads and pundits (a term that derives from the Sanskrit "pandita" referring to erudite and religious persons), Mr Obama is now in tatters, shown for who he really is: abject, untested and unready.

Yet, cruising the online blogs this morning, this reader finds overwhelming rage and frustration directed at Disney-ABC-Clinton, Inc. for last evening's travesty on intelligence. The use of "out of touch" and "elitist" against Obama are being turned on the media and the Clinton campaign by folks out here in Internetland.

Will the Audacity of Hope prevail over the Goliath of corporate media and politics of yore? And will all those folks who had stepped out of their political closets this year to register, campaign and vote now retreat back into the shadows? What exactly, were 1.3 million Americans thinking when they handed their votes to change?

We'll find out what it all amounts to come the Pennsylvania primary election next week.

Clinton has succeeded in wearing down Obama, to the extent that he has stopped being able last night(in the most watched debate, as ww has pointed out) to answer questions he could have answered clearly a month ago.

However she has not succeeded in making herself more popular by showing her amazing tenacity, so we will have another mediocre white Republican guy who has "fewer negatives" than both Democratic contenders.

It was great when the whole load of Democrats were in the primary, it showed a group of people, all of whom were competent to be
President, but it's been crappy ever since it changed to just Clinton vs Obama.

I want to scream, really- Hillary's actions were extremely predictable, she is who she is- and she had to survive all the dirt that has been dug up about her over a period of many years(but not by any candidate, by the Republicans and the media). It would appear that you have to decide to be President by the age of 10 and somehow live your life withouit blemish to now qualify (unless you are a Republican). Which Democrats shoulda /coulda intervened earlier to stop the fast-forward replay of "Survivor" I do not know.

I am coming from the point of view of having voted for Hillary in the New York primary, but then getting fed up with her relentless attacks on Obama and especially her comparing him to McCain. Obama's newbie unreadiness for the assault is making him seemd dumb (poliically) and dumber- He's punch drunk.

The rest of the Democrats should at least be concentrating on the shameful but now necessary path, I suppose, of slamming one of McCain's sleazy or hidden right wing views to bring up his negatives.

Where are the chorus of Democratic legislators who need to be keeping
Bush's track record of destroying America's soul by supporting torture in the public view?

Why don't the candidates object to some of the questions and both just agree to say- we're terminating this debate if you don't ask questions on significant topics, such as the Presidential power-grab of the administration the past eight years.

What should I have done. What should I be doing besides signing the pathetic MoveOn petition? It's a terrible way to "elect" a President.

End of rant. Now I'll feel better for about ten minutes.

I haven't had the sense of being able to breathe freely in this country since Bill Clinton left office (and that certainly turned into a media circus- did they steal the White House furniture, remember?)). I don't see the air getting any better:-)

_{1."George Washington did not cross the Delaware for Capitalism," -Shmuley Boteach.
2.The Dems haven't punished the GOP enough, so you're going to reward the Republicans?}

Sick and tired of being told that I'm sick and tired of being bitter. Well I'm not.

And I'm sick and tired of being told that I am and quite bitter about it as well!

(blatantly, but hopefully fittingly, stolen from Monty Python)