Sen. John Edwards blasted Clinton
and Obama for not taking the lead
on a recent war spending bill.

Finally, a debate where the democrats took off their water wings and started swinging for the fences.

This time around, the democrats significantly started to show their differences, and they wanted to make sure we noticed! These differences came out in the details of their personalized plans for health care, being open about policies and… the Olympics? When they were asked about health care, they each want some type of “universal care”, but some were less “socialized” than others. With Edwards and his 100% mandatory insurance coverage, and Kucinich with his single-payer system, we really started to see the differences in their visions for the 2008 presidency. Again most of them did stand on the same ground when it came to the general issues, but the nuances are where the similarity ends.

Gravel, the firestarter, did a great job of injecting some painful truth when it comes to the panel of democrats and their spending plans without raising taxes. Kucinich did a good job reminding everyone that we could end this war today if the rest of the dems would just not fund the war, period. I thought Biden looked really strong, in particular about his knowledge of the Bush’s axis of evil — Iran, Korea. I was impressed that he was not afraid to speak the truth about Iran’s serious limitations and weaknesses when it came to their nuclear capabilities. I was surprised at Hillary, and how she seemed less robotic and more willing to take risks. Obama and Edwards looked strong and went at it with each other’s health care plans — Obama’s sounding the most realistic between the two of them. Kucinich did a decent job, but his major weakness is going to be his vision of peace for the world. I think it is massively courageous to have a vision of never doing harm. I don’t know if the world is that black and white either, but I do like him.

Hmm, the rest did good; Richardson and Dodd did pretty good, but unfortunately I am just not that impressed with what they had to say. In other words, as I am writing this, not much of what they said has stuck in my mind — just not that memorable, I guess. If you are wondering who won this go around, I would have to say Biden because he was able to turn around my opinion of him, especially towards the end of the debate. Obama was another winner in my mind, not completely from what he said, but just because he is still one of the only major hitters that did not vote for the war from the get go.

Well, without further ado here is my post debate wrap-up:

Illinois Senator Barack Obama: He started by restating that efforts need to be refocused on al Qeada/Afghanastan and not on Iraq, focusing on gathering other nations in cooperation and believes we have to continue to wage the war with Afghanistan after we get out of Iraq. When the topic of immigration came up, he said that we are a country of immigrants, and that he supports earned legalization [sounds like amnesty to me]. He then called out Edwards on the fact that his health plan makes it mandatory for all people to have insurance to create his version of universal health care. Obama goes on to explain that insurance is expensive and how there will still be people who can’t afford it, comparing it to car insurance. What about the families that can’t afford insurance. Obama want on to explain how he wants to make it more universal by lowering the costs of health care to make it more accessible. But, says children will have mandatory healthcare insurance with his plan.

Wants to increase the size of the military by increasing the numbers of soldiers, but wants to rid the old relics of the past that suck up a lot of the military budget, therefore not raising the military budget. When Obama was asked about rolling back the tax cuts for the rich ($250,000+ a year), he said that he wants to roll it back to pre-Bush era, not hike it any higher.

[PS: I found out through watching some of the meet and greet coverage that Obama is left handed... hmmm, does that tell us anything about him?]

New York Senator Hillary Clinton: Believes in the ideology of “War on Terror”. Hillary stated that she thinks we are safer now than before (What?! How can she be that delusional? Is she a believer in what Bush’s policy on terror has done for us.. or not done?). She was attacked on the grounds that she has continuously voted to fund the war until quite recently. In retrospect, she wanted to explain that her original vote to authorize the war in the beginning was to allow more inspectors into Iraq and to use coercive policy against Saddam. What she did not “realize” is she was authorizing Bush to use it as a way to wage a war with Iraq. Wolf Blitzer, the moderator this time around, brought up how she has been criticized about not reading any of the intelligence documents leading up to her vote for Iraq. Her answer was she believes she was fully “briefed” on ALL intelligence [so does that mean she has bad judgment on the importance of not only reading it herself, but judging the situation based on other's interpretations? Plus, it was mentioned how there were two sets of intelligence reports on the Iraq situation, and one obviously did not reach Hillary]. In regards to her health care plan, I believe she is afraid of sharing too much information on it since in the past she was burned because of it. Although, she fully believes can create universal health and not raise taxes.

When asked, “How would you solve the present problem with Iran?” She believes that the diplomatic policies that should have been used with Iran are overdue, and during her presidency, diplomacy will be heavily utilized. Then she makes a decent attempt at a joke by saying, “[for the Iran debacle] occasionally [the current administration] sends Dick Cheney, and that’s hardly diplomatic in my view (big applause).”

Delaware Senior Senator Joe Biden: Started off with his belief that funding the war is a must, even though he believes the war needs to be ended. Then he continued with the fact that he will fund the war until there are no more troops left in Iraq. He is willing to risk the next election because he is not willing to endanger the soldiers [My question is how in the world do you stop a war while funding it if not funding it is your only leverage?]. Supports earned immigration legalization and believes shipping out 12 million illegal immigrants all at once on buses is not practical.

Wants to do away with the current ideology of regime change and discussed how Iran is a decade away from building any real nuclear capability [Thank God someone came out and said the truth as I am tired of hearing the lies about Iran and their supposed imminent threat... Cheney!]. Then mentions how weak the Iranian government is, saying that they have to import many things including refined oil for their energy needs and in the near future will be importing all their crude oil as well. All of this means that they are seriously “coerce-able” in regards to economic sanctions. Bottom line, they are not the dangerous enemy that we are lead to believe, but he did finish it with “if they put a nuclear warhead on a launching pad, I will take them out!”

Rep. Dennis Kucinich being interviewed post debate. Photo courtesy of CNN

In regards to the Darfur situation, Bidden got real passionate saying that there is no reason we can not stop this genocide. He says that all we do is continue to talk about what we can do and yet, we never act on it. Then Bidden impressed me by mentioning a pet peeve of mine — “Want to get rid of special interests groups and earmarks in bills, then make elections publicly paid for,” says Bidden. [hurrah to that!]

US Senator John Edwards: Believes the “War on Terror” is bumper-sticker slogan that allows Bush the use of blatant abuses of the Constitution — torture, occupation, war, waving civil rights based on assumptions. Edwards then joined Kucinich in conveying that the congress should be able to use the power that they have by being against funding the war. He then called out Obama and Clinton on being silent about their voting the war funding bill, but says they made a good choice once a decision was made. Then became critical on how Obama and Clinton are not being clear and open about their positions on issues. Unfortunately, Edwards was also guilty, joining Clinton on not reading the intelligence information leading up to the Iraq war vote, but he, in contrast to Clinton, feels he made a mistake by authorizing it. In regards to his universal health care plan, he is willing to raise taxes to fund his health care plan. He wants to pay for the $100 some-odd billion plan by removing tax cuts for anyone making more than $200K per year.

When Blitzer asked Edwards about how he would approach Iran and the alleged potential threat of nuclear weapons creation, Edwards mentions how there is a large group of citizens in Iran who support America and also that their president is very politically unpopular. This causes a rift between the citizens of Iran and the leader that we can exploit. He then explains that there is an extraordinary opportunity with Iran to place economic “carrots” for their country to do the right thing. We do this by supporting the European countries in their assistance in giving Iran the capability that is needed for Iran’s nuclear energy plan (which was approved and sanctioned by the UN around a decade or so ago). He goes on by saying if Iran does not use the nuclear capabilities in the way we and the European Nations agree it should be used for, then serious economic sanctions are placed against Iran not only by us but by all the European countries as well. He is certain that this would freeze Iran’s capabilities to act.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich: His first statement is how the Patriot Act has undermined the very fabric of America and how we need to reconnect to the deeper sense of the American self. He too believes that guilt should lie on all congressman and women in terms of blame since they have been enablers for the war. He also believes that they should just not fund the war PERIOD, so the president has no choice but to bring the troops home now. Believes all talk about universal health care by his fellow democrats is wrong. He says there is only one way to have a real universal health care system, and that is by getting rid of the insurance companies’ power (blaming the other candidates for allowing insurance companies to hold their control) and discontinuing a for-profit health care system. “We need a president who is willing to challenge that… (Big Applause).” His approach is a single-payer system… Medicare for all!

Wants to change the interpretation of the military to peace keepers not war makers. As far as rebuilding the military, he says that he wants to cut military spending by removing all the unnecessary spending that never reaches the troops and apply the savings to make the military more efficient in peace keeping. Kucinich is the only candidate that would not be willing to assassinate Osama bin Laden by way of bombing if it means the killing of innocent people.

When asked what he would do about the stereotypical big spending and big taxes for democrats, Kucinich said that he would remove America’s involvement with NAFTA and the WTO and become more bilateral in our trading , only dealing with entities that have moral and ethical standards in terms of working conditions for those employed. His main goal is to rid ourselves of this horrible $800 billion trade deficit. Lastly, Kucinich and Gravel were the only ones to fully stand against special interest groups and lobbying when the earmarks issue came up.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson: Wants to de-authorize the war, and deploy the current Iraq troops to Kuwait and Afghanistan. He supports granting legal status for all 12 million illegal immigrants. “I will not support legislation that divides families” he goes on to say. He wants to penalize the companies that hire illegal immigrants and increase border security to decrease the amount of people coming into the country. When asked about universal health care, he said he wants to focus on prevention, eliminating junk food in schools and increase mandatory immunizations. A part of his new health care system is giving a hero card to all soldiers and allowing them to see any and all doctors that they want. This was opposed to Obama who stated that he wanted to have all soldiers to go to the VA hospitals unless there is not one available.

When asked about what to do with the Darfur situation, he suggested more UN peace keepers, stricter economic sanctions and holding China’s feet to the fire by saying that we won’t attend their Olympics if they don’t agree [China is the largest purchaser of Sudan's oil]. Besides adding a no-fly zone, he is not for military use in Darfur, “We have enough going on with Iraq”, he says. One sound bite that I distinctly remember is how he mentioned he does not believe that the energy and oil companies are price gouging [What?! Exxon making tens of trillions of dollars of profit while the majority of Americans are struggling to pay for it, is not price gouging?!].

Former Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel: Believes that everyone shares the fault of the Iraq war. Mentions how more Americans have died during the Iraq war than originally died during 9/11 rendering our “War on Terror” a serious loss. In reference to Blitzer’s question of, “should a person that voted to authorize the war be able to become president?” Gravel says, “They don’t have the moral judgment,” And that disqualifies them from becoming president. Gravel was the only one to raise a hand when asked if English should be the official language. Most others said it was not a good idea because of the laws that have to follow [although I was not sold on the rationale]. For the question on what would you do about the rising gas prices, he says America needs to “grow up” and understand that their addictions are creating the problems that we are facing today. He wouldn’t do anything about the gas prices [I think he meant to convey that by lowering the gas prices, it enables the American citizens to continue in their unabated consumption of oil. Which in a way, I kind of agree]

Connecticut Senior Senator Chris Dodd: [Preamble: I have to apologize as I don't have much to write about poor old Chris Dodd. In my opinion, he did not have that many noteworthy sound bites. But, here is what I have for you...] Dodd understands that we are weaker because of current policies and wants to become more active in working together with foreign countries. In response to having English as the official language, he said that we need to encourage more language training, not lessen it — “We need to be more multilingual.” On the question of what would you do about the rising gas prices, Dodd just talked about how important this issue is without giving any answers. He did finally say that the plan that he has created would raise the minimum gas mileage standard to 50 mpg by 2017 and push for an aggressive carbon tax. Finally, he thinks that boycotting the Olympics is going too far to solve the Darfur situation [and we all know how important those darn Olympics are compared to masses of people dying from ethnic cleansing, but the Summer games... yeah].

I hope this post debate write-up helped you with your important decision leading up to the elections in 2008. I will be doing one of these after every debate, so don’t forget to make Blog4Brains one of your first stops the day after each debate. See you next time!