First impressions of the Democratic debate

Any of you watch the debate? Post your thoughts in the comments.

This was the first one I've seen, and it was eye opening.

The YouTube format was actually pretty cool. Pretty much anything other than YouTube that uses the word "YouTube," including the friggin iPhone, seems like a gimmick, but user-video questions had some advantages.

Joe Biden is trying very hard to come off as the hard-eyed realist, but, for me at least, it's not working. I still think he's a little bit of a clown

Hillary kicks ass. She's doing a great job. I don't want to vote for her, but I have to acknowledge that her performance--in the past few weeks up through tonight's debate--has been very good. She sounds like a hawk, and I think she is a hawk, and I'd really prefer that somebody else be president. But right now it seems like she'll be president.

Bill Richardson lacks the polish I would hope he had, but based on limited information, he's still my pick for the one who would make the best president. I like his answers. I like that he seems fundamentally honest in his answers, but maybe that's why he doesn't seem so polished.

Ah, Dennis Kucinich. I love that little guy. He he is loudly and articulately spouting pure sanity from the podium, mixed in with some terrible, terrible gimmickry. I guess he feels like the gimmicks are necessary to break out of his fringe-candidate status. But it seems to me it's exactly those gimmicks that are hurting him. I mean seriously, text "peace" to 73223? What is that supposed to....

... whoops, sorry to trail off. I was busy texting.

John Edwards kicks ass, but he just doesn't have a chance, I think.

Chris Dodd, Mike Gravel... I like both these guys, but,... meh... they aren't adding anything to the debate.

Obama... I don't know what to say. i still think he's all style and no substance. I'm willing to see the substance if it comes, but, where is it?

On the "mistake" and other nonsense

Nothing has changed for Hillary, and John Edwards is seizing on that to try to get a little traction:

When Edwards spoke a few minutes later, he seemed to aim his rhetorical barrels right at Clinton, emphasizing repeatedly how he was, indeed, wrong to have voted for authorization of the war. “I should have never given George Bush authorization,” he said. Arguing that America needs a president who can is “honest, open, and moral” he said that after 6 years of Bush not taking responsibility for the war, it was no longer acceptable to dance around the issue as he implied Hillary was doing.

Meanwhile, Matthew Yglesias--who claims he is saying something nice about Hillary--says that Hillary isn't avoiding admitting a mistake. Instead, she just thinks it wasn't a mistake. Is that really being nice, or is he actually being a dick?

Lastly, one of my favorite politicians weighs in on Iraq:

Dennis Kucinich got his licks in, trashing all the other candidates. “It must be hard for these politicians to say they were misled, tricked and deceived by George w. Bush,” referring to their positions on the war in Iraq. “Here’s one who wasn’t. I organized 125 Democrats in Congress to oppose the war and I saw all the same information these other candidates did.”

Lest the "realists" amongst us get bent out of shape, I don't think Kucinich can win, but I don't think his candidacy hurts anybody either. He's one of my favorites not only because of his honorable positions, but also for stuff like this:

He then ended his talk by saying he was the only candidate who had no strings attached to him. Then he lifted his arms up to his shoulders and slowly twirled around on stage repeating: “No strings. No strings. No strings.”