The Debtaes . . . Yawn

Apologies to our readers for our long pause. We have all be preoccupied with life . . .home buying, moving, new jobs . So while this is late considering the second Republican Debate was last week, better later than never.

I have been watching the debates on line. First of all, Fox hosted the Republicans and like all Fox productions, it resembled a game show complete with buzzers and light cues.

In general, there are four types of candidates: The front-runners, the hopefuls, the amusers, and the certifiables.

The front-runners are playing it safe. Clinton and McCain are trying to look as "presidential" or seasoned as possible. And Clinton is now sending the message out about how detail-oriented and studious she is. This has been the message in a recent Economist article as well as a recent Newsweek article.

All Giuliani has is 9/11. I think the luster will wear off of him fairly soon. People don't want to hear about 9/11 all the time and he won't appeal to a national audience if all he wants to do is talk about NYC. Romney and Obama are trying to make a good impression, but both come off looking light. Romney, in an interview recently said that his granddad had multiple wives because he was told to do so by the elders- a pretty bad way to spin the whole thing in my opinion. But then again, I am not sure how you spin that well. Obama is all charm, but little content. He's VP material at best.

The hopefuls are trying to stand out in the hopes of edging in on the front runner. John Edwards held his own and may still stand an outside chance. I just don't see Todd and Richardson getting any traction. These are potential cabinet members but not presidential material. The same can be said for Tommy Thompson, Tom Tancredo, Brownback, and Huckabee and Hunter, I just don't see it happening for them. I think the Republicans are still looking to find their guy. And the candidates in this category are really positioning themselves for posts in the next Administration.

Among the amusers are Denis Kucinich, Joe Biden, and Ron Paul. I found Paul to be interesting. He is a libertarian who has nothing to loose and is challenging the Republican candidates out right. A lot has been made of his statement that blowback caused 9/11. I think that was a courageous statement for him to make. And the only candidate to really make a big deal of it was Giuliani who is sort of obliged to do so since 9/11 is his thing. At MSNBC’s site, 49% of those participating in the survey gave Paul positive marks. But they are self-selected, probably watching on the internet like me, and thus don’t resemble the average Republican voter. So I doubt you can site that as meaningful.

I don’t think Joe Biden is serious. I think he is having fun more than anything else. As for Kucinich, how can you take a guy who waves a pocket copy of the constitution around and brags that he is middle class because he still lives in the house he purchased in 1971 as serious? Give him a cabinet post: health and Human services, or Housing and Urban development perhaps.

The biggest nut case is Gravel for the Democrats. He is a piece of work . . . makes Alaskans look bad and appears to be a bitter kodger more than anything else. In fairness, the Republicans don’t have anyone certifiable, at least none we know about.

What did the rest of the Citizens think?