Final Four
Posted at 12:06 pm on Sunday, January 6, 2008, in Uncategorized, and tagged 2008.
What a difference four less candidates make in the debate (Biden and Dodd dropped out, Gravel and Kucinich with too scant support to participate); the contrast between the democrats’ final four in a debate and the continuing GOP circus earlier was stark.
I will not break down the debate because I do feel the debates in primaries are mostly akin to beauty contests, but that is also probably why Barack Obama is winning right now.
Obama slows down the debate whenever he gets the opportunity. He speaks slowly, and makes sure he says nothing he doesn’t want to. He speaks about “change” but doesn’t give any real details about what he would do as president. Obama is big on rhetoric and metaphors, but he can afford to, since he is leading. He finds no reason to be confrontational, and that suits him well.
Hillary Clinton is heavy on details. She has been thought to be too wonkish to run, and she may be showing that. She is upset that a woman president doesn’t count as change, and she should be. She is showing that fighting spirit, but that may not work well in a beauty contest.
John Edwards knows he has stiff competition, as an agent of “change,” from Obama, however he apparently feels helping to take down Clinton is the way for him to succeed. Maybe he thinks that, one-on-one, he can eventually take on Obama’s optimism, and that Clinton takes too much attention from him on the stage. He also has a trump card, that he can be sold as electable in the south.
Bill Richardson is no longer the dark horse, but the proverbial fourth wheel of a tricycle. He may be the most humorous, and may have the widest range of experience, but in this election cycle, experience is “a leper,” as he prophetically said. There is no doubt he is looking for a key position in the next White House, and he doesn’t look to be throwing mud, at least anytime soon.
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January 7th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
good reasoning rey…..i agree!
wait that rymes. I think Richardson should drop out and back Obama. He would make an excellent cabinet member, along with biden. I wonder who Obama’s VP would be if he was chosen. any thoughts??? that would be an interesting post…..Presidential candidates and their prospective vp’s……maybe done in a matrix fashion.
j