Highs and Lows of the Democratic Presidential Debate in Chicago

The seven Democratic candidates for president met in a debate at Chicago's Soldiers Field Tuesday night. Sponsored by MSNBC and the AFL-CIO, the participants faced a friendly crowd and rounds of relatively soft questions. Here are some highlights of the night.

Most Popular Issues - Iraq, labor rights, and health care. These three took up the majority of the debate. Iraq seemed to dominate in terms of amount of discussion, but health care seemed to draw more enthusiastic audience response. It may also be a more decisive campaign issue. The candidates found themselves agreeing on Iraq and labor issues. They were generally in agreement on health care goals, but varied in terms of how they hoped to improve the health care system.

The Almost Overlooked Issue - Immigration. Barack Obama had the best response on immigration ("We must be a nation of immigration and a nation of law"), but largely won this issue by default. Obama got the only question on the topic and used it well, but none of the other candidates bothered to address it.

Home Court Advantage - Barack Obama. And he used it well. The Illinois senator seemed at ease in front of his Chicago voters, and they responded well to him. He used that advantage to push his anti-lobbying stance and to defend himself against criticism over his remarks earlier in the week on invading Pakistan.

Best Tag Team Wrestlers - Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd. The two teamed up to criticize Obama over his statements on invading Pakistan. Obama, though, fended both attacks well, disregarding the key points of their critique and focusing on elaboration of his remarks.

Best Line - Dennis Kucinich. On the final round of questioning, Kucinich referred to his obvious underdog status in the election and described himself as "the Seabiscuit of the campaign." Kucinich also gets second place when he talked about international trade and said, "There was a myth when I was growing up in Cleveland that if you dig a hole deep enough, you'll get to China. We're there." Third place went to Hillary Clinton, for deflecting attacks directed toward her by saying she should be elected if the voters were "looking for someone to take on the Republicans" rather than other Democrats.

Best Answer to a Question - Joe Biden. When asked whether he would eliminate no-bid magazine, Biden simply said, "Yes" and then stopped. It simultaneously countered his image of being verbose while providing a stark contrast to the equivocation apparent in many of his opponents' answers. Biden also had the best response on the perpetual campaign issue, a question posed to all of the participants; he started a trend in responses after he said he'd do such a good job it wouldn't matter.

Best Performance in Response to a Question - John Edwards on health care. Edwards won this one mainly because he got the most powerful question of the night. It came from a disabled retiree whose pension fund had been decimated by the bankruptcy of his former employee. Edwards response - that the pensions of CEOs should be tied to those of the workers - got the single most positive response. His answer was so strong that it looked liked Edwards might be declared the winner of the debate, but that was muted when he addressed the final perpetual campaign question. Instead of answering the question, he used his 30 seconds to make another mini-campaign speech.

Toughest Job - Hillary Clinton. Most of the post-debate commentators thought she came out ahead. In looking at how she addressed the issues, she probably did. Still, she came across as a bit harsh and strident. She's walking a fine line as a woman candidate, trying to be both likable and tough. That's a fine line to walk, and she crossed it at times.

Blandest Candidate - Bill Richardson. The New Mexico politician came across as likable and thoughtful, but lacking the energy displayed by most of the other participants. He got a nice question about his VP choice, though, saying he wanted someone who could serve as president and adding that any of the other candidates would make a good Vice President. There was an implication, though, that he would make a good VP too.

Best Imitation of Ross Perot - Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich reminds me of Ross Perot with dark hair. Some of his nonverbal behaviors, particularly his facial expressions and hand gestures, are reminiscent of Perot. Kucinich is also, like Perot, a small man. That fact was painfully apparent on stage with the other participants.

Most popular phrase - "When I am president..." Every candidate spoke the language of predictive optimism, speaking not in terms of "if" they were elected but treating their election instead as a "done deal."

Best bipartisan appeal - Christopher Dodd. Dodd was the only candidate who spoke of the need for ending bipartisan ship. His wording was consistent with the mood of the nation as a whole, based on the latest polls, but the partisan audience treated his approach nonchalantly.

Favorite punching bag - George W. Bush. The Dems took turns taking jabs at the President, He was labeled "a disaster" and roundly panned by all participants, Richardson added Vice President Dick Cheney to the hit list, and Clinton brought in the name of Karl Rove. If it this were a football game, somebody would have been flagged for "piling on."

Most evasive answer - Barack Obama. When asked, if president, would he invite Barry Bonds to the White House after he broke Hank Aaron's home run record, Obama talked about meeting Aaron and how political cynicism was spreading to cynicism about sports. But never answered the question. When moderator Keith Olbermann pointed out the omission, Obama again ducked the issue, saying it was a hypothetical questions since Bonds had only tied the record. He was right by only a few hours; Bonds broke the record later that night.

Worst Waste of TV Air Time - The post-debate "Battle of the Surrogates." After the debate ended, MSNBC brought in representatives of the top three candidates - Clinton, Obama, and Edwards - and repeated some of the debate questions to them. The result was a rehashing of the issues, but not as well expressed as those provided by the candidates themselves.