White House 2008: Yet Another Article About the Presidential Debate

I've been waiting for the Democratic Party to grow a spine since the year 2000. From then it had appeared that they collectively crawled into a corner when the RNC and the religious right joined forces to beat them and said "Please don't hurt us, we'll do whatever you want". It angered me because they allowed george bush and his band of neo con thugs to shift the playing field so far to the right that anything they tried to do, and that wasn't much, was villified or ridiculed. What made that worse was that instead of fighting back when that happened, they were all too happy to suck up and play by other's rules.

In 2004 things didn't get better. All they did was try and submit to the American People a modified version of what the repubs did and then were shocked when the public didn't buy it. It wasn't surprising to me. Why go for something that is at best a poor copy of what already exists? There were no monumental changes or even considerable subtle ones for that matter. The wait for a spine continued.

November 2006, the mid term elections. HALLELUJAH, the people finally opened their eyes and told the Democrats "We're giving you a chance to do what the repubs couldn't do. We're giving you a chance to get this right". Which brings us to the debate held on April 26, 2007.

They're screwing up once again.

Each of the candidates were given a chance to answer questions in the first fifteen minutes on Iraq and with the exceptions of Bill Richardson and John Edwards, not a single one of them answered a direct question. Rather than doing so they stuck to their overplayed, overrehearsed sound bytes. Barack Obama was asked how he can reconcile his statement of the war in Iraq as being "dumb" with the sacrifices of so many of our men and women and all I heard was the same "I was against this war from the start and am proud of it". While that's all fine, well and good it didn't answer the question.

John Edwards was asked if his well said apology for voting initially for this war was a shot at Hillary Clinton and his answer "It was directed at anyone who initially voted for this war" was spot on. As was Governor Richardson's answer when asked if he supported the war. He gave a clear and resounding "No" and then went into a detailed plan, anathema to many of the other candidates, as to how he would resolve the issue if he were President.

From that point on it was all downhill and the DC Two Step was once again the dance of choice. From Hillary's continued refusal to acknowledge that she erred in voting for the war to Barack's non answer on the partial birth abortion ruling the Supreme Court handed down a week or so ago.

The most disappointing part was when the question came to universal healthcare. Once again, John Edwards answered the question "How do you propose to pay for your plan?". He answered it clearly and concisely. Would that Sens. Obama and Clinton could have done the same thing. Obama quoted statistics and said what needed to be done. The part of HOW he planned to achieve these things was once again avoided. For someone who proclaims to be separate and different from the Washington establishment, he certainly has the art of the non answer mastered. Senator Clinton patted herself on the back for having the most experience with this issue but said virtually nothing else of HOW she plans to pay for her plan. Come to think of it, she didn't even put forth a plan.

This was the first of what I see to be a long string of many debates where the candidates will get to display their dancing abilities. They are missing the point, they are fumbling the chance given them and if they don't watch out there will be another republican in the White House. With the exceptions of John Edwards and Bill Richardson, there seems to be little hope for the Democratic Party.

And I'm still waiting for them to grow a spine.