Liveblogging The Democratic Debate At 7 PM EST

I’ll be liveblogging the CNN/YouTube Debate tonight at 7 PM EST.

If you’re watching, too, make sure to tune in, and refresh to catch the commentary while we watch the debate together.

6:56 — Hoo boy, I am not looking forward to this. Now, I am starting to think this is going to be dull. I look forward to 30 minutes of discussion about who wants to let Al-Qaeda win more in Iraq.

6:59 — You know the whole idea behind having a You Tube debate is that the “average person” is supposed to be able to get their questions in, but that’s not really true because the same old media personalities as always decide which questions are asked. In other words, how much does it matter what questions the general public submits if a bunch of liberal journalists decides which ones get asked?

7:00 — Joe Biden is smiling like they gave him some nitrous oxide before he got on stage.

7:03 — The cyborg video making the top spot isn’t a surprise. I complained about the same old liberals deciding which questions get picked, but the general users, as a group, on YouTube are moronic. It would be 75% crap if you let them pick it.

7:05 — The first question, how are you different, was stupid.

7:06 — Oh wow, they’re for “change” and Obama wants to “change how things are done in Washington.” Great. That’s very helpful to know that.

7:07 — Maybe it’s just me, but the style of the questions is irritating. Hey, I’m a regular guy trying to look cool, asking a question to a politician!

7:08 — “Strength through peace,” is about the dumbest slogan I have ever heard. Of course, what do you expect from Kucinich?

7:09 — Obama is soooo bipartisan — in general. I wonder how bipartisan he will be when he gets into specific issues.

7:10 — Liberals have to keep coming up with new words to describe themselves because once everyone figures out that it means progressive, they don’t want any part of it.

7:11 — Gravel is nailing Obama and he’s spot on; the whole I don’t take money from lobbyists is a dodge.

7:12 — The clapping is kind of distracting.

7:13 — The “Which Republican would you select as your veep” question was the first genuinely interesting question of the debate.

7:14 — You know who else is powerful in DC, John Edwards? Trial lawyers and unions. How are you going to change them? Oh, nothing to say about them…

7:16 — Reparations for slavery? Oh, good question…I like it. John Edwards says, “no.” How about a show of hands on that one?

7:19 — Woah, Anderson did ask all the candidates and only Kucinich was pro-reparations — wait, Kucinich wants reparations for white people, too? Hmmm….

7:19 — What a ridiculous question they allowed. They basically invited Chris Dodd to call Republicans over Katrina. Woah, Cooper dared to point out that New Orleans had a Democratic Mayor.

7:22 — Obama not black enough? Hillary not feminine enough? Isn’t this a little weird? I mean those are things that are almost always said by liberals. I have to give Obama some credit though. It’s nice to see a black Democrat who isn’t a race baiter.

7:24 — Hillary certainly isn’t the most experienced candidate. She has spent six and one half years in the Senate and she was the first lady. Maybe she’s experienced at picking out china patterns for the White House, but that doesn’t mean she has experience as President.

7:25 — John Edwards wants a $9.50 minimum wage, huh? Why not just make it $25? Heck, why not $50? If we’re going to be paying people way more than they’re worth, why skimp?

7:27 — A gay marriage question? Excellent. I hope they get all of them on the record on this, too. Kucinich is for it — not a big surprise there. Chris Dodd supported DOMA, but now he wants civil unions. Bill Richardson supports Civil Unions, but not gay marriage because it’s not “doable.” Got ya.

7:30 — I wouldn’t want to go to any church where the pastor supports gay marriage.

7:32 — Gays are allowed to get married. However, marriage is between a man and a woman. A gay man can certainly marry a woman if he’s so inclined and many have, but there is no more of a constitutional right for two people of the same sex to marry than there is for men to use women’s bathrooms or for women to be Chip n’ Dales’ dancers.

7:37 — Sigh — how long does this nightmare last? I didn’t check before it started and I assume it’s more than an hour. Oh, the things I go through for all of you out there. At the very least, they could let Mike Gravel talk more so it wouldn’t be so boring.

7:39 — You know what would be totally awesome? Ann Coulter with a question for John Edwards on video.

7:40 — I do like the Sudan question. They complain incessantly about Iraq. Let’s see how many of them want to go to Sudan. Richardson is already talking about how he’s going to get everyone else to fix the problem — yeah, right. How well does that ever work?

7:41 — Biden is gung-ho to run from Iraq and gung-ho to run into Sudan.

7:42 — Hillary wants to act to get everyone else to fix the problem. When does that ever work? Hilldog wants NATO there and to put in a no-fly zone? No ground troops in Sudan.

7:44 — Now they’re clapping; tomorrow at a dinner party, these people will be referring to them as contract killers.

7:45 — Great question. How do we pull out now? Obama will send the neighboring countries a signal that there is no military solution and use diplomacy after we surrender.

7:46 — Joe Biden, it would take a year to get out. We have split them into three territories? Not a fan of that. Joe still somehow sounds better on this subject than most of the people on the stage.

7:48 — Are the Democrats scared to pull out? People are clapping for that dumb question? No, they don’t have the votes. Actually, the Pentagon didn’t accuse Hillary of being unpatriotic.

7:50 — Kucinich says it is politics. That’s a very political response, because it’s not true and it’s designed to reflect badly on the big candidates.

7:51 — Richardson is playing the same game. Hill, Obama, and Edwards apparently are interested in securing George Bush’s legacy.

7:52 — Mike Gravel is complaining about his questions — I love it. I don’t want to say that our troops died in vain in Vietnam, but when the troops fight and die and the politicians steal their victory from them and render it meaningless, it’s wrong. If the Democrats get their way, the soldiers in Iraq will have sacrificed their lives for a losing cause, too, because the Democrats will work to make their sacrifice meaningless. When you send troops to die and politicians make sure nothing is accomplished by it, it is unfair to the troops.

7:56 — The Democrats are harping on the Iraqi Parliament taking a vacation and they are absolutely right. Bush should have told the Iraqis that was absolutely unacceptable.

7:59 — Is Hillary saying she went to 82 nations? I am not sure I buy that. Maybe she met with people from 82 nations — Hillary looks smooth today. Has she had a little botox work done?

8:01 — Of course they’ll meet with anyone because they’re dopes who think that they can talk everything out with people who want to kill us. You want to kill us, we don’t want you to kill us, so let’s compromise!

8:05 — How quickly can you commit to surrendering in Iraq no matter what the circumstances on the ground are?

8:06 — Bill Richardson is trying to get out to the top candidates left on Iraq.

8:08 — According to Joe Biden, the other Democrats are apparently in favor of soldiers dying from IEDs.

8:09 — Kucinich wants to “text peace” and that’ll fix everything.

8:10 — Mike Gravel’s commercial — decent conceptually at least.

8:15 — Who is your favorite teacher? That is kind of a dumb question. At least Gravel was funny by complaining about not getting to talk again.

8:16 — Biden’s mike was fading in and out there.

8:17 — No Child Left Behind massively increased funding for education, added standards, and has improved test scores. A lot of conservatives don’t like it, but I actually think it has improved education in this country. Bill Richardson will have a 40k minimum salary. Great! What does that cost? Oh yeah, that’s what we need — more art training.

8:19 — These clowns hate No Child Left Behind because the Teachers’ Union hates it. That’s all there is to it.

8:20 — They ought to just tell the truth that everyone knows — private schools are generally better than public schools. But, they can’t say that because it helps make the case for vouchers.

8:22 — Did Mike Gravel just make a little nod towards vouchers with competition? Interesting. If he wasn’t a little nutty, he might be the candidate I’d like the best on the Democratic side.

8:23 — Have you ever talked to your kids about sex? Ok, stupid question again…

8:26 — Yes, what do they want to do about global warming and how many hundreds of billions will it cost?

8:27 — Oh boy. Dennis Kucinich wants to switch over to wind and solar. We’ll just need like 1/2 of our landmass to make that feasible.

8:28 — Mike Gravel wants a flat tax? A little kooky or not, I think he’s the Democrat I’d most like to see win. Won’t happen, but still.

8:29 — Ok, a massive corporate carbon tax, so how much more will that cost us?

8:29 — Ha! So most of them took private jets to get here. Too funny!

8:30 — Of course, Edwards doesn’t like nuclear power. It works exceptionally well. Obama at least is willing to look at it.

8:31 — Oh gosh, Obama thinks Cheney should spend all his time talking to enviro wackos and not the people who actually produce the power.

8:33 — Standardizing our voting policies. Interesting question. Bill Richardson wants a paper trail. I would note that there was a verified paper trail in Florida and the Democrats STILL CLAIMED that it was rigged. Also, having more people voting is worthless if we can’t be sure they’re legit votes. What Democrats mean by “suppressing the vote” is trying to make sure the vote isn’t rigged.

8:40 — Would you work for the minimum wage? If you’re worth anything as a worker, you won’t be working for the minimum wage for very long. Personally, I wouldn’t work for the minimum wage because I’m worth more than that.

8:42 — Why they don’t pay Social Security? Because they don’t get it — 2040? The trust fund will go into the red before 2020. 2040 is when the IOUs run out. George Bush has a bipartisan solution. Senator Obama, you and the rest of the Democrats shut him down.

8:43 — Bill Richardson says diabetes is 33% of Medicare costs? That doesn’t sound right. Also, stop raiding the Social Security trust fund? Please. Not going to happen because Congress couldn’t keep spending the money and they won’t do it.

8:45 — Joe Biden — taking tax cuts away from people who “don’t need them” is a tax increase. By the way — who are these guys to look at someone who earns money and say, “you don’t need your money?”

8:47 — Note that there hasn’t been a single question on immigration. It’s a huge issue, the Senate just got done with a big bill, Democrats are very split on the topic, and no questions on it?

8:50 — This is like the flip side of the Iraq debate. On Iraq, they all want to surrender to Al-Qaeda. On healthcare, they all want to destroy our health care with socialized medicine.

8:51 — Heheh — Does your healthcare plan cover illegal aliens? So, Chris Dodd would cover illegal aliens. Bill Richardson would give illegal aliens free socialized medicine. Every American deserves care? Illegals aren’t Americans. That’s the point.

8:56 — Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton — Yep, it’s like a monarchy and Hillary would be the least qualified of the bunch. Hillary is running on her own merits? Actually, she’s riding Bill’s coat tails. Gravel is up — Clinton sold out the party to Wall Street.

8:57 — Obama says he has a track record to unify the country? 1) He doesn’t have much of a track record. 2) He’s an ultra-liberal. He’s not going to unify anyone.

8:59 — What atheist could complain about the Democrats? They give a little lip service to Christians because they need their votes, but they’re totally hostile to Christians and Christian values. I guess the guy is mad that they’re even paying lip service to Christianity.

9:01 — Wow, Richardson is taking a bold stance. Insane people can’t buy guns. Joe Biden just lost the gun vote. People who like guns are insane. He wrote the assault weapons ban.

9:02 — Isn’t this thing ever going to end? Please tell me it isn’t going to 9:30.

9:03 — One thing you like and dislike about each candidate? They probably picked this one just to get people to say negative things about each other. It is kind of an annoying question.

9:06 — The wife comment — ouch — she is hot. Well, Anderson Cooper made a funny. There is no one to Dennis’s left.

9:08 — Hooray! It’s over, it’s over! Whoooooo!

Analysis: It’s always difficult to analyze Democratic debates because I have trouble thinking like a cross between Karl Marx and a dirty hippy, and so it’s tough to get into the mindset of their base.

However, my gut instinct is that Hillary and Obama did the best. If I had to pick between them, I would take Obama. Edwards just wasn’t that impressive.

Of the 2nd tier guys, I am amazed to say it, but I actually like Gravel. Biden did well, but his gun answer probably turned a lot of people off, even amongst the Democrats.

As to the debate questions, they were a bit uneven. Some of them were very good, others were really lame. I am still a little surprised — or maybe not — that they got almost a complete pass on Iranian nuclear weapons and Immigration. Overall, I think CNN was soft on them.

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