Posted on 07/24/2007 3:44:40 PM PDT by SJackson
Monday night's CNN/YouTube "debate" among the candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination was billed as a dramatic departure from politics as usual. Unfortunately, aside from fact that one aspiring questioner dressed like a Viking, the debate was only a little better than the one where CNN's Wolf Blitzer was hogging the microphone.
To be sure, the YouTubers were more interesting, informed and mercifully concise than Blitzer, who managed to make himself the centerpiece of the last CNN debate.
Indeed, the YouTubers were often poignant and powerful, as when Mary and Jen from Brooklyn asked the candidates: "If you were elected president of the United States, would you allow us to be married to each other?"
While most of the other contenders struggled to say "no" politely, Rep. Dennis Kucinich knocked that one out of the park by responding: "Mary and Jen, the answer to your question is yes."
But such sublime moments were rare.
There was one meaningful dust-up, however, at least in terms of identifying the candidate who is most prepared to act on the global stage. It came when New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former congressman, Cabinet secretary and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, clashed with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden on how to respond to the genocide that has taken place in and around the Sudanese region of Darfur.
"I'm Gabriel. And I'm Connie, from a refugee camp near Darfur," began a YouTube video that inserted concern about the child refugees of Africa into the debate. "Before you answer this question, imagine yourself the parent of one of these children. What action do you commit to that will get these children back home to a safe Darfur and not letting it be yet another empty promise?"
CNN's Anderson Cooper directed the question to Richardson, asking, "Governor Richardson, what are you going to do? Would you commit American troops?"
"I was at that refugee camp," responded Richardson, "and there was a refugee, a woman who came up to me. She'd been raped, her husband had been killed, and she said, When is America going to start helping?'
"This is what I would do: It's diplomacy. It's getting U.N. peacekeeping troops and not African Union troops. It's getting China to pressure Sudan. It's getting the European Union to be part of economic sanctions in Sudan. It's called leadership.
"A no-fly zone, I believe, would be an option. But we have to be concerned about humanitarian workers being hurt by planes, being shot.
"The answer here is caring about Africa. The answer here is not just thinking of our strategic interests as a country, as oil and Europe and the Middle East. It should be Africa, Asia and Latin America, doing something about poverty, about AIDS, about refugees, about those that have been left behind. That's how we restore American leadership in this country."
Richardson's response drew sustained applause.
Cooper pressed for clarity: "You say U.N. troops. Does that mean American troops?"
"United Nations peacekeeping troops, and that would primarily be Muslim troops. We need a permanent U.N. peacekeeping force, stationed somewhere," said the most experienced diplomat in the race. "If we get U.N. peacekeeping troops authorized for Darfur, there are some already there, it'll take six months for them to get there. Genocide is continuing there; 200,000 have died; close to 2 million refugees in that region. America needs to respond with diplomacy, with diplomatic leadership."
Notice that Richardson steadfastly avoided committing to sending U.S. troops to the region -- the potentially disastrous proposal by Biden. Why send troops? "Because we can," Biden claimed Monday night.
The difference between Richardson and Biden was striking, and instructive -- as was the fact that Hillary Clinton, in her brief response, sided with Richardson.
Even if the candidates did not, for the most part, do a good job of delineating the distinctions between them, those distinctions are real. And they need to be highlighted in a more systematic and effective manner than CNN has done with either Wolf Blitzer or the bells and whistles of the YouTube debate.
United Nations peacekeeping troops, and that would primarily be Muslim troops. We need a permanent U.N. peacekeeping force, stationed somewhere
Somewhere, that works. Muslim troops, as loopy as the idea that the Arab League will step in in Iraq as we leave.
How about taking the $60 million in arms we're giving the palestinians, again, give them to the victims, Christians, animists, and Muslims of the wrong skin color. Let the Marines based in the Horn train them, volunteers only, there'll be plenty.
And in my opinion, this is the most qualified candidate the Dems have out there.
I sure hope the GOP candidates don’t fall for this YouTube nonsense.
No opinion on that. I didn't watch the dems. But you can't rule the format out. Didn't sound much different that the mainstream debates from what I've read, which is soundbites and nothing more.
"This is what I would do: It's diplomacy. It's getting U.N. peacekeeping troops and not African Union troops. It's getting China to pressure Sudan. It's getting the European Union to be part of economic sanctions in Sudan. It's called leadership.No, it's called:
a) wishful thinking (the UN can do anything)
b) blissful dreaming (the Chinese care about anything but making $)
c) woolen-headed stupidity (thinking the EU can/will do anything)
Yeah, that's leadership, alright.
soundbites and nothing moreYou are right. About all the "debates".
I am waiting for one of the youtube competitors ask for equal time.
When asked if the candidate’s healthcare plans would cover illegal aliens, Richardson said yes, that all Americans had a right to be covered...........
The dems are in a world of hurt, then.
NM FReeper ping
If you want on or off the NM Ping list, please FReepmail me.
But such sublime moments were rare.
Another gay newspaper?
Progressive
According to CNN, the GOP candidates will be doing a YouTube debate on September 17th...
They don't call them the "Stupid Party" for nothing.
Richardson, the same p.o.s. that allowed himself to be taken for a ltttle propaganda tour of the U.S.S> Pueblo by the North Koreans.
This baboso is a fool.
I wrote him off once and for all, however, when he said just scrap NCLB. His reasons were sickening.
they should either have the candidates debate eachother (and give them each equal time)., and NO we should -never- have a liberal democrat moderate at a Republican Debate (Chrisssy Mathews)- should only be Conservative comentators such as Hannity and Limbaugh..we know they’d be fair and they represent the average Republican voter (not the elitists in New York, CA and Washington!).
All of em are pretty much worthless except Hunter and Tancredo!
Gee, And here I thought that in the debate Richardson managed to make himself so obviously a clueless fool that even a left wing moonbat with single digit IQ would see that he was unqualified to be Mayor of Bingham, NM, much less President of the United States.
Well, maybe he preformed better in the first half... I only caught the last half of the debate.
Nonetheless; It is so depressing to me that people who otherwise seem pretty astute think that Richardson is anything more than a ‘waste of skin’.
As a state representative from New Mexico he never got any legislation passed that was actually a benefit for New Mexicans.
As ambassador for the UN he helped create the current North Korea nuclear issue through his poor foreign policy decisions. Not to mention turning that post into a dating service.
As head of DOE he presided over the worse security lapses at LANL since the Rosenbergs.
And finally as New Mexico governor he has managed to piss away all the extra revenue the state has gotten from its gas resources with gems like the Rail Runner train which in a metro area of nearly 500,000 people only averages a little over 2,000 riders a day (And even that number is juiced since if you take it on a round trip they count you twice).
The man is an embarrassment to New Mexico.
Mayor of Bingham, NM? Now that’s very funny. That whole town is a cell phone tower and a mobile home.
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