The Zong

I know that CNN called the proceedings on Sunday evening a “debate,” but even though a bunch of Democratic candidates were there, it came off as nothing more than a disorganized simultaneous interview of the candidates by Wolf Blitzer. Senator Chris Dodd’s campaign took a good, hard look at the tape and came up with kind of a goofy-looking but simple chart showing the discrepancies in speaking time between the candidates. It looks somewhat similar to CNN’s current polling numbers, although the polls aren’t really as close among the also-rans.

Putting aside for a second the surprising fact that someone actually got less speaking time than Kucinich, it’s fair to say that having CNN run the debates is a surefire way to suppress the opinions of “fringe” candidates, who despite their obvious drawbacks in a general election, are nonetheless candidates in a democratic election and bring some very real ideas to the table that should contribute to the debate in general as we get closer to the primaries. I thought Senator Dodd, who had just over half the amount of speaking time that Barack Obama had, sounded very eloquent and direct in his answers, as in his succinct take on why he would move to bring the troops home from Iraq if elected.

“It is incumbent upon us, given the fact that we are less safe, less secure, more vulnerable, weaker today, not stronger as a result of this policy, that we ought to try and bring it to a close.”

It’s amazing how simple his position sounds, isn’t it? Senator Dodd’s surprising performance may not result in any significant change in votes for him, but the front runners could learn something from his unequivocal method of addressing his issues. While I have very little reason to be optimistic about the American electorate, I really want to believe they don’t want to hear the mealy-mouthed non-answers being given by Hillary Clinton when asked direct questions anymore. Her transparent (and tired) efforts at appealing to the middle by coming out in favor of everything, coupled with her smarmy, forced cackling while being criticized by other candidates pretty much proves to me that she cannot win the general election.

As much as I like the policies and charisma of Barack Obama, his answers seemed fairly ho-hum and not so sure footed compared to Senator Dodd and John Edwards, and while I think it’s too early for this “debate” to matter much, it raises some serious doubts in my mind that Obama is necessarily the savior of the Democratic party. That distinction probably belongs to someone else, but until he enters the race, I guess we’re stuck with whoever Wolf Blitzer likes to hear talk the most.

- M.G.