The New Hampshire Debates

Thanks to some facebook advertising, I caught the facebook/ABC presidential debates.  I had to find a local New Hampshire tv station that streamed them – why ABC.com and facebook.com didn’t link or embed a stream, i have no idea.

The debates were split into two halves, republicans first, democrats second, with a halftime similar to a ‘good game’ handshaking line after a soccer game.  I think I would have enjoyed all candidates participating at the same time.  I certainly would have preferred each party not trashing itself but to keep focused on a message of progress.

Some themes of the night:

*** The Elephants ***
Immigration: Lots of talk about immigration and border control.  No mention of why it’s needed other then for keeping terrorists out.  All the talk was about how to close it (time frame) and what to do with current 20 million ‘illegal’ immigrants.  If this drives up the cost of my bacon wrapped border dawgs, I’m gonna be pissed.

Health care:  A good deal of debate on what to do here, even debate on whether or not the pharmaceuticals are ‘evil’ – all this as a Pfizer banner ad appeared on another ABC page for a call center that would help answer and diagnose your medical questions.

Energy Policy: I was surprised to see this as a hot topic with most candidates arguing for some serious change.  Which by the way is a good time to plug a book I just finished – Plug In Hybrids.

Trashing Romney: Not sure if it was for Romney’s strong win in Wyoming or some other reasons, but all of the republican candidates used many opportunities to talk smack to Romney, especially McCain, who’s expected to be #1 in N.H. – everybody seemed to be befriending him ;)

*** The Donkeys ***
International Policy: Came up time and time again, even with specific questions asked by the moderator.  Why the hell weren’t the republicans speaking more on foreign policy?  Dems started off with thoughts on Pakistan elections, I don’t believe the republicans were asked much on this front.  (Note – i missed the first few mins of the republican debate, so it might have been mentioned here, but it wasn’t for the entire part of the debate i caught.)

Current Administration: Again, another theme I didn’t see in the republican debates.  Lots of trashing Bush directly, not just the current party.

Flip-Flopping:  There was such negative weight put on to changing opinions of candidates over the past decade.  I don’t think changing your mind is necessarily such a bad thing as may come from growing and learning.  Lots of offense from each on lack of consistency – yet defense on ‘their’ consistent record.

Change: Although all seemed to look down upon personal opinion changes.  The floor was split as whether ‘change’ was needed in the next president.  With Obama and Edwards promoting they ability to bring change, and Richardson and Clinton promoting their ‘experience’ (i think Richardson really wanted to say ‘wisdom’) vs. the newbies (Obama and Edwards)

Gore:  Richardson mentioned how it’s a good thing Gore isn’t running…  Which reminded me of the dozen or so people who would insist that An Inconvenient Truth was just a move for Gore’s 2008 run – basically belittling his message or saying it wasn’t for earnest reasons.  Something I never liked hearing because I did believe it was out of true personal motivation and interest.

Middle Class: Very popular phrased mentioned by the democrats all night.  I don’t think I heard it out of the Republicans.  Dems keep trying to reiterate they’re trying to bring change and put power back into the middle class.  At one point, the moderator, ABC anchorman Charles Giblson, looked like an idiot saying tax cuts for families over $200,000/year wouldn’t ring well with some of the professors at St. Anselm College in N.H.   Implying that a husband/wife professor couple earned more then 200k – which only got jeers from the audience and laughs from the candidates as that is way higher then they actually make.

It was a really good debate, and very funny to see the facebook logo plastered everywhere right next to the ABC logo.  Between facebook and youtube, I think this elections run will be heavily influenced by web technologies, more so then ‘04.