Who won tonights debate?

[Renew Deal]

[SadEagle]

1. Voted for draw.

Because they frankly didn't get much chance to distinguish themselves.

[ibegurpard]

2. Whoever is able to get the most supporters to spam this poll.

And I didn't vote by the way, since I didn't watch it.

[unfrigginreal]

3. I can't believe that there are any votes for Clark

Kerry kicked ass tonight

[Auntie Bush]

21. WHY?

He was forceful! A true leader and innovator!

No one will do the leg work and tell him what to believe or pull the wool over his tlke this administration. They won't do it to Dean or any of the others. Go Dems go

[PSU84]

23. Kerry Who?

[Jonathan Fox]

25. Dude, Clark won the second half (nt)

[bpilgrim]

35. he was very 'polished' on NATIONAL SECURITY

lucky him he got servered up all them soft balls, eh ;->

peace

[newyawker99]

53. Hi Jonathan Fox!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[ThirdWheelLegend]

30. You could have a DU poll on what brand of cookies taste best .

If you put Clark as a choice on the poll he would get at least 50 votes.

:)

TWL

[Bucky]

52. Have you ever tried Clark cookies? They're the best!

I drink Clark's root beer. 'Tis yummy.

[Padraig18]

4. That's a tough one.

Clark did well, Kerry did well, Dean did well, Gephart did well, Kucinich did well....

I voted 'draw'.

[Kathleen04]

5. I thought Kerry was strong tonight n/t

[Cush]

6. Draw

horribly moderated

[robsul82]

7. They all did well, but I voted...

DK. The rip on the media was priceless.

Later.

RJS

[many a good man]

8. Lieberman wins VP nod

...from Bush!
:+

[Yupster]

54. You know?

I read that Torches, and wonder if it could actually possibly happen? Lincoln picked a Democrat to run for reelection with uring another war. I have trouble believing Cheney will be there again even though Bush says he will. I've always thought it would be Powell, but what if it's a Democrat?

[ima_sinnic]

55. there is some chat about recruiting him over at FR

the freepers like LIEberman and I did see some posts over there yesterday about "let's get him to run repuke"--ECCCHHH! :puke:

[Sean Reynolds]

9. Draw - except cut out Lieberman.

All did wonderful tonight, no clear cut winner or loser (well besides Holy Joe).

[maddezmom]

10. There were some stars...

Kerry, DK and Al....and Wes did well too!

[mw]

11. Will CSPAN replay it?

One thing I hate about CSPAN is you neve can tell when anything comes on.

[Renew Deal]

12. I think a lot of people are going to be happy with Lieberman.

The centrist hawk crowd.

[tameszu]

27. Dude, the guy said "Axis of Evil"

A.k.a. "the worst foreign policy sentence in the last 50 years."

The only thing that could have made his Republican-ness more obvious is if he had attended in a big elephant suit.

[Kat45]

40. I couldn't believe he said that!

:wtf:

[Ksec]

13. ssssss

Dean made me fall asleep. So where are these firey speeches Ive been hearin about? The guy is monotone straight up. That is supposed to fire me up? Clark was his usual very educated and morality defined, Kucinich was awesome. Kerry was good , better than usual.

[cprise]

17. He chattered nervously

A no-no

[ima_sinnic]

18. ha ha, the "angry "hothead" put you to sleep ??

I thought they were all fabulous--except Lieberman. That guy is scary. I disagree with the poster above--I thought they came across very distinctly when describing their ideas for fixing Iraq. And Dean and Clark seemed to be on the same page: Dean describing a more general scenario and Clark filling in a lot of details and rationale. I've been a Dean supporter, and still agree that I want to emphasize the domestic situation; however, because of the times we live in, a military expert, and a humanitarian one at that, IS needed. If Dean would make Clark his VP or Secretary of Defense or State it would be so fabulous! I thought Kerry was very gracefully deflected any attempts to get him to bad-mouth Dean--it almost seemed like they had made a private pact, or somebody advised them strongly, to bring the debate out of the mud pit and put their money where their mouths are re Democratic unity. Kucinich was so excellent! He came across moderated yet forceful, not shrill and vein-popping, and I cheered when he called the moderators on their dumb gossipy questions. Man, they were all great!

[Jonathan Fox]

29. Yeah Clark/Dean were parallel on Iraq

They were like the only two who both stood out and agreed. Clark won it because he appeared to know what he was talking about more, but Dean did fine, if a little lackluster compared to his previous performances.

[boxster]

36. I think Dean has been trying very hard to consciously NOT show the...

"angry hothead" side. I thought he actually did a pretty decent job tonight, especially on his initial response to the Gore question.

Though, he kind of blew the "I looked at my watch" routine - it was a tad too orchestrated and a tad too scripted.

[tameszu]

28. I'm a Clarkie who thought Dean did pretty well

He communicated OK, except for the stumble on the one weird question about if it's OK for the president to lie, not that smooth always, but his last answer has passion.

I think I've seen Kerry and Clark too often to be unbiased.

[ozone_man]

14. A draw.

I liked Kucinich the most, but they all had good talking points. Dean was right on with the excessive talk on Iraq. Man was that getting old. I even liked Gephardt, mainly because he took over where Dean left off, talking about the real issues, not Iraq.

It's the first debate we've seen. The strangest part was my 13 year old mentioning that "he's not a Democrat", in reference to Clark. This just came out of the blue. Clark does have sort of a harsh, sort of hawkish way about him. Having said that, I liked what he had to say about alot of things, but think he would serve better in a defense cabinet position.

[Auntie Bush]

42. Not a Democrat?

Your son probably said that because Clark showed such passion and knowledge about the miltary. He's probably already heard that Democrats don't know S*** about defending this country! Sad!

[ozone_man]

58. He sounded just like Bush, when talking about terrorism, etc.

Sorry, we're liberals up here and very much against this Iraq war, so when Clark starts talking about this and terrorism, he sounds just like Bush.

He certainly is knowledgeable about the military, no question about it.

He does seem to have some good liberal views, but I wonder if these are real or just being fed to him by the DLC. In any case, if he voted for Reagan and Bush, I would be skeptical as to how liberal he could be. Do his liberal views have a paper trail back to the Reagan era?

But what bowled me over was my kid had never seen any of these folks before, except Dean, and just out of the blue says "that guy is no Democrat". :-)

[Crewleader]

15. I think the debate showed alot of the candidates

and front and center I believe is General Wesley Clark for the important issue of Iraq and homeland security...the one issue that Howard Dean doesn't seem to matter and the sneak remark he said, of the length of time discuss of Iraq, may be he wasn't happy with his answer and Ted Koppel told Dean is comment of the length of time speaking of Iraq was exaggerated. He doesn't support the War but yet, it will be awhile for occupancy there.

The important issue of Iraq as Dennis expressed as alot to do with our budget for health, education and our loss of young men and women, he's the candidate with heart.

If Howard Dean did some duty in Vietnam he would have a better insight on the matter how important Iraq truly is.

I believe John Edwards did well expressing the lobbyist and the power it has in Washington, and also John Kerry did well defending his record, he was connecting tonight with the people.

And of course I enjoy Al Sharpton's good humor!

I am happy all the candidates defended themselves when asked where they are in polls and the lack of money with their campaigns.

It was a good debate!

[SahaleArm]

16. Actually a good showing all around.

Thought Edwards rambled a bit on terrorist cells. Wanted more domestic agenda questions...

[Tom Rinaldo]

19. Tonight was a good night for Kerry.

I gave the nod to Kerry, because he did really well at taking command of the questions asked him. No one did poorly. Edwards was hitting strong populist notes and did well raising issues regarding "homeland security". Both Al and Carol were great, Al actually might have won if more people would consider him a realistic candidate. Dennis was on fire and scored major points, though in my mind he didn't succeed in making his position on leaving Iraq 90 days after a UN resolution seem realistic, which I think hurts him (in my mind it isn't a black/white occupation/exit set of choices. I'm not convinced the UN would agree to move in and take on all the security in Iraq allowing for a complete rapid U.S. exit.)

Clark was not on fire but he was solid and yes "presidential" which is a good adjective if you are running for President. Dean was spotty, rambled some and threw too many sub issues into some answers, but he rallied nicely at the end pulling the debate back to domestic issues. Lieberman was strong in his convictions but wrong, so it's hard to say he won anything. I'm trying to be objective, I back Clark, but I think Kerry and Edwards helped themselves the most tonight.

[Cocoa]

20. Dennis, hands down

for me, anyway, especially about Iraq.

I'm not sure if he said anything new this time, but it's the first time I really saw him as the only one who is seeing Iraq correctly. I saw all of the others looking somewhat foolish in pretending we can stay there and win.

Plus he almost made Ted Koppel cry. :-)

[killbotfactory]

22. They were all pretty good

When they were talking about issues...

but holy joe and geppy make me tune out.

[Jonathan Fox]

24. Clark, then Kucinich

Clark won the second half, Kucinich probably won the first half, but none did fabulously the first half. Hard to beat Clark on National Security/Iraq, and Lieberman and Kucinich's closing statements magnified Clark's strength throught the second half by emphasising how big an issue Iraq was.

[meow mix]

32. i thought so too

clark really did come alive in the second half, and sealed it in the very last round of statements.

[MoonRiver]

26. Looks like Gore's endorsement had ZIP effect on DUers!

:D

[Renew Deal]

31. They were all great except the "Axis of Evil"

Tonight was a great night for the Dems. They were united and didn't touch eachother. Of Course, Clark won.

[Kool Kitty]

33. I really like Clark,

but tonight belonged to Dennis.

[Hogarth]

34. There was a debate tonight?

I made baked squash, then went out with Mari. Now I'm ignoring the whole business by listening to Pete Townshend's "White City" album.

I don't care who gets the nod, just so it's not "Holy Joe." Christ!

[Auntie Bush]

45. So George Bush lied!

What do you plan to do about it? Bake cookies?

[Hogarth]

61. I like to bake squash ...

... and don't assume I haven't done anything. I've been to three D.C. demonstrations.

[RichV]

37. Kucinich

did well tonight even if I disagree with some of his ideas. Kerry did too. I thought Dean and Clark were both a bit weak, surprisingly.

Oh, and I'm tired of CMB's little anecdotes and things. Hmph. At least don't repeat the same ones in different debates over and over.

[Field Of Dreams]

38. Thought it was a draw

Kucinich, Clark, Kerry did the best I thought.

[Ficus]

39. DK

hands down

[Terwilliger]

41. hmmm

I don't think this reflects the actual consensus

[1songbird]

43. I think Clark and Edwards did very well.

[Ksec]

44. Our polls clearly prove that the media pushing Dean is bogus crap

70 30? Damn, that is a huge gap considering what everyone is telling us here and through media. Maybe they got it wrong? Just maybe,yea

[newsjunkie]

46. Kucinich comment about the media was grand

:toast:
Kerry kicked ass too. :kick:
They all did great(except loony Lieberman) but Dean still looked better than anyone.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

47. I loved it when

DK and JK each took their turn cutting Ted Koppel down to size.

:7

I liked everyone except Lieberman, Gephardt (too bland), and Dean (too yuppy).

[mrgorth]

48. I thought Dean's tirade

at the end was awesome.

[Crewleader]

49. kick

:dem:

[snyttri]

50. The inaccuracy was frightening. The media would rip him to shreds if he

said a debate against Bush had been entirely devoted to Iraq when in fact less than half of it had.

[wiley]

51. Clark won, but Kucinich and Sharpton spoke for us all

Clark definitely won, BUT sharpton and Kucinich were on fire about the media and money crap thing. Disappointed with Dean, then Trippi in spin alley saying people should blame him for Gore not calling Lieberman. :eyes:

[LWolf]

56. Kucinich, hands down.

The world got to see some of the Dennis we see in smaller events/venues tonight. He was relaxed. He smiled. He was on point. He was taking the opposition to task. Whether it's the Bush administration, Ted Koppel, or the rest of the media, he knows how to do it.

They all had good moments. I thought Kerry did really well, too.

The stumbles that I noticed:

1. Lieberman's repeating Bush rhetoric (axis of evil).
2. Dean's response about the presidential prerogative to "lie." I think this question really caught him by surprise. I don't think he was saying that it's ok for the president to lie. I think he was thinking quickly about saying "never," and whether or not there was a future situation where that could be used against him. I don't hold his answer against him, but I think it hurt him.
3. Clark: while he was strong on international security, he was absent on everything else, and refused to address any domestic issues. That doesn't generate confidence in the rest of the agenda.
4. Gep seemed flat. Nothing that he actually said; he just seemed flat.
5. MY STUMBLE: I was watching the replay. I was perfectly content, curled up in my chair, a cat on my lap, another cat a few feet away, a dog at my feet, and thinking that, while I have my preferences, any of them save one would be a huge improvement over Bush. I was proud of all of them at different moments. And then...I fell asleep. Yes. I remember that there was about 10 minutes left. I don't know if there was a commercial that stopped the action or what, but I woke up about 15 minutes after it was all over. So I missed the last 5-10 minutes. :grr:

Based on last night's debate, at least the part I was awake for:

1. Kucinich
2. Kerry
3. Edwards
4/5. Clark
4/5. Dean
6. Braun
7. Sharpton
8. Gep
9. Lieberman

[BootinUp]

57. It was a draw

because all the candidates were fired up following the Gore endorsement. Clark, Kucinich, Kerry, Gephardt, were all on their best game. Sharpy was par for his course, Dean was not strong until the end IMHO, but he probably made up for it.

Some other candidate I can't remember....Lieb something....Oh well. :-)

[Gringo]

59. Clark sounds nice but...

He always just seems to be mouthing platitudes. He's so vague that it's very hard to get excited about him. I like his demeanor, but I wish he'd really clarify his vision. Dean's better on this point, but debates aren't the best venue for him.

I noticed Clark called him "Howard" rather than Gov. Dean. I hope this signals a thaw in the hostilities.

[underpants]

60. My oh so important analysis here (voted gulp Gephardt)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=867060