Watched Dean, Kerry, Edwards & Lieberman on Democracy now:

[brainshrub]

Unlike Clark, who faced Jeremy Scahill yesterday and answered many probing questions head-on, Kerry & Lieberman did not want to answer anything & hid behind their staffers.

Here's the link: http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl

Dean answered the questions hurriedly, but he wasn't in a position to actually vote on the Iraq War the way Kerry & Edwards were.

Lieberman actually said: "Saddam was a weapon of mass destruction". :wtf:

After watching these interviews, I would have to say that my opinion of Clark has gone up, Kerry has gone down. The more I look at Clark I get two impressions:

1) He's Man of integrity.
2) He's definitely presidential timber, leadership material all the way. I can see why his supporters like him so much.

I am still suspicious of Clark b/c he was not a registered Democrat until fairly recently and I think he's a bit to conservative for my tastes.

I still love Dean. I think he is the most qualified man by far, but we Dems are lucky to have so many excellent candidates to choose from this year.

[Terwilliger]

1. I heard LIEberman...what a joke that guy is

seems like most of our candidates have pre-packaged answers tailor-made for the modern American lapdog press...anybody else asking untoward questions is ignored

[dfong63]

2. what a dumb cluck

Lieberman actually said: "Saddam was a weapon of mass destruction"

sheesh. if a person can unilaterally be a "weapon of mass destruction", with no trial and no evidence, just think what a dangerous and destabilizing precedent that would be, and how damaging it would be to US interests. it's mind-bogglingly stupid.

[leyton]

3. Well, he is though.

Iraq is much worse off than it might be thanks to Saddam. His government killed people in Iraq for no reason, was responsible for executing many Kurds in Northern Iraq, and may have used chemical weapons on U.S. troops during the Gulf War. Saddam murdered his own generals if he thought they might be able to challenge his power. As a dictator, he is responsible for the actions of his government. So yeah, he is a 'weapon of mass destruction' (although that's a stupid term for it).

Whatever our feelings on the war and its justification, let's not turn a blind eye to the fact that Saddam is responsible for thousands of deaths in Iraq.

[IrateCitizen]

4. "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."

Is that the gist of what you're trying to say here?

[Terwilliger]

6. No one is saying Saddam is anything other than a murderer

Liberman is defending the murder of thousands of Iraqis in the name of going after Saddam, who was, arguably, less of a problem to the Iraqi people than the two wars perpetrated by the US, and the 12 years of brutal sanctions that hurt no one except for the Iraqi people themselves.

[Abigail147]

7. As are we.

How many thousand Iraqis were killed during Shock and Awe and our current occupation with GIs with hair triggers because they are so overwhelmed? How many children without parents, without family? How many people without limbs, without homes, without jobs, without food, without hope, living in an area filled with uranium poisoning and unexploded bombs and with civil war ready to break out? Those Kurds rose up at our urging and we just left them to slaughter and you know who had supplied the gas that killed them? Yeah we can be so smug and self-righteous about how we have liberated those ungrateful Iraqi.

So yeah, the US was responsible for thousands of deaths in Iraq. Saddam was an evil person, but we should also be looking for some redemption for the blood on our hands.

[IrateCitizen]

5. You took the words right out of my mouth on this

I was thinking the same thing this morning during Democracy NOW. In my mind, I was contrasting the way in which Clark took the time to engage Jeremy Scahill -- and Lieberman and Kerry hid behind their staffers. Dean's answer was pretty cowardly as well -- "This isn't the time to talk about this."

I especially liked how for one of the candidates (I can't remember which) they were told that they would be able to ask their questions in a press event following the campaign event. Except there wasn't any press event afterwards!

I'm still a Kucinich man, but Clark went up several points in my estimation, while Kerry and Dean both went down. Lieberman's performance I just chalk up as "par for the course" in my book.