Thursday, April 17, 2008

Debate or Roasting?

Update: Senator Obama goes Jay-Z:




The 21st Democratic Presidential Debate in Philadelphia last night was embarrassing. ABC News' George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson decided to waste two hours of America's time asking questions about flag pins and retired 60's era radicals. Most of the debates have been on CNN or MSNBC, so I was looking forward to a good debate on the issues on free TV in front of a big national audience. What we got instead were questions about fake controversies regarding Barack Obama's patriotism and then more questions about one of his neighbors, a 60's-era radical who the American public didn't know about until last night.

I suppose ABC News wanted to show up the cable channels and "get tough" on Senator Obama. There were no questions on education policy or any substantive discussion on foreign policy, but lots of talk about Bosnia, Bitter and the stuff that clogs up your junk mail. At times, I thought I was watching a political and very unfunny version of Comedy Central's Roast show. I was waiting for Senator Clinton to turn into Lisa Lampanelli and get her digs in, too. She showed mild restraint but I don't expect Team Clinton to protest too loudly, even though they should. It's not like their candidate got a chance to talk about the issues!

On behalf of people in politics, I apologize to the American public for making you miss your favorite shows or activities because of that sad display in politics last night. You know, there are soldiers dying in Iraq and Afghanistan and George wants to talk about flag pins. Unbelievable.

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