Video Recap of CNN/YouTube Democratic Debate

Video Recap of CNN/YouTube Democratic Debate

I don’t know about you, but I was pleasantly surprised by this debate. When I first heard about it, I wasn’t real sure if they could pull it off. But, Anderson Cooper was great! And the candidates (for the most part) didn’t pull their normal “dodge the question” rhetoric. All but a few of the YouTube questions were relevant and important to the debate, and the longer format made for a much more relaxed atmosphere. I actually enjoyed watching it, which may be a first for me. I also had fun participating in a “live” blogging of the debate at BlogHer.

Morra Aarons covered this debate for BlogHer…

So let’s recap…

Top five clips from (what I think) were the best of the debate.

This was a question for Obama and Clinton on whether they are “not black enough” and “not feminine enough”. A bit of an odd question, but answered quite well, especially by Obama.

Personally, I think “no child left behind” is possibly the worse thing that has ever happened to the public school system. So I was happy to hear both the question, and the responses (which were met with applause).

A Bush/Clinton dynasty in the administration??? — Interesting question, and well played answer by Hillary. This one gets a lot of applause. This might have been my favorite moment of the debate.

This question got a pretty good laugh (snowman asks question about global warming), not sure the question was actually answered, but good question none the less.

Look at the candidate to your left, what do you like and dislike? Dodd’s response was the best, and Anderson Cooper gets a huge laugh at the end.

Then some of the “clips of note”.

Richardson on voting standards.

Planned parenthood/sex education question.

A funny one on alternative energy.

This one through Edwards for a loop, and wasn’t his best performance. A question on gay marriage.

Question directed to Hillary…What does the word liberal mean and do you consider yourself liberal?

Should U.S. be using more nuclear power?

Do your children go to public school or private school? All nice responses on this one, which had the potential to be a train wreck.

Questions on the Iraq war (time frame).

Should women register for the draft at 18 as men do? Personally, I hate all talk of a draft, but this was handled well by all.

Separation of church and state? What’s that?

If there was a “most shocking” category, this one takes the cake. A very scary gun control question, this clip doesn’t quite do it justice, but if you were watching live you know what I mean. Good answer from Richardson, even better (and to the point) from Biden (also shocking, but well played).

For me the most disappointing moment was the health care questions. This issue should have gotten more attention, instead they combined a bunch of questions into one. And then we got nothing more than the typical political mombo-jumbo responses, very disappointed.

The all important tax question.

And the lighten it up, two part musical tax question. Very funny.

Good question…Why aren’t all incomes subject to social security tax?

Another social security question.

National minimum wage question. Would the candidates do the job of president for minimum wage? This had some interesting banter.

A post debate analysis from the floor of the debate.

Dennis Kucinich had a video asking the public to “text peace”. I thought this was clever considering the audience.

 

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Also see:

Huffington Post Live Bloggers

An Anonymous Source at BlogHer

CNN Political Ticker

From the New York Times

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What did you think of the debate?

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