Sick Transit

Well, I watched Nightline’s excerpts from the Democratic debate. (I couldn’t get the full debate because I don’t have cable. Watching the whole thing on a tinny cspan.org stream is just painful.) A few highlights:

Most Supercilious Moderator: Peter Jennings asking Al Sharpton about the Federal Reserve. This provided the funniest moment of the night, as Sharpton struggled to produce an intelligent response on a subject about which he obviously knew nothing whatsoever. It wasn’t really a fair question, however, considering that monetary policy is not an issue in this race; so it’s pretty obvious that Jennings asked it solely to humiliate Sharpton.

Lowest Moment: Again, that goes to Peter Jennings, for his repeated efforts to get Lieberman to go negative on the other candidates. Bravo to the Senator for not taking the bait.

Most Specific Answer: Clark, when asked what he would do on the Patriot Act. He suggested temporarily suspending the search-and-seizure provisions, and calling John Ashcroft to testify before Congress about how they’d been used.

Most Skeletal-looking Candidate: Kerry, who was a collection of grays, with no color to be seen. All the candidates except for Dean and Sharpton looked rather pale, however; either the makeup or the lighting crew should be fired. (Or both.)

This was the first time I’d watched Edwards; he seemed very glib and lightweight. I don’t think he’d do well against Bush’s gravitas. Kerry’s a skeleton, Clark has no credibility, and Lieberman is practically a Republican. I really don’t know who I’d vote for if Dean were to drop out. I guess it would be a toss-up between Kerry and Edwards, since my issues with them are of image rather than substance.