Planet Abell

M aybe the biggest remaining problem -- besides lack of time -- is the self-consciousness of the moderating and questioning process. There were four (count'em four) people involved in the questioning tonight at the CNN Democratic debate, and their collective irrelevance (apart from network branding) was belied by a failed mic which required moderator Wolf Blitzer to re-read another reporter's inquiry off a piece of paper he was already holding, apparently for just such a contingency. Can't we just get some spelling bee champion to read these things? And what was with the "stand up, sit down" exercise at the half-way point (an opportunity to give astonishingly-equal face time to yet three more CNN talking heads as we watched the studio re-arranged on a split screen). Podiums ( and a platform for Hillary ) during the grilling by the pros, red chairs and occasional tables as the common folk took their shots -- I'm suprised the candidate didn't take off their ...

I'm not kidding myself: the debates have been less than riveting and sometimes even demeaning. During them the next commander-in-chief has participated in awkward "pick me! pick me!" moments and after them sore losers have felt a compelling need to revise and extend comments that had been limited to 30-second bites -- or just an auction-house twitch. Only today, nearly a month after he joined fellow Republican debaters at the Reagan Library who "do not believe" in evolution, Sam Brownback takes to the op-ed page of the New York Times to explain himself. "As one of those who raised his hand, I think it would be helpful to discuss the issue in a bit more detail and with the seriousness it demands," he writes. Why Bother? Because Nixon went to China So, the debates are not conducive to thoughtful discussion, they favor the well-rehearsed "impromptu" put-down (think Rudy expressing shock, shock, at Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee vs Congress via Jo...

I 'll have to wait for "The Daily Show" to come up with the official count of how many times Ronald Reagan's name was dropped, but other key facts by my personal reckoning: Chris Matthews lost control at about 8:44 Three questioners, each with his own schtick (reading from a monitor?), is a distraction It is OK to be against stem cell research (even with Nancy Reagan staring you down in the front row), for congressional intervention in matters like the Schiavo case and to use the need for "victory" in Iraq as the catchall answer to any question about the war -- including a very pointed one about dealing with an endless supply of enemy recruits. I had never seen Mitt Romney in an extended forum (if you can call 60 seconds long) or on TV doing anything other than defending himself in sound bites, so I can appreciate now what his supporters see in him: a smooth, prepared, articulate candidate of dare-I-say presidential Why is it that only the fringiest of the c...

O K – so the most composed person at the Democratic debate was Brian Williams. And Dennis Kucinich seemed mainstream by comparison to Mike Gravel. And Joe Biden didn’t muck up his a Calvin Coolidge moment by being even slightly verbose about being too verbose. But anyone looking for something other than lackluster job interviews was bound to be disappointed despite the chorus of hype by every MSNBC talking head on the payroll. It's a shame that neither Barack nor Hillary showed off why they are considered first tier candidates rather than maybe just the best of the lot at raising money (ask Howard Dean about the difference). What is Edwards waiting for -- and I don't mean the suspiciously long time he took to answer a question about who his moral authority is (I guess Edwards' opposition to gay marriage stems in equal parts to "my lord," his wife and his father). The First Taste is -- Dull People: these early debates are for political junkies. Given NBC’s onerou...