The Iowa Democrat debate: Schoolmarm returns; Update: Schoolmarm is all giggles; Update: No “show of hands,” schoolmarm not amused by Hillary’s joke; Update: Obama gets the best one-liner…“Hillary, I’m looking forward to you advising me as well.”
Scroll down for updates…
She’s baaaaack. In 15 minutes, Des Moines Register editor Carolyn Washburn returns for the Iowa Democrat debate. How long before she raps knuckles? Will she ask for a show of hands? Will they waste time with more superfluous video of the candidates while the candidates stand there on stage watching themselves soaking up valuable time? Bets on hottest topics she’ll completely ignore? (Hint: Meltdown!) Who’s she voting for: Hillary or Obambi? Will anyone wonder out loud why Dennis Kucinich wasn’t allowed to join in the Iowa reindeer games?
Reaching for my No Doze…stay tuned for liveblogging. Or zzzzzzzzlogging.
***
Note: Just a few minutes into this debate, it’s clear how much more deferential Schoolmarm is to the Dems than she was to the Republicans. Deathly dull. This is not a debate. It’s a wake.
Note II: Schoolmarm is all giggles. She seems to have a particular soft spot for Bill Richardson.
Note III: Scroll down to 2:43pm update below. Hillary gets a chilly reception when she ribs Schoolmarm about her “show of hands” question yesterday. Brrrrrrrrr. It’s the only sighting of Nurse Ratched I’ve seen this hour.
***Here’s the vid.***
Note IV: All important topics covered so far: Air conditioning, wind turbines, art in the schools.
Note V: Scroll down to 3:14pm Eastern below.
Schoolmarm asks Obama: How are you going to provide change when you have so many former Clinton advisors advising you?
Laughter. Hillary cackles: “I want to hear this.” Schoolmarm giggles.
OBAMA: “Hillary, I’m looking forward to you advising me as well.”
***Here’s the vid****
Note VI: It’s over. Final question for the candidates. What have you learned from Iowa? My answer:
What I learned: Iowa newspaper editors are as condescending, biased, and out of touch with the mainstream of voters as East Coast and West Coast editors are.
***
Here we go.
2:02pm Eastern. Schoolmarm sets the rules. “I’ll try not to be a Scrooge about.” Schoolmarm is already showing her softer side. Surprise.
First question: Iowans of both parties asking - Will it be a priority to balance the budget?
Obama blames Bush and the GOP.
Richardson: I’ll be the biggest balanced budget guy you’ve ever seen!
Biden: Eliminate the war, eliminate the tax cuts, cut $20 billion out of the military….problem solved!
Dodd: Solution: Pay as you go budgets. Grow the economy.
Edwards: Create jobs!
Hillary: Fiscal responsibility!
Question: What taxes would you increase?
Richardson: Doesn’t answer. Has 60 seconds to not answer.
Edwards: Big corporations = bad. Me = good.
Just a few minutes into this debate, it’s clear how much more deferential Schoolmarm is to the Dems than she was to the Republicans. No interrupting. No jumping all over them with her stopwatch.
Clinton: Big corporations and wealthy individuals = bad.
Question: How will you pay for new programs with ongoing Iraq war?
Schoolmarm’s giving Obama like, an hour, to say nothing.
Richardson: Blah, blah, blah.
Schoolmarm gives Richardson another 60 seconds to bloviate about China.
Can’t. Keep. Eyes. Open.
Question for Hillary: What do we do about entitlements? Is it a problem? Couldn’t Schoolmarm come up with a real, focused question on this issue? Would it have killed her?
Hillary: Bipartisan commission. BOLD!
Schoolmarm politely asks Obama to keep his answer short. She seems almost sorry she has to ask. Contrast with yesterday’s snappier growling at the Republicans.
Richardson gets another hour to bloviate. I’m getting the feeling Schoolmarm is a Richardson fan.
Free Statement time! More uninterrupted bloviation time.
Obama gives his MLK Jr. speech.
Edwards flubs his Better America speech. “We should leave America better than what we made it. Leave it better than how we found it. Whatever.” Opponents cackle. Hillary is loving it. Schoolmarm giggles.
Questions on human rights. Nafta.
2:34pm Eastern. More free statements. This whole “debate” has been a free statement forum for the Democrats.
More Richardson. Schoolmarm giggles again.
2:36pm Eastern. Question on energy independence.
Bill Richardson is talking about air conditioning.
Schoolmarm: Sen. Dodd, can you try that (question) in 30 seconds. Giggle!
Dodd: Carbon is KILLING THE PLANET!
Obama is talking about WIND TURBINES.
Schoolmarm gives Edwards 10 minutes to talk about the planet.
2:43pm Eastern. Hillary interjects. “Carolyn, are you going to ask us to raise our hands? ‘Cuz the Republicans didn’t do such a good job. We believe it is a problem!” Schoolmarm: “I’m not doing that today.”
Frosty.
2:49pm Eastern. Schoolmarm so polite: “We have to move on, I’m afraid…”
More “Free Statements.”
Hillary speeds through stump speech.
Dodd plods.
2:51pm Eastern. Education question. What are your goals, timetables to set up the best education system. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
2:53pm Eastern. Bill Richardson will make us number one in math again. And Art in the Schools. Just like Huck.
3:00pm Eastern. Sorry, I tuned out to post about Nancy Pelosi’s latest unhingedness. I tuned back in to hear Schoolmarm giggling over Dodd exceeding his time.
3:05pm Eastern. Schoolmarm delicately asks Hillary about her secretive health care task force. Russert already broached the secrecy issues better months ago. Bwahahaha: Hillary is complaining about government stonewalling. She’s “committed to open and transparent government.”
3:07pm Eastern. Schoolmarm raps Biden for his racial gaffes. He explains his Indian immigration and Washington DC black students remarks. Defends his civil rights record.
Everyone claps. Obama exercises his absolute moral authority and gives his “testimony” and absolution.
Richardson gets a softball about Wen Ho Lee. “I’ve made a lot of gaffes and I’m glad you haven’t raised them.”
Schoolmarm: Giggle.
****First worthwhile question/exchange of the entire forum…********
3:14pm Eastern. Obama - How are you going to provide change when you have so many former Clinton advisors advising you?
(Laughter. Hillary cackles: “I want to hear this.” Schoolmarm giggles.)
OBAMA: “Hillary, I’m looking forward to you advising me as well.”
Biggest applause line.
3:18pm Eastern. New Year’s resolutions.
Hillary wants to exercise. Oh, and win the presidency.
Edwards pours on his treacly Two Americas rhetoric.
Dodd wants to “regain our moral authority” and wishes that Iowans will “caucus correctly on Jan. 3.”
Richardson wants to lose weight. He’s the Huckabee of the Democrat Party.
Biden resolves to remember when things were really bad so that he enjoys…when things are good. Remember where you came from.
Obama: Be a “better father, husband, and remind myself that this is not about me.”
Ugh. It’s not done yet.
Question: 20 seconds to tell schoolmarm what lessons they have learned from Iowa.
Hillary: I ate a lot.
Everyone else: We love Iowans. Iowans are wonderful.
What I learned: Iowa newspaper editors are as condescending, biased, and out of touch with the mainstream of voters as East Coast and West Coast editors are.
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After this round - the candidates will rise up again off their knees and wipe their lips after kissing the butts of the teacher’s union…
Press 1 for English
Press 2 if you can’t speak English. Hang up and call back when you can…
Has anyone got some extra Visine?…My eyes are itching, from all the wool bein’ pulled over them.
Oil Companies: evil
Agribusiness: evil
Toy Companies: evil
Big Business: evil
Global warming is real, and it’s man-made.
And, the “focus groups” fall for this blather, hook, line, and sinker.
40+ years isn’t enough I guess?
yesterdays was a blockbuster compared to today…
Pay teachers more - pay teachers more - pay teachers more…..
Just how do these morons expect to do that without raising taxes?
How about paying teachers for results?
I hear about paying teachers what is essentially ‘hazard pay’ for teaching in tough schools -
How about paying them better when their students achieve more?
(gag)
Is it over so I can play too. I am not man enough to watch or listen. Sounds like I just saved my lunch!
The way this guy stumbles over his words and thoughts - I’d love to see him solving a math problem….
I’m not logging back on to watch the debate, you can’t pay me enough.
run soap run… dont look back you’ll turn into salt!
Edwards: Paid college….
Pandering to the young voters - check.
So, it is still on eh? Wake me when it is over.
No need to run. That would assume I will even be in the “Community”.
Oxymoron: Saying we have to raise teacher salaries while claiming the cost of education is too high….
HUH?????
debate more like debacle
He got an A+ in fuzzy math. 2+2 smells like purple.
Six Minutes since Michelle’s updated…
She’s either losing her lunch, or fell asleep….
Cut, run, cut run, raise taxes, corporations bad. Can’t they come up with ONE new idea
ROFL taylork!
I’m going to do this I’m going to do that… yawn, blah blah blah, yawn blah.
Is it me, or does Schoolmarm sound like someone’s squashing her cheeks together when she talks?
Beyond that, the whole deal is making me nauseous. The Democrat candidates and their acolyte followers exemplify everything that’s wrong with our Country. Such ignorance of the Constitutional powers and limits on the Executive Branch and the Congress is stunningly dangerous.
Our Founders must be rotating in their graves.
Andrea Shea King
Poor Michelle. Two days of this and she will need to be on the same drugs as Shrillary!
Ya know, back when I was going to school - when an education actually MEANT something, a debate was between people who took opposite sides and argued their points - sounds to me like they all agree on fleecing the “Great Unwashed” -again- so they can either buy more votes, or buy more carbon offsets from algore, not sure which.
Like 30, I’m kinda glad now I’m missing it.
I guess even our mighty heroine has her limits.
She must have made a quick-run to Starbucks for her Caramel Machiatto.
Edwards just about destroyed the OB/GYN practice in his state using flawed science and now wants universal healthcare…
This is what we are getting.
Snake oil
WHY?
Uh-oh - questions about ‘character’ and ‘leadership’ -
Time to PUNT!
ROFLMAO: Hillary: “I want an open and transparent administration”…
Oh wow - my sides hurt - that is rich.
Send in the a-clowns!
Does that mean Shill will stop taking Chinese money under the table?
Here it comes - Group Hug for Joe Biden… Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
does edwards have a surfboard on his head?
Did the phrase “I’m retarded” ever get said?
The undertow is dangerous, bruh - be careful….
Hang loose…
cya speech from obama
Obama asked about his advisors - many of whom are former Clintonistas…
Hillary laughs and says she wants to hear his answer about it…
Obama: “Hillary, I’m looking forward to you advising me as well”
That was a pretty good jab by Obama - I’ll give him that…
they’re all running against Bush… lol
Did it include: “I did not inhale”?
Yes - BUSH IS EVIL!
Was wondering when that was going to come up -
“Time is getting short” must have been the moderator’s cue…
BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,BUSH,
Did I hear Hillary right?
Did she just claim she came up with the SCHIP Program?
the sure are aj, i dont understand this debate one bit.
all this softball has to be tireing
There needs to be a candidate up there who does nothing but stroke his beard while the other candidates are talking.
the= they*
I thought she said ” a bull-schip ” program - but I may be wrong…
Oh - that was in my head…nevermind…
Hillary has a multi-part New Year’s resolution. That’s probably the result of having multiple personalities.
I’m trying to figure out who feels more insulted with that comment?????
So pretty much Dodd doesn’t know what a resolution is?
This is the best they could come up with in 24 hours? regarding the New Years question…. lmao.
Good Lord, a group of questions on character, morals and ethics and NO MENTION of Sandy Berger in the Clinton Administration?!
Or a mention of the lack of morals and character that we all lived through in the first Clinton Administration.
who ever said there was no such thing as a barf fest?
If this debate is any indication of how Democrats keep time…
If one is elected in 2008, that term may last 6.5 years, not 4.
Biden: Iowans deserves to be first because they take it seriously…
And the rest of us don’t, Joe???
Maybe if our primary vote mattered - as with a National primary - the whole country would take it seriously…
and it ends with Happy Holidays! not Merry Christmas that would be bad… pc boitch.
man could the moderator possibly have fawned over these candidates anymore?
Please let us not tar everyone who uses one-liners, thank you…
The love-fest endeth……. Amen
And Merry Christmas…..
only if she were on her knees
God… that was painful!
Who knows how many of them would have supported it? They should have said Happy Ramadan instead, that woul’ve been okay.
Next one of those and I’m taking drugs.
The best thing about the last hour and a half is we had all these posts and not one Ron Paul nut among us….
YAAYY!!!
Did I miss anything?
HAHAHHAAAAHHHHAAAAA!!!
foxes focus group loves obamarama
Did the graph on fox ever come out of the basement?
So can the dems now say that they were on a Fox news debate?
How did they come up with this woman as a moderator? My take?
Hillary- decent public speaker for a Socialist. Sure not a leader, more like a control-freak.
Obama-Thoughtful and well-spoken. The real threat to a Republican Presidency.
Edwards- professional speaker, only knows one song though.
Richardson- Nice guy, friendly and moderate, for a liberal. Understands the need for border security, which is amazing.
Anyone else? Naw, not really.
On top of this, watching the panel of Iowa voters discuss this indicates that an Obama/Edwards ticket might be what Iowans prefer. They certainly don’t like Hillary!
Focus group really panned Hillary - groused about needing new ideas - reject twofer - she will not be pleased.
I found something more boring than the Iowa debate moderator: Fox News’ Luntz Democrat focus group. Geez, do we really let idiots like that vote? This country is doomed. It was like listening to a 3rd grade class discuss the debate. “He seemed really nice. She looked tired. Where’s our snacks? Blah, blah, blah.”
LOL at “Richardson: blah blah blah”
The Hillary Cackle = Fingernails on a chalkboard.
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech !!!
Must have been a real sleeper of a debate…
Nothing even up on Drudge….
I saw a posting for “Jackass 2.5″, but that’s about the Johnny Knoxville movie…
Add “Why is Iowa the first to go every 4 years?” to that for my answer.
Yes. But they were measuring the responses of people who are inclined to vote for democrats. Not the most sensible people in the world.
So glad I am too busy at work so I can’t watch or hear the cackle of “she who must not be named.” Back to work and lurk.
The most telling, beyond the giggles (because she’s among friends), is the fact that she was giving them all kinds of time to answer questions. I stopped watching halfway through because it was so disgusting. She just let them give speeches until they ran out of breath. She served up to Richardson “talk about your experience as…”… WTF? She literally invited him to just give a speech, there was no probing question, just “talk about it”. B to the S, my friends.
OMG that smackdown by Obama after the witch cackled was beautiful my son and I high fived each other…..it rocked.
no kidding jaded, the look on her face! lmao, she was dying inside.
Can you imagine the talk backstage / tonight coming from Hillary after being pwned by Obama by intimating that she’ll be working for him?
WOO-HOO - wish I was a fly on the wall ….
Honestly, I believe I’m happy with moderators lobbing softball questions to the Democrats. Adversity would give them the opportunity to improve their arguments and polish off their fine points. So long as they keep on hanging on to their BDS, they’ll be that much more unprepared for the big show.
It’s also the reason why I’m not too bothered by the so-called ‘Trolls’, neither. If all we did in this forum is agree with one another, we wouldn’t have the opportunity to think through all the fine points.
All this focus on our field of candidates, but what do the Democrats have? Their leaders are two junior senators without much significant leadership experience.
I was able to watch about 20 minutes. Really all I could take. Yeah, the schoolmarm is talking to friends. I could read this same stuff in the D.M. Register every day if I could stand reading it. Fluff about every Dem and hit pieces on repubs. NOW everybody in Iowa wants to hear about Iraq. Just not yesterday.
I’m glad you guys filled me in on the highlights. As soon as the debate came on I remembered I had to take the garbage to the landfill.
Personally, I’m tired of these “show debates”. We’ve got a long time to November and, Lord knows, anything can happen. Wake me when the real debates start…after the conventions.
Salt -
“trolls” who have differing opinions and can hold an intelligent discourse are always welcome here.
Those that do nothing but spout talking points and demonstrate BDS and denegrate the rest of the board as well as our hosts are the ones who deserve a shellacking.. and usually get it.
Hillary’s Apollo timeline screwey?
Just saw this vid clip over on YouTube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o0auBgKwZ7g
She says she was excited about the Apollo space program as a little girl. She was born in 1947.
Since when do liberals consider 16 to be a ‘little girl’? The Apollo program started in 1963….
I thought 16 year old girls could make adult decisions on their own… according to the left…
Another Clinton BS moment?
Nice catch.
I concur with you on this. So long as an argument is presented politely and has some real thought behind it, I’m okay with it. Rudeness should be ignored.
I suppose when the mantra of the other side is to coordinate attacks based on endless repetition we’re not likely to get reasoned discourse very often. So long as the shellacking is done with logic and well reasoned thought, I’m all for it. That’s not always the case, but typically is.
My overall point, however, was that while the media might believe they’re helping the Democrats with these squishy questions, they might actually be setting them up for a big hurt when the real season begins.
Of course she did not ask for the hand raising today…she is still stinging from the smack down Fred gave her yesterday.
Republicans are fools to let this happen to them. If the forum is biased they must say so.
The mainstream media is so generally mistrusted that the Register’s charade debate for the Ds is apt to have little effect. It’s not so much that people understand the partisan agenda — Clinton needs help; the only way to help Clinton that might seem credible is go-easy on all Ds; thus, go-easy on Clinton might get lost in the shuffle. Mission accomplished = no further harm to Clinton.
Instead, the larger public expects little from media debates, esp when the Ds are on stage, and bothers to pay attention only if someone does well eg Romney, Thompson, or a gaffe is made. But there won’t be a D gaffe because it’s all softball, except for the odd questions to Dodd and ?Biden (correct, I didn’t watch, too predictable to bother.)
Ha jrl! You’re an adult if you’re 12 and want an abortion, but a child if you are 24 and want S-Chip!
Yeah, I heard it. But it’s more like a hyena.
Is it just Mountain Standard Time CSPAN doesn’t get? Two days in a row the DVR set to record per CSPAN’s schedule and comes back the Agriculture debate in the Senate (no quorum if you curious). Sheesh!
Absent relevant input I’l observe the school marm’s backside rivals LBJ’s which is but a tad smaller than PIAPS’.
What do we do about entitlements?
Hillary: Bipartisan commission.
What an opening! Was there no one there to slam her with the obvious rejoinder?
Hey, Hill, why not save time and just dust off the recommendations of the bipartisan commission your husband appointed to examine the matter more than ten freaking years ago ?!
Clearly she still endorses the Do Nothing Plan.
I’m not holding my breath for Obama to win the democratic convention. Remember this is the party that was violently opposed to emacipation. And, when that happened, enacted the “Jim Crow” laws. This is also the party that had the filibusters in major Civil Rights legislation in 1946, 1957 (Thank you, Sen. Thurmond) and 1964 (Thank you, Sen. Byrd, ex-grand wizard of the KKK). Once the filibuster was over, and Johnson signed it, they claimed “victory”. I used to be a democrat…up to Carter when I was part of his inaugural staff (in a minor role). I saw the swing to the far left and left them in disgust. They haven’t changed their tune, just hid it. Support Obama until the convention, then shove him aside with some excuse. They will keep showing Black people a list of promises, year to year, that will never be fulfilled. And, Black people and the poor will continue to believe, year to year, that they will be fulfilled; instead of being kept as “government dependents”. The best Obama can hope for is the vice-presidency. Once in office, he will be treated like Truman under Roosevelt-kept in the dark on everything.