Wandering Among Democrats [DemPBS]

After the debate ended, I took off to "spin alley" where the various candidates had little cattle areas underneath those vertical political convention signs. The three top candidates did not show, although Clinton and Obama managed to get pretty good crowds with the b-team. John Edwards, meanwhile, got little attention. More than a few times, I saw other candidates' staffers slip over into his area. Edwards really owes Ann Coulter for saving him from being a silky version of Mike Gravel.

Speaking of slipping, Maureen Dowd was off the wagon at home instead of doing her job showing up to report on something. That's at least what the New York Times grunts who were there told me. "She's such a bitch!" I heard them say.

(Lawyers, that last paragraph was sarcasm.)

While Obama, Clinton and Edwards were off enjoying whatever it is that rich liberal Democrats enjoy, their less-popular rivals were out spinning the press. Someone said they saw Bill Richardson although I never got a glimpse of the guy. I kind of wanted to ask him how didn't he feel dirty talking about tax cuts on the same stage with a bunch of redistributionists. Sadly, I could not.

Chris Dodd was there. I didn't feel like talking to the guy. He just wasn't worth the time. I mean if you're going to run a snowball's-chance-in-hell campaign, you should at least have the common decency to be a little "off" for everyone's entertainment.

Speaking of "off," Mike Gravel was there. I didn't talk to him since getting him to say something stupid is like shooting fish in a barrel. He just strikes me as the scary uncle you always lie about being related to. There's a fine line between disturbed and amusingly delusional. Thank God Dennis Kucinich knows that line very well.

Yes, guys, your humble correspondent was graced by the pleasure of everyone's favorite socialist elf. I can verify that the rumors are false. He does not have antennae or slightly pitched ears. He does, however, have a wife who appears to stage-manage him.

While I was waiting to talk to Kucinich, some earnest young liberal type was asking him about health care (something you should never do if you have ever contemplated suicide). Finally, he appeared to be winding down. But. Not. Yet.

After his last syllable, Mrs. Kucinich leaned over and whispered something in his ear. "Be sure and see Michael Moore's movie 'Sicko,'" he added, thinking he was done. But not so. Wifey bent down to his ear level (she's about 4 inches taller) and whispered another instruction. "I already said that!" he blurted afterward, slightly realizing how ridiculous he was looking.

After waiting through all that, I asked the Ohio elf why he thought government should take over the American medical system since government couldn't secure Iraq. Why would we do any better at something that actually costs a lot more?

"Well, those situations are quite different," he said. "You see, Iraq was a war based on lies whereas Medicare--"

I couldn't let that pass without interrupting. "Forget why we went into Iraq. I didn't ask about that. I asked about how we haven't secured Iraq in the post-war."

"Can I answer your question?" he asked.

"Sure," I said, realizing that this was politicianspeak for "No, I will not answer it." He didn't.

After that, I went over to the Hillary Clinton section where I caught up with Sheila Jackson-Lee, one of the more rabid members of the moonbat wing of the Democratic party. Naturally, I asked her how she could get Hillary to investigate to find out the truth about 9/11. "We are investigating it," she said. "Since Democrats took over the Congress, we have had six times as many investigations into 9/11--why it happened, how it can be prevented."

"But what about the truth about how it happened?" I said.

She paused for a second, calculating what to say:

"I don't know what your definition of the truth about 9/11 is," she said. Not too bad.

While all this was going on, my trutheresque question caused a bit of a stir around the press surrounding Jackson-Lee. Columnist Clarence Page who was asking questions right before me and several others groaned when I asked it. Page and a few others actually left. For my good name (whatever is left after posting here), I hit Page up later and clarified that I was just going for a reaction question. He seems like a pretty cool guy.

After that, I spotted Tavis Smiley, the decidedly unsmiley moderator of the debate. He was busy being accosted by someone who I first mistook for some left-wing nutjob. I found out later that they guy was a Washington Post reporter. Their discussion got pretty heated before Smiley basically blew him off.

I moved in, asking him, why it was he and his panelists didn't ask a single question about immigration. Response: We wanted to ask about some topics that hadn't been covered in the other debates. A couple of candidates said they had never been asked about education before so I was glad for that.

Next, my friend La Shawn Barber asked him why it was not a single conservative or libertarian journalist was on the panel. His response was really weak, something to the effect of 'Well, I had to pick some people and those are the ones I picked. You can't satisfy everyone. Aren't you [as a black person] glad this happened at all?'

Quite a persuasive guy.

More in a while. This is more typing than I feel like doing now.

More reactions from

• La Shawn Barber
  
• Pam's House Blend
  
• Andy Carvin
  

Update 17:50. See Part two of this post here.

posted by MatthewSheffield at 10:57 AM

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