The Patriot Post® · Democrat Debate
Seldom, if ever, have five semi-mortals been praised by so many, but emotions are beginning to wane.
Following the first Democratic presidential primary debate, elite, intellectual national mainstream media newscasters and other political commentators took a break from mourning the resignation of Speaker of the House John Boehner and electing a new one to tout the roaring success of the Oct. 13 debate.
One and all, they declared the debate not only a success for the Democratic Party, but for the nation and the world.
The message was that the conduct of candidates was in marked contrast to the nasty Republican show. No Republican candidate approached the informed level or the humanistic level displayed by all of the Democratic candidates, all declared.
All the candidates, bar none, looked presidential, it was opined. Some opiners saw traces of greatness not seen even in most U.S. presidents or other world leaders. One candidate is even named Lincoln. How prophetic can you get? Surely the statue of at least one of the five will one day be afforded a place on a remodeled Mt. Rushmore or in Lenin Square.
One of the more touching moments came when Hillary Clinton showed her commonness and immodesty when she joked about taking longer than the men to use the bathroom.
Politico’s Roger Simon waxed eloquent when he related how debate moderator Anderson Cooper looked as relieved as Clinton did when she returned to the stage, and Clinton saying that “it does take me a little longer. That’s all I can say.”
Simon wrote: “The audience roared. Or at least the women in the audience did. They got the joke. And the men were then empowered to laugh along with them.”
Words for the ages.
About the only place where talking heads and penners faltered even slightly was when trying to make the case for diversity between Bernie Sanders and Clinton. To be fair, it was tough to differentiate between Bernie Sanders’ saying he is a socialist and not a capitalist (on the previous Sunday he had said that he was not a capitalist, but a Democratic Socialist to Clinton’s assertion that the U.S. is not Denmark, but that it is the job of Democrats to rein in the excesses of capitalism so that it doesn’t run amok and doesn’t cause the kind of inequities the nation is seeing in its economic system.
One thinker compared Clinton to Ronald Reagan, describing her “morning-in-America approach.” That thinker, Froma Harrop, writing for Creators Syndicate, also implied that Republican debaters weren’t normal, in particular Donald Trump, and maybe Carly Fiorina, or Ben Carson, or Rand Paul. Democrats, on the other hand, showed “common sense all around.”
To syndicated columnist Jules Witcover the five on stage showed collective courtesy as opposed to Republicans’ insult-swappers; and greater depth in grappling with critical issues.
Witcover noted that Sanders disagreed with Clinton’s advocacy of a no-fly zone over Syria, because it would risk “an undesirable clash with Russia.”
And which would make other democratic socialists mad. (My words.)
Of course, the October 13 debate did not have a debater with the mental statue of Vice President Joe Biden, not to mention his stability and common sense.
At the risk of being accused of being prejudiced toward northeastern states, it should be pointed out that the described collective courtesy, sagacity, wisdom and integrity shown on the stage October 13 is largely because all the candidates reside in the northeastern part of the country.
Apparently no one more than a short trip from media-centered northeastern beltways is welcome.