When I speak with people, a few have mentioned that they’ve really liked O’Malley at the debates and they don’t understand why he hasn’t emerged as a viable candidate. He says the right things – but somehow personally does not project gravitas. I think he reminds me too much of John Edwards – not smarmy like him, but overly earnest and a tad too pretty.
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As a Sanders supporter I think this is another testament to his character in agreeing to this after he was so badly maligned by Hillary’s lapdog Debbie Waserman Shultz.
Tactically however I think it’s a mistake to give HRC any opportunity to soak up all the air the room as is her style; particularly since she conspired with her minions to turn our primary into little more than a rubber stamp coronation by instructing her toady familiar to limit them in the first place.
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Not helping Bernie with the conspiracy trash talk. Any opportunity for him to get his message out there either helps him or hurts him depending on his ability to convince.
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John Boehner was able to kill the Senate passed Immigration Bill by refusing to hold a vote. Enough Republican House members could have voted to pass the measure.
Paul Ryan, based on my understanding, has, at his disposal, the same power.
If there was ever a cause for an “OCCUPY” that is it–ranking up there with “OCCUPY FOX” AND “OCCUPY MSM”
Any person or group seeking to call attention to this ability (and inclination) of Paul Ryan to follow in John Boehner’s footsteps would garner about 0.001% of the attention from the MSM as the militiamen in Oregon.
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http://static.fjcdn.com/comments/Sends+you+flying+_2437f9d63abb18bcf8a8f7e2240c4e49.png
What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
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And seriously, my post was in response to comradebillyboy, who seems to have posted from a Hillary supporter’s point of view (I think). To that I said I care more about more voters seeing differences between the two parties than about which D candidate may benefit from additional debates.
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In all four Democratic debates combined I put the number of times “establishment” is mentioned at 16.
Over or under?
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His point as I read it was that additional debates were important to contrast our candidates with the Republicans. He didn’t frame it in terms of Clinton vs. Sanders as your response seemed to indicate. But OK – ultimately we do not disagree.
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African Or European?
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WHAT! is your favorite color?
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Thanks 
Seriously? Something is still left unsaid?
New rule: The cumulative time spent on a series of debates
should not be longer than the term of office the debaters are vying for!
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Whoops – sorry. I knew that, but unconsciously repeated the incorrect identifier from Arrendis.
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I like O’Malley but there’s never been any room to her left because Bernie fills the space. The only person to her right was Jim Webb and look what happened to him.
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I doubt we are going to discover new policy differences – for democrats, the exercise is more a chance for us to see the candidates thinking on their feet and practice for them to take it to the republicans. For independents and moderate republicans who are looking at their front runners with horror, its an opportunity to make the case for them voting for a democrat.
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- lapdog
- minions
- rubber stamp coronation
- toady
You really are a the epitome of a Sanders supporter. Well done.
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I was open to listening to Webb – but he blew it not because he was overtly to the right of her, but because he had a hissy fit during the debate. Made him look like an idiot.
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Are you talking to me???
I’m sure both sides will declare victory in this “debate over debates,” but it looks to me like they both came out fine.
Assuming the DNC falls in line with what it looks like all three of their candidates are asking of it (and it will look pretty bizarre if they won’t), it looks like Bernie pretty much won what he wanted, which was a firm commitment to four additional debates.
But Hillary also got what she wanted as far as making sure one of those debates was before New Hampshire. And while the three additional debates after New Hampshire may be something she’d rather have skipped if she found herself still far ahead in the polls in most states after NH, she has done well in all the debates so far and there’s no reason to believe she won’t do well in the rest of the debates. So the additional debates so don’t necessarily hurt her, and of course could very possibly end up helping her.
Yes, the additional debates do present a risk which – as the frontrunner, with more to lose – she might have preferred to avoid, all things being equal. But of course all things are not equal – she apparently very much wants the debate in New Hampshire and Bernie made it clear that the price was three other new debates, and he stuck to his position. So if Hillary could have succeeded in getting Bernie to back down and agree to the New Hampshire debate without her camp having to make firm commitments to future debates, perhaps that would have been the optimal outcome for her. But this outcome isn’t bad either.
Meanwhile, O’Malley wants all the debates he can get, so while in theory he might want even more debates, presumably he’s pretty happy with this outcome as well.
All in all, seems pretty close to win-win-win to me. Too bad it took a public spat to bring it about, rather than ironing this out among the campaigns and with the DNC. Of course that would have required having a competent, neutral, constructive person, capable of real leadership, heading the DNC in this presidential election year, which sadly, and obviously, is just not the case.
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Webb is not alone in this mistake. Cruz did it the last debate. Anytime a candidate wastes their allowed time by whining that they aren’t getting enough attention, just makes them seem ridiculous.
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