Another political debate
…was held over the weekend, if you didn’t notice. This time, the Democrats in Iowa.
It was the first major Democratic debate in Iowa and, for the contenders, perhaps the most important one as they approach Labor Day, the unofficial start of an intensive four months of campaigning until the nation’s first caucuses here.
I hear the collective groan. But you knew this thing was going to crank up by early Fall and you know the campaigns are going to get much more intense.
Trouble is, people are already weary of the campaigning.
WaPo ran this a mere month ago:
The Democratic presidential candidates will line a stage in Charleston, S.C., tonight for their first official debate.
And already, debate fatigue is setting in.
Debate fatigue is reaching new intensity. And here we are, how many debates later? Are we actually learning anything?
Watching the news coverage, I notice that a few people are listening, and hearing what’s not being said. Here’s one (leave it to a blogger to be more astute).
Otherwise, coverage has been about as predictable as the talking-point ‘debates’.
The first question from moderator George Stephanopoulos of ABC News went to the heart of what many Democrats are mulling over: whether Obama is too inexperienced and Clinton too divisive to be elected president…
The electability question — and specifically Clinton’s high disapproval ratings in opinion polls — came up for much discussion. Clinton said the negative assessments were to be expected after being roughed up for years, starting as first lady and, more recently, as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“The idea that you’re going to escape the Republican attack machine and not have high negatives by the time they’re through with you is just missing what’s been going on in American politics for the last 20 years,” she said.
And that is a good point that we actually should be focusing on…the negativity and divisiveness of American politics that does not seem to be ending anytime soon.
These candidates don’t speak for the people most of the time. They don’t give us reasons to elect them other than to not elect the other guy, and they’re not emerging from the pack as singular leaders.
I’m not liking either party much right now, along with a lot of other Americans. Here are just two leading thinkers who do speak for me, and probably a great many others: