Every news outlet seems to be leading with the debate the Democratic presidential candidates had in South Carolina last night. The reporters had to mine a thoroughly uneventful evening for a news hook, and so if you look around the web you’ll find stuff like, “Everyone attacked Obama!” or “Obama was great, Hillary was awful!” or “Democrats target Bush!” Or whatever. In reality, here’s what happened: nothing.
Obama was Obama. Edwards was Edwards. Clinton was Clinton. They didn’t lash out at anyone except President Bush, which they’ve been doing every day for months. Richardson talks too much. Joe Biden knows what he’s talking about, but has no chance. Dennis Kucinich doesn’t talk about issues, he talks about philosophies and how they lead to positions on issues. He doesn’t have a chance either. Chris Dodd was a non-entity. Mike Gravel (pronounced Gruh-VELL) is crazy and hilarious and you don’t know who he is. But let’s emphasize this, he’s really crazy. Brian Williams was a fine moderator until the last ten minutes, when he let things get out of control and Obama and Kucinich started bickering about bombing people.
Everyone was so careful and timid and uninterested in attacking their opponents that they could have debated for three days instead of 90 minutes and there wouldn’t have been a single worthwhile news hook. And that’s all you need to know.
