Just finished watching the Democratic debates, figured I would post my impressions of the candidates.
I was thoroughly impressed by two of them. Kuchinich (sp?) and Braun are both very much underdogs in this campaign. They both have principles that they seem willing to stand for and not back down. I respect that. However, both of them seem to border upon socialism and I damn sure would not ever vote for either. They both seem to be very valuable parts of our government. You have to have people that will stand up for what they believe in or you end up with everyone spouting bullshit.
Gephardt and Leiberman just spouted bullshit. Neither would give any kind of real concrete answer as to what they could or would do as President. They are both career politicians and both will be trounced by the Republicans should either take the nomination.
Dean came across as a bullshit artist. Like the two previous mentioned, he would never directly answer any questions with a substantial answer, but he is ready to attack everyone else for their faults.
I was very unimpressed by Kerry.
I liked John Edwards and I am not sure why. Perhaps it’s the hidden redneck in me. He tried to come across as the plain-spoken truth-sayer, and did a pretty decent job at it. If I were to abandon my principle of trying to always vote libertarian, I would certainly be interested in hearing more of what he has to say.
As I posted earlier, I was dissapointed that Wesley Clark did not participate, I would really like to hear what he has to say. Al Sharpton has nothing to say that I want to hear, but I would have liked for him to participate as well.
None of the candidates really said anything of substance, but I was glad that I got to listen to each and will have to do some more reading on each of them and their voting records.