If nothing else, this debate gave me a new criteria to use to judge

[Duer 157099]

How often did the candidate actually answer the question?

Notice how often the question was completely disregarded in favor of using the time as a platform for something else.

That's politics, but that's also the same old politics.

Hillary = something different??? Yeah, give me a break.

I was mostly unimpressed with all of them; slightly impressed with Dennis; surprisingly disappointed by Richardson; surprisingly impressed by Biden, especially his admission of his biggest mistake being thinking he could influence Bush.

But mostly the issue of whether they could actually answer the question seemed most important to me, because it's a matter of integrity, not just pushing an agenda.

[whistle]

1. They all sounded good

[sandnsea]

2. Depends on the question

If it's a gotcha game, they're better off answering in a way that gets the truth out and exposes the gotcha. Barack on the Palestinian comment is exactly how it's done. I don't expect candidates to take the bait on that stuff.