I thought it was an absolutely HORRIBLE debate.

[Enraged American]

I knew this CNBC/Wall Street Journal sponsored crap would force the candidates to pander to business, but I was SHOCKED!

There was John Edwards who proved that he's just the whore of whoever he's speaking to. He traded his populist anti-trade stance with his new don't-even-support-the-goddamn-steel-tariffs stance.

Clark was basically fellating Wall Street.

I will say that Kerry came off very well.

[lifelong_Dem]

1. The steel tariffs were bad policy

They've cost more American jobs than they've saved.

[w13rd0]

2. I disagree...

...and were we to expect a debate on...what...in a WSJ debate?

It was worlds better than the last one...

[PurityOfEssence]

3. Edwards answered the farm issue correctly

even though it was a deliberate set-up to make him look like a peasant crusher.

He said he had agreed with the Tariffs at the time, but doesn't now, and didn't elaborate. He didn't duck it, and he didn't let them corner him; he left it at that.

I've only seen the last 40 minutes of the "debate", so I can't comment further, but he's not an "all things to all people" kind of person.

[AmeriCanadian]

14. yes he did but ...

... overall I was disappointed. I hope we have another debate closer to elections.

[Enraged American]

4. I would also like to say...

I realized Bob Graham is more of a fascist than I thought because of the CNN.com candidate grid.

That kind of scares me. It tells me that a fascist by any other name is a fascist. War with Iraq or war with Syria? What's the difference except that one pleases Halliburton and the other pleases AIPAC?

Sorry. I'm sort of disillusioned.

[Fabio]

13. interesting comment.

[KoKo]

5. I thought it was an Excellent Debate...given the Sponsors..but I've

watched ALL THE DEBATES.....and can "slot" this one in my memory......I loved it.....Recommend it! I Love our candidates.....they represent OUR BIG TENT......Something for EVERYONE there....to chew on...and decide WHICH of our candidates REPRESENT OUR VIEWS!!!!

[asjr]

6. debate

Considering the length of time and number of candidates I thought they did unusually well. There was no time to go into depth. And I am surprised some at least didn't throw up on Gloria Borger.

[KoKo]

7. I used to really like Gloria .....years ago..reminded me of a best friend

I had.......but, lately.....I never knew.......she's a Media whore and agree :puke: on her.

Disgusting.!

[AP]

8. Edwards's response to the first Q he got, about taxes, was the

most left wing thing thing said on the stage.

When he said that he'd match savings dollar for dollar with tax credits, that's exactly what Wall St didn't want to hear. Not only do they want you to spend ALL your money on consumer goods and utilities, they want you to go into debt so that they can money on financing your debt. They don't want you to be encouraged to save money, unless it's in a 401(k) managed by someone who's going to buy up equity at inflated prices.

[AP]

9. Do you think Wall St was happy to hear that Edwards wants to ban scabs?

You know, that props up wages for the working and middle class. It hurts the bottom line. I can't believe Wall St liked that very much.

[revcarol]

10. Yup, he's right in line with Kucinich there.

Almost every candidate showed the administration's tax policy up for the fraud against the poor, the middle class, and future generations that it is. So the day was not a total loss.

All the candidates did well, in a format that was designed to pit one candidate against another, and with slanted questions and unqualified-to-even-be-in-the-room questioners.

GO, DEMS. YOU DIDN'T FALL INTO THEIR BASH-EACH-OTHER TRAP. YOU "DID GOOD.":toast:

:yourock:

[AP]

11. Edwards only got 5/6 questions

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A433-2003Sep25.html

He got the question about the 87 bil, a question about the tax code, a question about economic isolation, a question about scoial security, a question about farm subsidies, and (on edit) yes, a question on steel tariffs.

He made the most left-wing statement of the evening when he answered the question about the tax code (and if you want to know why big media ignores Edwards you need to look no farther than in the answer to this question). He answered the question about economic isolation by saying the tax code encourages jobs to go overseas. He used the question about farm subsidies to say, quickly, that the problem is agri-business subisidies, not small farmer subsidies, and then he addressed an earlier question about standing up for labor because he realized they weren't going to ask him another question. He said he wouldn't let Wall St use SS money to speculate on the equities markets.

Not a single one of Edwards's answeres was something big business and Wall St wanted to hear. In fact, it was the opposite. Answers 2-5 took big business on directly. Question 1, to the extent that Edwards said he's for money that helps the troops, and not for money going to Bush's cronie contractors in Iraq, was also a slap on the face of big business.

[Enraged American]

12. I only saw the last 50 minutes.

That's some pretty good stuff you said about Edwards. I probably missed it.

Anyway, Edwards said that he agreed with the steel tariffs when they were passed, but thinks that they should be gotten rid of now. I can understand why (b/c of all the industries here that have to import steel), but fundamentally it's like he's just condemning tariffs in general.

Anyway, Graham is a scumbag.