Notes on the Democratic South Carolina Debate, Jerry Springer and All

Honestly, at the beginning of the debate when Wolf declared that they were going to "get a real conversation going," I laughed out loud. If I only knew.

As we get down to brass tacks and Kucinich is left in the silent dust of the media deciding who we need to hear from, this review of the debate is a little more critical, especially when it comes to sunshine and roses promises and ideas.

Here's your bullets:

• Hillary's repeated call for a "moratorium" on foreclosures for 90 days: I'm calling BS. She's not going to get anything done any time soon, so it's a short-lived call for false hope for the very few people that would benefit from it; you can give a horse 90 days but that doesn't mean that they'll work things out to keep their house. Part of this foreclosure issue is that some people are not responsible enough to simply pick up the phone and try to work it out with the bank. Feeding someone 90 days will not stimulate responsibility. Some people simply shouldn't own a home.


• Someone who has and in with the Edwards campaign, please direct him to take off that eyesore of a watch; it distracted me from the already-minuscule time he was able to get his mug on screen.


• Barack demonizing trade with China, again calling BS: Barack, China has earned a clear status of necessary evil. They own enough of our debt, own enough of our congress (Wal Mart and China lobbyists), and with the mysteries of the sliding scale of the Yuan, hold our already-crumpling dollar by the proverbial testes. If we try to sluff them off - or perhaps even raise our voice too far - they could collapse America. Oh, and they have more people fit for military service than the entire population of the US. If you are unaware of this, keep your mouth shut, but stop feeding us fairy tales.


• We talk and dance around alternative energy, but no one is discussing modern technology: very thin, flexible solar panels that could be used to cover the roofs of every building in every city in the world is out there and operating and pushing for ubiquity and, therefore, affordability. Where are these ideas?


• Barack's all You were "sitting on the board at Wal Mart" to Hillary and before she could even say "oh-nohu'ditin" she clarifies what Bill said and he' back on it like "I can't tell who I'm runnin' against sometimes." Ooh, snap! And den she's all you were defending a "slum landlord business!" Damn!


• Edwards sees an in and asks Can't we all just get along? How is this squabbling going to help?


• Obama says something about "teaser rates" of credit cards. Let's return to the foreclosure thing: if you can't read a piece of paper and understand that it says your rate will increase in six months or a year, you should not own a credit card. If you haven't learned your lesson the second or third or fourth time and keep loading up cards, you should not own a credit card. And if you're suffering from financial ruin, irresponsible or unfortunate, call the credit card companies and try to work something out; most would prefer some money to no money.


• Obama says we must be able to "trust in our leaders." No, not really. We need to constantly question our leaders, deciding whether or not they are working in our best interest, and calling them on it if they are not. Trust, in politics, quickly turns into complacency and before you know it, you're standing in the dark, barefoot on the concrete, in a pool of your own urine, a burlap sack on your head, and your pants at your ankles wondering how the hell this could've possibly happened.


• And Hillary's back and she's all "you never take responsibility for any vote, and that has been a pattern" at Barack's like Stop pickin' and she pulls out the Present votes. Ooh, that's cold.


• Obama used the words "Perfection of this union." Um, let's try tolerable before we shoot for perfection. And who's version of perfection are we shooting for? Subjectivity and cynicism prevents me from any sort of hope in a perfect union.


• Trial lawyers have given Edwards millions of dollars. What do they expect? Edwards response? "And what they expect from me is they expect me to stand up for democracy, for the right to jury trial, for the right for little people to be heard in the courtroom." Are you fucking kidding me? Who would say that? Who would believe it?

...and that was ostensibly the end of the debate content and the denouement of the relevance of John Edwards.

We have one more Dem debate 1/31 and a Repub debate Tomorrow, 1/24, and 1/30. And then Super Tuesday. And then I guess we'll see. It's going to be a very, very interesting few weeks.