I have been watching the HBO series, “John Adams”….coincidentally, I’m reading “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin….they are both amazing examples of this experiment we call democracy. Which brings me to Obama. I agree with Bill Richardson who called him “a once in a lifetime candidate” the day he endorsed him. I have been saying that for over a year. I think that over the decades, a few great people come into this world who have the capacity to forge great changes for the better….Ghandii…Mandela…Lincoln…Pope John Paul…Martin Luther King….I truly believe Obama can do great things, given the opportunity….I pray he gets it. As for the “bitter” comment he made….I was living in Northwest Indiana 25 years ago, when the steel mills started shutting down….you could cut the bitterness with a knife.

Neither candidate won but I think the American people lost in this as in every other debate. I will vote for which ever of them wins the nomination because McCain scares me half to death. I also thought the questions were pretty lame. All along the questioners have thrown awfully soft balls to Obama because they all seem to be totally against having any women in the highest job in the land. The lack of support for Hillary in the media has given Obama a “mandate”. They all seem to be getting themselves convinced that he is the best choice. I have major questions about how Obama plans to do any of the changes he has touted in every possible venue. I just think he makes great speeches but has no substance to back his words. I pray that I am wrong about him, but I just don’t have any confidence in Obama.

It is a shame that the moderators asked questions about things that would only create sensation, NOT the many crucial issues of the day, the economy, the war, our standing in the world, energy needs to name a few. AND I am frankly tired of Hilary and Bill’s willingness to do or say ANYTHING to be back in the White House. Enough already.

It is a shame that the moderators asked questions about things that would only create sensation, NOT the many crucial issues of the day, the economy, the war, our standing in the world, energy needs to name a few. AND I am frankly tired of Hilary and Bill’s willingness to do or say ANYTHING to be back in the White House. Enough already.

It is a shame that the moderators asked questions about things that would only create sensation, NOT the many crucial issues of the day, the economy, the war, our standing in the world, energy needs to name a few. AND I am frankly tired of Hilary and Bill’s willingness to do or say ANYTHING to be back in the White House. Enough already.

How can anyone say that Hillary won over Obama. They didn’t get to any serious questions until it was almost over. I wish that we didn’t have to make this into a beauty contest, in which we rehash over and over again, the lastest fall of the day or the polls which have no place in a debate. We need to hear from our presidental candidates what they think on the war, taxes, health care and such. It was a draw!!

I miss the debates that were once on PBS and sponsored by the League of Women Voters. They were run with a degree of decorum and dignity that a network owned by Disney does not seem quite up to matching. At this point, it seems that no matter who won the debate, the chance that Hillary can get the nomination is so small, that who won the debate is not the best question. The 11 oclock news seemed most entertained that Hillary had responded Yes three different times to the question of whether Obama could win the November election. Yes! Yes! Yes! It was as if they were seducing her into becoming a character in a James Joyce novel. Since I first heard Hillary Clinton speak at an ABA meeting about eighteen years ago, I have been stunned by her ability to think on her feet and speak with passion. This year I wish that were enough for me, but I can’t get that war or her votes on it, out of my mind. I truly respect her and would love for there to be a female president. However, this year I think the candidate who opposed the war completely from the beginning is the one who can win. I expect Hillary will continue to be a significant leader, whether in the Senate or as Governor of New York or as Vice President. But I sure miss the League of Women Voters debates. Substance! Style! Dignity! Information! Why did that melt away?

Debate? What debate? There was no debate last night. The meaning of debate was never touched in that smear campaign. While Hillary smiled into the camera, she slipped the knife into Obama’s side very carefully, very thoughfully, very sinfully. I would not want her bad karma when I meet my maker. Obama has lots to learn. Hillary has already learned it all. Sadly she only learned the worst, and none of the best. She has no ethics. I can’t possibly vote for her. Women like her make me ashamed to be called a woman. In other words she behaved exactly like a rich white man running for office. God help us. We’re getting nowhere fast, just as the rich white man owned media had planned. They put Bush into office twice, and now they’re going to finish off the Dems, attack by attack, until they make McCain look like some kind of saint. Then they’ll move in for the kill. It will take a miracle to get Obama elected now. AND I am a middleclass WHITE businesswoman. Yes, I know what you were thinking. Not true. I just happen to like ethical people.

I am a little frustrated as I wrote a long comment and it got lost! Oh, well, perhaps it is symbolic of my frustration with last night’s debate. Who won? No one. Not the viewers who had to endure a poorly designed debate with superficial questions and lot of posturing by the questioners (who were not journalists!). Not the candidates. Barack was tired and defensive but still held his “cool.” Not Hillary who was in “policy wonk” form. Not ABC who did not seem to know how to conduct a legitimate debate. It was a lose-lose all around. I hope the Democrats stop debating. It is all downhill. After 21 debates ( and I have watched ALL of them) it has already been said. I hope Barack wins the next few primaries so the super delegates will step up and end this misery. Or we will lose the election in the fall. I must say I am not a Hillary supporter especially after how she & Bill have conducted this campaign (playing the race card, saying anything to get elected, tearing down their fellow Democrat, etc.). They both need to go back to “day jobs”—-Hillary to the Senate, and Bill to being a statesmanlike ex-President. Enough already.

Again our election parties are giving us only a choice between two evils. What we do not know about Senator Obama is what scares me about him, comming from the south side of Chicago! And as far as the church thing goes, a church of God does not preach hate, of any kind. Kinda like the hadrasa’s. Also I fear if Senator Obama does get the election and does not make good on his word, it will set back civil rights. Furthermore he seems more comfortable following Senator Clinton in the debates rather then leading. This makes me question about his leadership. As for Senator Clinton, I question the corruption from her husband’s time in office. And I question what her husband will be doing behind her in the White House. But one thing is positive about her, and the Chinese said it best “One can only judge one’s streangth, buy the streangth of there enemies. And she does have the most enemies of all of them and holds her own. And as far as Senator McCain goes, other then what the Republicans are now famous for, his age is aginst him. And it scares me the fact that he has been in our enemies hands for far to long to be commander and chief.

Oh Mr. Rowe, you don’t seriously think that John McCain is the Manchurian candidate? Granted he graduated near the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy, but I think he was competing for the honor of being “anchor” at that time, a curious and dubious prize given to the worst student who manages to graduate. Still, his main claim to fame was steadfasting refusing to leave Hanoi unless his fellow POWs were released with him. All the while, his father was ordering the bombing of Hanoi. But while that makes for a gripping story, I don’t think it makes him a suitable president. I also don’t think it makes him a likely brainwashee of the Viet Cong. His main mementoes of that era seem to be an aversion to torture—not a bad thing—and an unfortunate tendency to describe his captors with racial slurs. Obama worked in the south side of Chicago, but he hardly came from there. He came variously from Hawaii, Indonesia and then went to college in Los Angeles, New York City and New Haven. He was full grown and 24 when he went to work in Chicago. As for his church, I think his pastor’s remarks have been taken out of context and some of those remarks were in the days immediately following 911, when a lot of people said bizarre and emotional things. Do you really think the Clintons were more corrupt that the Bushes? After all, the Bush administration is responsible for so much crimes and corruption it is difficult to begin to catalogue it all. Dozens of books have been written about it, however.