The Poetist

Last Thursday night the Democratic presidential hopefuls convened at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas – Dodd, Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Kucinich, and Biden.

There’s been so much Edwards/Obama vs. Clinton hype the sparks flew as soon as the debate opened. Apparently people were watching Hillary to see how she reacted to barbs from the boys, and the duo to see how aptly they could gain an edge over Lady Clinton. That’s a tough line to walk and they kind of went overboard in the beginning. As Edwards expressed it later, ‘it’s not personal. The voters need to know the difference between the candidates.’ That’s a good point. People often complain that they can’t tell candidates apart, but then when they try to point out differences they get lambasted for not focusing on the issues.

Overall I felt like Edwards and Biden stood out with good policies and clear heads. Obama got bogged down when he tried to spar with Hillary but overall I think his attitude and perspective came out very clear and that’s where I think his strengths lie.

On to the issues…

Energy – Obama got a question about nuclear waste deposits in Yucca Mountain, not excessively far from Las Vegas. Apparently Obama voted against it and one of the audience members asked him where they should put it. That was a good question, and this speaks to one of my probems with Obama, that he’s not progressive enough on alternative energy sources. The conversation went something like this:
audience member – you voted against depositing nuclear waste in Yucca mountain and while your home state, Illinois, gets 40% of its energy from nuclear power you don’t want to put it in your backyard either. So, if not in your backyard, whose?
Obama – I think we can come up with new technology to deal with this.
Wolf Blitzer – but what if we can’t? Or at least what do you do until that point?
Obama – I take issue with the fact that you keep asking what if we can’t. I think we can. I wouldn’t be in this race if I didn’t think we could solve these problems.

That’s why I love Obama, but I’m still not sure about him. He’s right that there are solutions to problem that people think are intractable. He is, however, not visionary enough when it comes to energy and the environment. In my opinion supporting nuclear energy is wrong. Instead of putting a lot of resources into developing new technology to handle nuclear waste so that we can create more, we should certainly address the existing problem of nuclear waste but also put resources into renewable energy sources so that dealing with excessive waste and pollution as an energy byproduct becomes a thing of the past. Right attitude, wrong solution.

Dodd, bless his heart, was the sole candidate who emphasized that the American people would have to make sacrifices to acheive energy independence. 

Abortion – There was another outstanding one-off comment from Kucinich later on.  The question was about ensuring the placement of a pro-abortion justice on the Supreme Court and while all the candidates supported Roe v. Wade and the right to privacy, Kucinich was the only one who even mentioned the importance of birth control, pre-natal care, post-natal care, and the role they should play in the abortion debate.  That was quite possibly the sanest and most respectable answer I heard all evening.

I (obviously) didn’t take copious notes, and I’m sure there is a lot I forgot in the 5 or so days it took me to finish this post, but there is one more anecdote I’d like to share, on the subject of war.  I don’t remember who, but one candidate talked about how it’s great that candidates learn from their mistakes when endorsing policies, etc, but how wonderful things could be if candidates got their answers right ‘the first time.’  Case in point (mine, not his) Hillary Clinton approved the war in Iraq from the beginning while Obama had the forethought to vote against it.  That’s important.  At this point most of the war’s former supports now see it as a mistake… but what would the world be like if politicians and policy-makers had gotten that right the first time? 

Well, what’s done is done but that doesn’t mean lessons can’t be learned.  Even Hillary, who often seems to me to be the most centrist of the candidates, declared a number of times that democrats need to have the courage to “stand up” to Bush and Cheney.  One of the questions posed from the audience was essentially ‘what does it look like to learn the lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan?  What can be done to prevent the same mistakes from being committed?’  Both Biden and Edwards highlighted a recent vote in the Senate to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.  That’s the first step towards starting a war against Iran; a designation supported by Bush, Cheney and the neo-cons.  Biden voted against this (Obama couldn’t vote because he was on the campaign trail).  Hilary… who urges democrats to stand up to the neo-cons… voted in favor of the resolution.  That’s a great illustration of why I don’t trust her and why I fully support highlighting the differences between candidates.