(Putting this in the pit even with no pitting because it’s not a great debate, and political threads always end up here).
So on my way home from work this evening I turned on NPR and heard the very beginning of the California Senatorial debate. The first question was to the Republican, Carly Fiorina.
Now, the first question of political debates is ALWAYS stupid. Always. First of all, the candidate spends 30 seconds of their 2 minutes or so thanking the moderators and so forth. And then they take whatever question was asked and warp it into a standard boilerplate pre-prepared set of comments, usually about lowering taxes.
So I was very impressed when Fiorina answered a question about regulations with… an answer about regulations. And in fact, one that was reasonable and thoughtful and made points I agreed with (even if I don’t necessarily agree with her overall policies).
I also listened to half of (democrat) Barbara Boxer’s first answer, and it wasn’t terrible, but Fiorina was clearly winning after 1.5 questions.
Granted, there is exactly zero chance that I will vote for Fiorina (which is another drawback of our two party system… the fact that judging individual candidates often ends up subordinate to votes based on party power balance), but she seems like an intelligent and thoughtful and knowledgeable candidate.
Haley Barbour truly and steadfastly stands for the traditional values of Mississippi and the Old South and apparently makes money the old-fashioned way.
See? See? This is why we can’t have nice things. Here we have a genuine attempt by members of largely left-identifying board praising their political opponents and some folk have to come along and piss all over it.
We’ve got some pretty good local candidates who have great ideas for relevant issues for county and state level stuff that run as Republicans. But it’s hard to vote for them, because they also have to loudly announce that they’re anti-choice, anti-gay, and anti-evolution to get the nomination.
