Is it me or were the Dennis and Al being talked over last night?

[mrgorth]

I didn't see much of the debate but it seemed to me that whenever Al or DK were speaking someone, and I'm not sure who it was, would start talking over them, like they were trying to get a word in. I found it personally insulting.

[molly]

1. Personally insulting?

the moderators did not "ignore" them, but they interupted a few times.

[mrgorth]

3. I didn't say they ignored them

"interrupting a few times" is very, very rude. We should not be happy about it.

[molly]

5. But Al and DK interrupted -

or weren't you looking for that?

[Mile Hi]

4. In essence they did

Kerry and Edwards were allowed to talk longer and follow each other with rebuttal, while DK and Sharpton were continually cut short.

[GreenArrow]

6. I don't know...

as a citizen, and as a human being, I found it kind of insulting, as the whole thing was something of a charade. Your candidate did very well, IMO, but he did seem to have more opportunity to do so.

[GreenArrow]

2. it seems the debate was set up with that in mind

even the headline on MSN.com is "Kerry, Edwards Debate."

Yes, it was insulting, and the debate team last night gives the lie to the term "professional media." It was about an unprofessional, manipulative and dishonest performance as you're likely to see.

[Bread and Circus]

7. It's not you. They were treated like shit by pretty much everyone.

The camera angles, Kerry, Edwards, King, the questioners...

It was all a big whack job to marginalize them and make it look
like a Kerry/Edwards ticket.

[mmonk]

8. The moderators

seemed intent on making it the two man debate Edwards was after.

[H2O Man]

9. I thought it went well.

I thought all four candidates did very well. I found the focus to be on the "bad" side of the bush administration. Of course, I'd far rather see a debate with any three d.u. contributers asking questions. But if it's on CNN, the moderators are going to ask a different type of question. Maybe D.U. should host a debate??? I'd like to ask each of the four a few questions myself! Nothing negative ... just to focus attention on our common problems, and the path to a joint resolution of these difficulties.

[mmonk]

10. A DU hosted debate would be a dream come true

America would get a deeper perspective.

[emulatorloo]

11. Ron and Larry were interrupting everybody - I though DK and AS did great

and despite the format, managed to hit their issues, get their points across, and get great audience response.

[Jivenwail]

12. I watched the entire debate

And coming out of the gate, Larry King was the wrong one to moderate this thing. It was their intent to make it between Kerry/Edwards, that was obvious. But the treatment of both Dennis and Sharpton was in stark contrast to Kerry/Edwards. Sharpton attempted to say several times this was about gaining delegates in order to have a voice at the convention and to help shape the platform. But the message was completely lost.

JMHO, of course, but if all 4 are still vying for the nomination, then all 4 should have been treated equally by the 3 individuals posing the questions and they should've been allowed to respond, as appropriate. Dennis kept raising his hand in an attempt to be recognized. I was put off by the entire thing. And some of the questions Larry King was asking reminded me of what they tried to do to Dukakis - when King was asking Kerry/Edwards about their stand on capital punishment and he tried to pigeon-hole them by asking what they would do to someone who had killed a young child. It seemed to me that it was hard for any of them to stay on message with the questions that King was tossing about.

I did think the best line of the evening belonged to Sharpton, though. He said there should be a Constitutional Amendment against "Presidents who lie". Garnered a lot of applause!

If these debates are indicative of what we can look forward to in the General Election, watch out. They won't be asking awol the tough questions, you can be assured.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome home USS ENTERPRISE strike group!
Welcome home BIG E on Sunday!

[info being]

29. What do you mean "the message was completely lost"?

Why? Becuase it wasn't "confirmed" or "validated" by Larry King? Why do people think like that? If it made sense to you, then it wasn't lost.

[revcarol]

13. CNN this morning: will the two Johns be together?

They speculated yes. Their comments on the debate last night were limited to this speculation. NO re-run on anything substantive or the other two candidates. MORE unprofessional journalism.

[Vagabond]

14. It wasn't just you.

At least Al insisted on being heard every so often, but Dennis didn't. Neither was afforded the equal respect and treatment received by the ever-jocular Edwards and the presumptive nominee Kerry.

BTW, did you catch some of Kerry's feigned looks of shock? geez

[Tinoire]

15. It was insulting

From the seating arrangements to the way the questions were handled to King's dismissive attituded it was insulting.

Notice how they seated Edwards & Kerry next to each other to deliberately drive home the "Edwards/Kerry" subliminal image and give them more exposusre (Kerry, Edwards, Kerry, Edwards & foret the two goofs on the other end as we split the camera shots).

My vote is staying with the 2 goofs- the two antiwar goofs.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

23. I was so furious...

I had smoke coming out of my ears! :)

I have never seen such an insulting display during a debate in my life. We are down to four people and had a great chance to actually hear from them ALL, and DK & AS were treated as if they were not even at the table. It's crystal clear the attitude was, "If we pretend their not here, maybe they will go away."

No doubt it was planned that way. I heard afterwards from the gal interviewer that she and Brownstein has specifically gone in with the intention of focusing on Edwards and Kerry, with an attempt to draw them out as to their differences.

I had wished that DK had been able to find a classy way to remind Larry et al that this was a debate between FOUR people, so please act accordingly.

[RichM]

16. It was outrageous. Every cheap trick - body language, shuffling papers,

looking away when Al or DK were speaking, or starting new questions to Kerry & Edwards before Al or DK had finished their responses; camera angles - everything was used to marginalize those two men.

It was worse in the case of DK, because Al chose a "street-wise play tough" strategy to combat the rudeness. Al just forced his way back into the conversation by refusing to be muzzled. Dennis, OTOH, with his sense of decency and basically non-aggressive orientation, didn't really fight. He got a few good remarks in anyway, but largely allowed himself to be mistreated. As much as I admire him, I thought this was a mistake. He knows by now what scum these media people are -- he should have explicitly called them on it, as he did to Koppel in December.

[doc03]

17. Al Sharpten convinced me to vote for Dennis Kucinich

Al kept saying that he was in the race to get delegates to influence the platform. Well I think the same thing could be said for Kucinich also. It's obvious the news media picked Kerry and Edwards as the front runners and they ignore Sharpten and Kucinich. From what I see
Al Sharpten and Dennis Kucinich are the only ones say what they believe. Kucinich comes right out and says he will dump NAFTA and the WTO. Kerry and Edwards try to play both sides of every issue, honestly I don't know where the hell they stand on anything. So of the four while I don't agree with Kucinich on everything I know exactly where he stands on the issues that are important to me. If Kucinich wasn't in the race my second choice would be Sharpen. So Tuesday I will be voting for Kucinich in the Ohio primaries.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. Welcome to the team, doc03!

:hi:

[MaggieSwanson]

20. I am even more grateful for Al Sharpton, then!

:toast:

Thanks, doc03!

[diamondsoul]

24. did you notice the unity

between Sharpton and Kucinich?

I didn't think about it until this morning, myself but I thought it was kick-@ss that Shaprton leapt to Dennis' defense quite a few times, even if he also defended himself. He was also right on the money at every turn.

[Viking12]

18. It wasn't just you.

The moderators were a collective joke. When DK explained his health care plan, Larry screamed, "THAT'S SOCIALISM," as if socialism were Nazism. Moderators are supposed to elicit conversation from all participants, not interject their twisted views. DK had a great come back though, "what we have now, Larry, is predatory capitalism which makes of the American people a cash crop for the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies."

[Freddie Stubbs]

21. Democratic primary voters have ignored him

The leading candidates are just taking their cues for the primary results.

[diamondsoul]

25. Same ol' same ol'.

Whatsamatta, Freddie? You don't like real issues being on the table?

*yawn*

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

22. The Grimacing Got To Me Too

And I was a Clark supporter with no strong rooting interest in this. Not only were Kucinich and Sharpton interrupted by both the Moderators and the other candidates, but I noticed Edwards and, to a lesser extent Kerry, mugging and grimacing over what the two minor candidates said. Not professional or statesman-like at all.

[redqueen]

27. Didn't they do a fantastic job of fostering 'unity'?

/sarcasm

:grr:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

26. Yes they were being talked over and dismissed

The difference was Sharpton didn't allow it or back down and Kucinich did. I'm not criticizing Kucinich for being a gentleman but in the end, Sharpton's ideas got out there and Kucinich got to make on rousing point.

All I can say is the one thing I have learned from cross-examining is that the person that is the loudest gets heard by the court reporter.

[bigtree]

28. I think that whoever gets more of their message out wins

That is the responsibility of the candidate, not the moderators or the other candidates. If one candidate dominated then he did what he was supposed to do. This is a contest, and the GE will be even more so. I like my candidate to dominate the discussion. I don't care much how they achieve that. Whether it is by their front runner status, or by relentless criricism, or by the force of their personality, the candidates are charged with overcoming obstacles to their ability to communicate with voters. The victor is that candidate who gets his message out. That person deserves consideration as he will be challenged in the presidency to do the same.