ABC TRANSCRIPT: The Democratic Debate

[L. Coyote]

TRANSCRIPT: The Democratic Debate
George Stephanopoulos Moderates Democratic Debate on a Special Edition of "This Week"

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Decision2008/story?id=3498294&page=1

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Thanks for posting the link!

My favorite part of the debate:

Congressman Kucinich, what's the decisive moment in your life?

KUCINICH: I would say the decisive moment in my life was when my family was living in a car in the inner city and I thought about all the dreams that I could have as a child. And I decided, at an early age, that I was going to be someone.

And I've had a lot of help along the way to get to this stage, but I can tell you, as president, the American people will have someone who remembers where he came from and has the compassion in his heart to lift up everyone to make sure everyone has a chance.

What's your favorite part?

[graywarrior]

2. Debate is being shown on C-SPAN at 6:30 EST tonight.

[mzmolly]

3. Good to know,

thanks!

[LWolf]

4. There was little of interest, since the allowed time was

not exactly divided democratically. Here are a few gems I gleaned from the dross; the bolding is mine. From Kucinich:

My entire life I've been saying things that other people were afraid to say, and I've been consistently proven right. So this is what I do.

And in the White House, I'll let the American people know exactly what's going on, our path to peace, to not-for-profit health care, to education for all. That's the kind president that the American people want, straight from the shoulder.

.........................................................................................

The American people have a right to expect that we're going to take a new direction. But, frankly, you cannot expect a new direction with the same kind of thinking that took us into war in the first place.

We cannot leave more troops there. We cannot privatize Iraq's oil. We cannot partition that country and expect there's going to be peace.

We need a president who understands that, one who's been right from the start, and one who has shown the judgment, the wisdom, and the maturity to take the right stand at the time that it counted most, when the American people needed someone to stand up. And I'm the one who did that.

...................................................................................................

We can talk about George Bush driving a bus into a ditch, but let's not forget there was a Democratic Senate in charge that OK'ed the war. And those senators who are up on this stage helped to authorize that war and they have to take responsibility for that.


And, of course,

Were you tricked, Senator Clinton?

from Richardson:

Well, you asked the question, are we for merit pay for teachers? No, I'm not for it. But what we need to do is pay our teachers better. They are disrespected.

(APPLAUSE)

RICHARDSON: I have proposed a minimum wage for our teachers, $40,000 per year.

I also have a one-point plan, like I do on Iraq, on No Child Left Behind: Scrap it. It's a mess; it's a disaster.

From Biden:

My father used to say, "Don't tell me what you value; show me your budget." If you, in fact, value education, then it should be equally as important as engineering or anything else.

[L. Coyote]

5. NY TIMES Debate Outtakes: The Mortgage Crisis

August 19, 2007, 4:58 pm
Debate Outtakes: The Mortgage Crisis
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/debate-outtakes-the-mortgage-crisis/

By Kate Phillips

As ABC’s George Stephanopoulos reminded everyone this morning during the Democratic debate in Iowa, the war in Iraq — or as he put it, how to get out of Iraq — remained uppermost in the minds of Americans and among those who had submitted questions for the forum.

But before we get to Iraq, one of the most startling, and perhaps troubling, moments during this debate was the little attention paid to one of the most gripping economic issues erupting on the American landscape — the mortgage lending crisis. Questions about it — even with the expert, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of the Banking Committee, standing right there — seemed an afterthought, tucked in at the end between merit pay for teachers and a query about what epiphanic moment led each of the Democratic candidates to the “broad path’’ that reached the debate stage.

The time allotted to this issue seemed, well, paltry .........