Thoughts on the virtual town hall on Iraq with Democratic presidential candidates?

[yurbud]

I listened to all of it, and one thing that struck me was the questions were smarter and more honest than the answers. Just about all of the candidates were asked about oil and the Hydrocarbon Law that will give Iraq's oil wealth to big oil. While the candidates answered more or less correctly, it was striking that most of them have not spoken out on this issue before that will have a huge impact on how history views this war. Of the candidates there, Kucinich and Biden have spoken out on it before though Biden supports dividing Iraq, which will make it easier for oil companies to out-muscle those new smaller countries in negotiations.

A few years down the road, it will be undisputable that giving control of Iraq's oil to American corporations was the primary goal of the war. Iraqis and other Arabs already know that's why we are there, and allowing Bush to coerce Iraqis to enact that law will merely document the crime the way the torture memos documented those war crimes, and the way Bush's signing statements document his contempt for checks and balances.

TRANSCRIPT & VIDEOS:
http://pol.moveon.org/townhall/iraq/report_back.html

[fasttense]

1. I listen to it also,

and came away with the the feeling that if we combined the first three speakers plans(Edward"s, Biden's and Kucinich's) for getting out of Iraq, we could pull it off with very little pain to the Iraqis and the US.

I thought Clinton's and Obama's plans were vague and Edward's plan was the most likely to work by itself before the new president moves in. Edward's words I thought were the most inspiring.

[yurbud]

2. I agree. Edwards stood out. Obama seemed unusually stiff

This was a tough topic for them--they had to navigate between what people want to hear and what they know big business will allow them to do. And of course only Dennis Kucinich was honest about why we are there.

If Democrats want to be seen as tough, instead of outbidding the GOP for defense spending, they ought to do a blunt, frontal assault on the businesses that are screwing the average American (and even other businesses): big oil, health insurance companies, and credit card companies.

If someone didn't mince words and called them out as the parasites they are, people would be beating down that candidates door. The same thing is true on those trade agreements.