Part II: 7:30

Edwards’ video plays Hair and might be funny but I CAN’T SEE IT. It’s ridiculous that they run it in a small screen. I assume they think we’re going to be scared away if the video isn’t full CNN quality. But seeing it tiny is worse! CNN’s audience is 59 and a half. They have bad eyes. They can’t see these tiny videos, damnit.

Now, Darfur. Now, substance. Richardson talks about what it needed; he has been there. He calls for a permanent UN peacekeeping force. Biden says he’s tired of this. “Let’s get right to it.” He, too, went to that camp. He wants to send troops here. Gravel says the African nations don’t want us because they’re afraid of us. Cooper cuts him off. Clinton says that the U.S. needs to provide logistical support while still concentrating its troops on Afghanistan.

Now we have a tribute to Citadel veterans killed in Iraq because the debate is there.

Now to Iraq questions. The first asks “how do we pull out now?” Cooper repeats that. Well, that assumes we should pull out now. Obama — interrupted by Cooper, which is beginning to irritate me — says “we can be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in.”

7:46. Cooper asks Biden “how do we pull out now.” Once again, a question that jumps over a lot. Biden says it will take a year to pull out and we need a political solution afterwards (which is the question Biden’s campaign wanted many to ask at this debate).

Next question on Iraq: The mother of a soldier in Iraq for the second time blames this on the Democrats. Clinton gives the obligatory thank-you to the families of servicemen in Iraq. She pushes for a timeline. Better answer than question. Kucinich, then, too blames the Democrats for the war.

It’s one matter for Cooper to keep things going, another for him to keep interrupting the answers. I find him irritating.

7:52: A questioner from West Virginia tells Gravel he’s offended by him saying that the dead in Vietnam died in vain. “It’s a set-up question,” Gravel says, “Our soldiers in Vietnam died in vain.” He says you can go there and get a Baskin-Robbins ice cream cone. How that makes the deaths in vain, I’m not so sure.

There are too many voices on this debate: too many candidates. A moment like that is the demonstration of it.

Now Obama finds his excuse to attack Clinton for her Iraq vote. Anderson doesn’t give Clinton the opportunity to respond. Cooper keeps asking them whether our troops died in vain in Iraq. As if anyone would say they did.

7:56: Should women register for Selective Service? Dodd uses this as an excuse to push his national service notion. Cooper keeps repeating the question to many of the candidates. I’m not sure why this is one of the few questions that goes to so many.

Now a question from a serviceman serving “overseas” who asks Clinton why Clinton thinks she’d be taken seriously by Muslim nations that do not respect women. After the obligatory thank-you-for-your-service, Clinton recounts how she has met with leaders in many nations and she is taken seriously and many nations have women presidents. The nonissue of nonissues. Clinton says it would be most appropriate to have a woman president deal with Muslim nations.

Another question asking whether these candidates would be willing to meet with the leaders of Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Venezuela. Obama says sure. He says we have an “obligation” to find ways to “move forward.” Hmmm. Who would you not meet with? That’s the question I would ask. Clinton says she will not promise to meet with these leaders in the first year. She says she would not be used for propaganda purposes and would meet with people based on the goals. Good answer.

Edwards has it both ways: He’d meet but agrees with Clinton that diplomacy is needed first.

8:05: A questioner asks for the date we’d be out of Iraq and asks who has relatives in Iraq.