High point of the debate

By Libby I didn't watch the debate. I gave up after about the third one because I saw where the format was going. Matt sums it up nicely this morning. It's all about the questions. These aren't debates, they're circus sideshows designed solely to entertain the moderators and provide meaningless, gotcha soundbites for the next news cycle. The voters learn virtually nothing about the candidates' postions on issues of importance. On early review, this would seem to be the most meaningful moment of the night. At tonight’s CNN Democratic debate, the candidates heard a strong warning against U.S. military action against Iran from Christopher Jackson, a Marine who served three tours of duty in Iraq: I feel that if we continue on the path we’re at, that’s where we’re going to end up — in Iran. And that’s not what our troops need. Our troops need to come home now. Cheney might want to take note that the audience applauded vigorously. Meanwhile, I find the post-event debates on who 'won' rather silly. No one really wins in any meaningful sense of the word, but the loser is clearly the voter who was robbed of two hours of their lives and comes away with no better information about their potential president than they started with.