Daily Kos gives Edwards an "A" for the debate - scores the rest lower

[rumguy]

"Edwards (A) -- Watch out for Edwards. Repeat: Watch out for Edwards. He was sandbagged about the Islam question, and yet still managed to be quite self-effacing and nimble on his feet. He has the right answers on the 2nd Amendment, and his talk about poverty is nothing short of courageous because there's no pandering to people who basically do not vote. He could move up into second in NH just as he did in IA."

www.dailykos.com

[lastknowngood]

1. I don't know he seamed to kind of get lost

on a couple of questions but he was upbeat and positive.

[arewethereyet]

2. and that obviously counts for a lot

especially when its genuine

[AP]

6. ...the islam question was the only one, and Kos is right. He did well with

it. And what he says about the poor not voting and it taking courage to speak up for them is totally true to.

When was the last time yuo saw THAT in presidential politics?

Edwards is going to win because he speaks well to the issues the middle class is feeling, but by finally introducing the 37 million in poverty into the debate, he gave people a little insight into what's in his heart.

Also, it didn't hurt that it left Hume stammering and trying to justify his miserable existence on earth. Across from each other were an asshole who lies for Republicans so they can further their greedy aims, which put more and more Americans into a misery, and a man who's doing everything he can to stop them.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

3. The rest: Clark - B, Kerry - B, Dean - B. I agree except I give Edwards a

"B" also. No one really shone or did really badly IMO.

Clark (B) -- He's reading his resume too much, and gets visibly jittery on most domestic issues. And although he did a decent job deflecting the issues related to his Democratic cred, he cannot wiggle out of his multitudinous positions on the war.

Dean (B) -- Self-effacing about the Primal Scream, and more consistent on making his points about having shown courage to take tough stands. But he's de-fanged. It's hard to look at him and not think about the Val Air Ballroom, um, "concession" speech. And what a shame: Nobody riffs better about the need for Democrats to redefine, and recapture from the GOP, the very definitions and terms of our most important public debates.

Kerry (B) -- Playing safe is smart, and all Kerry needs right now are "B"'s to stay at the head of the class. It's far easier (and much smarter) to run out the clock in the mere seven days between Iowa and New Hampshire, than to do so for the seven or so weeks of Dean's front-runnership leading into Iowa.

Lieberman (C) -- Can the Senator please answer a question without telling people how well he knows himself, and how everybody from George Bush to burly labor goons thinks he's just peachy? I just think he's just preachy. Though my least favorite candidate, I would vote for him if he went through one debate without going over the time limit more often than not. But he can't, because Joe has all the answers.

Kucinich (D)

[LiberalBushFan]

7. multitudinous positions?

Remember this is Brit Hume we're talking about. Have you read the article he was quoting? I read it a while ago and him taking the quote out of context made me hate him more than ever before. How is a candidate supposed to verbally defend a out-of-context snippet from an article in one minute when the audience does not have the article in front of them? It was the most unfair question of the entire debate.

[Guaranteed]

10. I disagree.

This debate is about setting one's self apart from the others. There are three candidates that truly did that, but only two that did it effectively- Dean and Lieberman.

Dean and Lieberman won this debate. They made the clearest mark on people's minds. Their messages were consistent, and they made sure that people could see the difference between them and the other candidates. That is the key to winning an multi-person debate.

[poopyjr]

4. He was solid. It wasn't his best. He seemed spooked on a couple of Q's

He did better than the other Southern candidate (Clark) I thought. The questions the guys were getting were bullshit.

[sandnsea]

5. I thought he won

I thought he was very strong and direct. He didn't talk in campaign sound bytes, but he still managed to answer questions with a very sincere and honest tone. He definitely is someone to watch.

[rumguy]

8. kick for JRE

[jenk]

9. he answered a lot of dumb questions really well

I don't think he got a single important quality question all night, but answered everything quite well.

Edwards tried to steer the debate towards more important issues with the poverty thing, I guess he thought they'd ask him on stuff like jobs, healthcare, outsourcing, foreign relations etc. instead he gets stuff like "terry mcauliffe called bush a bigot on so and so....."

[poopyjr]

11. I know, it was so pointless.

Hey! let's ask him about Terry McCauliffe and a gay marriage bill that was passed before he was even in politics!!!!

[eileen from OH]

12. I happen to agree. . .

and I'm a Dean supporter. In fact, I think, lumping all the debates together, he's been the overall winner. He's eloquent as hell and even when he doesn't know about something (Islam, give me a bloody break) he still sounds good. He doesn't resort to blah-blah-blah stump speech snippets and his riff tonight on bringing the debate back to people-oriented issues, was terrific.

I still think he's "thin" on experience and I am not convinced at ALL that he can win the South, just by virtue of his background and accent. (In fact, if I was from the South I'd get a tad insulted that the conventional wisdom is if a candidate is FROM the South, well, that's it - guaranteed vote.)

But the guy can TALK, dammit. And of all of 'em, in a debate situation, he could chew up Bush and he wouldn't know what hit him.

eileen from OH

[incapsulated]

13. He is *very* fast on his feet

He handled the Islam question very well. From everything I've seen of him, he is a really gifted politician, and I mean that in the best sense. Clinton would've never survived the RW attacks without that skill, and Edwards reminds me of him in that way.

[rumguy]

14. yes he is, the answer to that Islam question was masterful