Debates and Destinations
This is really two blog entries rolled into one. Part one is about tonight's YouTube debate among the Democratic presidential candidates. The second is about my recent travels, especially the one to Baltimore.
Here's something I think is really telling--and sad. The post debate CNN scorecard, where web users like you and me can vote for who they think "won" the debate, or was most disappointing, etc., has 43% saying Joe Biden knew the most about the issues and sounded best in responding to actual issue points. And yet, only 11% listed him as "winning" the debate, whereas Hillary Clinton got a 42% "win" count despite a much lower rating in most other categories across the board. How is that possible? Do people not get what a debate actually is? Do they not understand, even after 7 years of a horribly incompetent administration, what a president should be? First and foremost, he (or she) has got to understand the issues and have real, concrete strategies for dealing with them. They even recognize that Biden is the best choice based on that criteria. Yet Hillary Clinton "wins" the debate.
This is just further evidence of the way the media warps people's minds. Most people were only looking to see whether Clinton or Obama (or maybe Edwards) would "win" the debate because the media has already told them these are the only candidates. They've force fed it to people so much that even though most people clearly see someone else up there who is better on the issues, they still dont' have the independence to declare that person the winner. Well here I am, making a plea to all the millions of people who read this blog (okay, so..like a couple dozen) to either read the transcripts or watch the replay of the debate and decide for yourself if I'm right or wrong. Because I think anyone who paid serious attention to tonight's debate would see exactly what I mean. Joe Biden is by far the candidate who has detailed understanding of all the issues that will face the next president and legitimate ideas about how to deal with them. He speaks his mind and tells it like it is. I urge everyone to consider supporting him in whatever way they can. The best way right now would be to make a donation at www.joebiden.com so that the media can report about his "fundraising wins" since that actually does get their attention even when detailed, intelligent, well thought out positions on issues don't.
Now that that's ou of the way...on to Baltimore.
I went there to visit Katie, a friend from high school, and her mom, too, actually, who was a teacher at the school and more importantly to me, the forensics coach. It was a really fun weekend which included a trip to an Orioles game (on fireworks night, no less!), a tour of the Baltimore Basilica (the first Catholic cathedral in the U.S.), a visit to the U.S.S. Constellation (a 22-gun sloop of war anchored in the Inner Harbor) and a walk along the ramparts of Ft. McHenry (the one made famous in the Star Spangled Banner). There was also a night-time outing to community theater production of HMS Pinnafore which was...okay. Not really my kind of show. Maybe I'll put up pictures at some point.
Since I came back to West Virginia, I made a separate trip to Morgantown to visit my friend Kelli, where we managed to finally celebrate our 11-day apart birthdays in true Morgantown fashion, with birthday cheesecake, lots of draft beer at Crockett's (at half the California prices, damn west coast prices!), and then DP Dough calzones at about 4 in the morning. Fun times.
So, in closing, Vote Biden!
Here's something I think is really telling--and sad. The post debate CNN scorecard, where web users like you and me can vote for who they think "won" the debate, or was most disappointing, etc., has 43% saying Joe Biden knew the most about the issues and sounded best in responding to actual issue points. And yet, only 11% listed him as "winning" the debate, whereas Hillary Clinton got a 42% "win" count despite a much lower rating in most other categories across the board. How is that possible? Do people not get what a debate actually is? Do they not understand, even after 7 years of a horribly incompetent administration, what a president should be? First and foremost, he (or she) has got to understand the issues and have real, concrete strategies for dealing with them. They even recognize that Biden is the best choice based on that criteria. Yet Hillary Clinton "wins" the debate.
This is just further evidence of the way the media warps people's minds. Most people were only looking to see whether Clinton or Obama (or maybe Edwards) would "win" the debate because the media has already told them these are the only candidates. They've force fed it to people so much that even though most people clearly see someone else up there who is better on the issues, they still dont' have the independence to declare that person the winner. Well here I am, making a plea to all the millions of people who read this blog (okay, so..like a couple dozen) to either read the transcripts or watch the replay of the debate and decide for yourself if I'm right or wrong. Because I think anyone who paid serious attention to tonight's debate would see exactly what I mean. Joe Biden is by far the candidate who has detailed understanding of all the issues that will face the next president and legitimate ideas about how to deal with them. He speaks his mind and tells it like it is. I urge everyone to consider supporting him in whatever way they can. The best way right now would be to make a donation at www.joebiden.com so that the media can report about his "fundraising wins" since that actually does get their attention even when detailed, intelligent, well thought out positions on issues don't.
Now that that's ou of the way...on to Baltimore.
I went there to visit Katie, a friend from high school, and her mom, too, actually, who was a teacher at the school and more importantly to me, the forensics coach. It was a really fun weekend which included a trip to an Orioles game (on fireworks night, no less!), a tour of the Baltimore Basilica (the first Catholic cathedral in the U.S.), a visit to the U.S.S. Constellation (a 22-gun sloop of war anchored in the Inner Harbor) and a walk along the ramparts of Ft. McHenry (the one made famous in the Star Spangled Banner). There was also a night-time outing to community theater production of HMS Pinnafore which was...okay. Not really my kind of show. Maybe I'll put up pictures at some point.
Since I came back to West Virginia, I made a separate trip to Morgantown to visit my friend Kelli, where we managed to finally celebrate our 11-day apart birthdays in true Morgantown fashion, with birthday cheesecake, lots of draft beer at Crockett's (at half the California prices, damn west coast prices!), and then DP Dough calzones at about 4 in the morning. Fun times.
So, in closing, Vote Biden!