Garling Gauge

Nevada Democratic ‘Debate Firsts’ 1/15/08

The ‘Survivors’

Race & gender pole vault into the Democratic discourse

Live blogging of the debate.

The race has tightened to the big three: Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama, and former Sen. John Edwards. Back in Nevada, the debate is another intense sit down affair (still not sure how that’s possible). So grab a good drink, kick back your feet, and enjoy more debate firsts.

Debate Firsts

• First to be excluded from the debate: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Nevada Supreme Court rules MSNBC is within their rights to exclude him)
• First candidate shown at the beginning of the debate: Republican Mitt Romney!? (Yep, he won Michigan)
• First Question: How did we get here? (with race and gender involved in the political discourse)
• First to answer a question: Sen. Hillary Clinton
• First to wear a striped tie: Sen. John Edwards
• First to use part of his stump speech in an answer: Edwards
• First to wear a tie with a goofy print: Sen. Barack Obama
• First debate to have the candidates and the moderators sitting at the same table: This one!
• First to take notes: Edwards
• First wrinkled brow to look like roller coaster: Edwards
• First to ask if he regrets a comment: Obama
• First to say he’s fighting for change: Edwards
• First exciting moment: Look out! Someone from the audience is yelling out something indiscernible! (sounded like: “these are race based questions”)
• Second exciting moment: The moderators say the candidates get to ask each other questions - w00t!
• First to say the three candidates on stage are ‘the survivors’: Clinton
• First to point his finger at moderator Tim Russert: Obama
• Obama’s self-described greatest strength: Bring people together
• Obama’s self-described greatest weakness: Can lose paperwork, keeps a messy office
• Edward’s self-described greatest strength: Fighting for others
• Edward’s self-described greatest weakness: Too emotional
• Clinton’s self-described greatest strength: Passionate about… not sure, her answer was overly complicated.
• Clinton’s self-described greatest weakness: Impatience
• First to try and separate himself from the other candidates: Edwards (my change is better)
• First to specifically separate herself from another candidate: Clinton on Obama saying he’s not a Chief Operating Officer and president needs to be, and I am)
• First to suggest President Bush never loses his papers: Obama
• First to smile: Obama
• First to say the internet has lies on it: Obama
• First to have to defend his religious faith: Obama
• First to take a drink: Obama (presumably of water)
• Commercial break

• First to appear truly passionate about an issue: Clinton on bailouts from foreign entities
• First to count on his fingers: Edwards
• First to say Americans have been handed the torch to work and suffer for our children: Edwards
• First to say the Bush administration doesn’t believe in any type of oversight: Obama
• First to say “…when I am President of the United States”: Obama
• First to use over twenty hand gestures in one answer: Edwards (quite the feat!)
• First to say she regets a vote: Clinton
• First to appear to have the greatest command of the issues and how they are connected: Clinton
• First to say Washington D.C. lobbyists = bad legislation: Obama
• Second to take a drink: Edwards
• First to mention “green collar” jobs”: Clinton
• First to say the distance between the candidates and the moderators is seven feet: moderator Brian Williams
• First to ask questions to the other candidates: Edwards
• First to suggest public financing of campaigns: Obama
• First to ask Obama to co-sponsor her legislation: Clinton
• First to say she’ll co-sponsor Obama’s legislation: Clinton (can you feel the love?)
• First to refer to his future self as Command in Chief: Obama
• First to say as president he would take all combat troops out of Iraq in his first year: Edwards
• First to illicit a laugh from the moderators: Obama
• First to wear a thick, black plastic watch band: Edwards
• First to cal al-Qaeda ‘public enemy number one’: Edwards
• First to say something is a ‘distinction without a difference’: Obama (could Obama’s word splintering grow to be as annoying as Bush’s word smushing?)
• First to stand up and leave the stage at the second break: Obama
• First to appear smug: Obama
• Commercial break

• First to say she’s working with the Republicans: Clinton
• First to say we need more troops: Obama
• First repeated word to give me the giggles: Yucca (mountain)
• First missing issue: Terrorism (Why haven’t the moderators asked about terrorism yet, and why is terrorism always one of the first topics asked at Republican debates? )
• First to bring up Dick Cheney (yuck): Obama
• First to mention that this is supposed to be a Black/Brown debate: Clinton
• First to say the American agenda is the agenda for colored people: Clinton
• First to be cut off by a moderator: Clinton
• First candidate to interrupt a moderator: Clinton (back at’cha!)
• First to suggest that America has high schools that are ‘drop out factories’: Edwards
• First mayor to be brought up: NYC mayor Bloomberg (what, no Giuliani?)
• Commercial break

• First to clear her throat: Clinton
• First to suggest Clinton uses the fear of terrorism to score political points: Obama (um… okay)
• First time Clinton says she decided to run for president: Last New Year
• First time Edwards says he decided to run for president: Last December
• First time Obama says he decided to run for president: Last December
• First to say his children were above average: Obama
• First to stand up after the debate and leave the table: Obama
• End debate

Click here for more Debate Firsts
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/us/politics/05dems.html?_r=1&oref=slogin http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080116/D8U6NDE00.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20080115/democratic-rdp/

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