Thursday, February 21

LIVE-BLOGGING THE DEBATE

Fabulous opening. Her first political job (36 years ago) was registering south Texas voters. She cites the people she met, highlighting Barbara Jordan (one of my personal heroes) and Ann Richards (okay, another hero). Interesting, that I hadn't realized till now that my favorite Texans are women.

For me, politics is about making a difference in people's lives. She helped start CHIP. Her actions crossing the aisle to get veterans better health benefits.

Discrimination against sick people. Wants to continue her work helping take care of veterans. She offers a lifetime of experience and proven results. Together, we can do provide jobs, healthcare, make college affordable. Asks us to join in her campaign. It's your campaign, about your futures, your jobs and your healthcare. Beautiful. Sincere.

Obama's opening remarks. Talks about being friends and unity with Hillary. We're at a defining moment, war and the economy. Families are feeling the brunt of that economy. Not so slick as his stump speeches.

Missed some stuff because one of my kids had a question.

What's lacking right now, he says, is not good ideas. Washington is a place where good ideas go to die (sounds familiar?). Lobbyists have a stranglehold. Too many politicians are interested in scoring points instead of working together. Theme of his campaign is that we can be straight with the American people and enlisting them in taking back our government.

Barbara Jordan said that the people want an America as good as its promise. That's why he's running.

Now the debate.

Univision anchor: Sit down, Hillary, with new Cuban government?

HRC: I'll be looking for changes that should happen, democratic moves. I'm ready to reach out and work with a new Cuban government once they demonstrate those changes. If they do, the U.S. will welcome that. But there has to be evidence that those changes are real and that the Cuban people will be given a chance to determine their destiny.

OB: Starting point of our policy should be the liberty of the Cuban people. We have an opportunity to change our relationship with Cuba. I'd meet, without preconditions, but there should be preparation, with the new Cuban leadership. U.S. must talk to not just our friends but our enemies, that's where diplomacy makes a difference. I've called for a reduction in remittance taxes and travel to Cuba. I would not normalize relations until there's evidence. I support normalization, our policy has been a failure. We've seen a Cuba that has been isolated but has not made progress in human rights. Quotes JFK again, "We should never negotiate out of fear, but we should never fear to negotiate."

HRC: Advocates opening up diplomatic process. Points out that she doesn't favor negotiating without preconditions. We should eliminate the Bush policy because we've failed to reach out to other countries, aliented our friends and emboldened our armies. Wants a bipartisan diplomacy to send a message that the arrogance of the Bush administration is over.

I'd rather just listen than continue this, so I'm going to stop. Some thoughts to this point:

Not a bad performance by Obama so far. But he's clearly not the same speaker when absent a teleprompter, with many speaker tells. Listening to his economic proposals, though, they sure sound like Hillary's.

Hillary is smooth and assured so far, but she does kind of puff up (boy, I recognize that body language in myself!) when getting ready to respond to Obama.

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