debate

The candidates seem to be campaigning in either the Des Moines or Dubuque areas so none have been coming near the cornfields where I live. I think Edwards is supposed to be in Iowa City Monday and Romney may be in Washington Wednesday. I have a couple of unwritten rules about going to these events. I won't drive more than 30 miles to get to the appearance - especially when gas is up to 3.10, and I won't go to an event where I have to pay to get in the door. I suppose there are others but those two seem to work for the most part.

I did watch the debate which raised questions about how CNN and other news media cover this whole race. CNN's website said something like, "Clinton dominates debate." They neglected to add that CNN reporters asked her the first question and that the first ten minutes of the debate were primarily Clinton and Obama going back and forth. Why shouldn't Clinton dominate the debate if she is asked the majority of the questions and allowed to respond any time one of the other candidates dared to criticize her by name.

If according to the news reports Guliani is the FOX news candidate, is Clinton the CNN candidate? If the rest of Iowa is like my town, most of the registered voters are undecided and will only say they are leaning towards a candidate. Howard Dean was surprised by the results last time, and I hope Clinton is surprised in this one as well. Maybe a third place finish in Iowa would derail her a bit.

Edwards finally got pulled into the mix and eventually the other candidates got some air time. The local paper said Biden didn't talk until 15 minutes in and Dodd, Richardson, and Kucinich were even later.

One thing I found disappointing was how many of the candidates said that national security was more important than human rights. I believe Richardson and Kucinich were the only two to either challenge the premise or to say human rights was more important. It reminded me a bit of Thoreau who we were looking at a bit this week in my American History class. One of his passages from On Civil Disobedience seemed appropriate; "The mass of men serve the state...not as men mainly, but as machines with their bodies. ...In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgement or of the moral sense but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones;.... Others as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers... serve the state chiefly with their heads; as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God." I think we would all do well to read Thoreau again.