Kerry is KILLING tonight . WOW. Boffo. JFK.

Head and shoulders and then some over the rest of the crowd.

Presidential.

The Philly forum?

eom

It's been a great forum. I'm so sorry Edwards missed it. But Kerry was magnificent.

n/t

I favor Dean, but Kerry looked really good tonight. Sharpton did as well. Dean, not so good.

against a bunch of lightweights.

Kerry has substance.. a true statesman in the Lincoln/FDR mold.

We need to get away from the personality politics of Clinton and W and back to a leader who can articulate policy and do the real job of governing.

from what planet do you hail?

Kerry better get a personality and QUICK

I could care less if the candidate "is a regular guy".. "someone who I could have a beer with".. and all that other personality politics BS.

It will be refreshing to have a president who actually knows who the world leaders are, who can discuss the fine points of complex policy, who can do the real work of governing and leading with intelligence and reason. Substance over style.

Well, no argument from this quarter!

he'd be my choice over any of these guys. But he's probably not, and I find Kerry to be most like Gore, with an added toughness. Kerry is my guy unless Gore gets in.

Just curious. I'm a Dean fan, but I'll support Kerry or any other Dem -except Lieberman - if s/he's the nominee.

I will not support these candidates if they get the nomination:

Lieberman - too far to the right.
Kucinich - too far to the left.
Sharpton - too racially divisive.


I'll support any of the others:

Kerry
Edwards
Dean
Gephardt
Graham
Braun

if they get the nomination.

... but you only get 1 vote. I'm afraid the masses are just not with you on this.

and I happen to know a few others... our masses are just not as vocal yet.

how freakin' tall is this guy? Dennis barely comes up to his shoulder!

Kerry is a stout, 6 feet 4 inches

Dean is a squatty 5 feet 9 inches

Kucinich is a smurf-like 5 feet 7 inches

:)

which accentuates the difference!

"My Giant" ? :D

...

Good to hear others thought he did pretty good. I thought he came of as a little stale.

Sharpton definetly blew everyone away entertainment/personality wise.

For more info on the debate go here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=163569&mesg_id=163569

Constantly trying to defend his two-faced stance on the Iraq war, as well. He's play-acting at being a harsh critic of Bush, but in actual fact, has only been a very occasional critic of Bush. All of a sudden, he's trying to sound tough tonight, but this is because he's on camera for a special occasion. He hasn't walked the walk.

Kerry wasn't among the top 4 Democrats tonight. Sharpton, Kucinich, Dean, Mosely-Braun, & Gephardt all seemed better to me. Only Lieberman was worse -- A LOT worse.

and not letting your criticism of his support for the resolution influence your opinion of the myriad of other things he had to say..

:eyes:

:eyes:

We know what's going on here. On every side. Every damn one of us.

As for your second point, though, I do NOT claim that his vote on the Iraq resolution is not influencing my opinion. I don't believe I could possibly exclude my awareness of that vote, in evaluating his candidacy overall -- nor would I want to. It was a very, very big deal -- & vastly more important than any clever one-liners he may come up with in forums like the one we just saw.

Some of his remarks on Iraq tonight, aimed directly at justifying his vote from last October, I regarded as deeply offensive & flatly dishonest. He's clearly one of these "I'll never admit a mistake" guys. That makes me dislike him even more.

When in fact, the US withdrew them after ties between inspectors and US intelligence were found.

Gephardt, actually I can respect more for his consistancy and his exchange with the audience was great.

I think all of the candidates did well, except for Lieberman. Braun was especially good, I was surprised and I thought she won.

His best performance to date, IMO. He was spot on.

He's getting more and more fired up.

I missed most of it.

I see the Lincoln analogy...that elongated face reminds me of Lincoln...

And so Kennedy-esque, too!

Substance and a war hero to (beatle) boot!!

He spoke about the 2000 presidential "selection" - yes, "selection". He flat out said that Bush was not elected which was in stark contrast to his message of "get over it" a few months back.

When he said it I screamed so loud I swear I woke the dead. Fist pumped in the air. And if he is the nominee he has my vote. Tonight he had my heart, even if only for that small moment.

moment that this is not at all a line that Kerry has consistently maintained. Kucinich wrote a widely-read essay OVER A YEAR ago calling Bush & Cheney "an unelected president and vice-president." Kerry has been almost completely silent on this matter, even aside from that one gaffe that you mention about "get over it" or "move on."

So, I don't think he gets too much credit for saying it now. It's disturbingly late in the game to start saying that, if you really believe it.

After tonight, I'm pretty sure this is how it's going to play out.

As a decorated Vietnam war hero Kerry can HIT Bush over and over on all of these things concerning national security/foreign policy:

Bush: I'm a war leader
Kerry: You're a pretender in a pretty little flight suit. I fought in Vietnam while you went AWOL. I saw real bullets on the frontline.

Kerry: (during Iraq War) Regime change begins at home.
Delay: that's unpatriotic
Kerry: Don't you dare question my patriotism. The Republican party has no lock on patriotism. You're picked a fight with the wrong guy.
GOP : silence.

At all angles Kerry can hit Bush where no other Dem can.

As an anti-war hero who protested the same war he fought in, Kerry has earned his credibility as a man of integrity, conviction an action. Later, Kerry lead the IRan/Contra fight against Ronnie Ray-gun's crew.

None of the other Dem candidates have the anti-war credentials or foreign policy experience Kerry has, regardless of his Iraq vote.

Kerry will be the last man standing because he can fend off attacks from within and without.

This was the "other" candidate's night. Bravo!

He's so full of crap. Bringing up Hans Blix? The inspectors wanted more time, Kerry wanted more time for the inspectors, and now he's saying that the invasion was okay since Saddam was being a dickhead?

I missed the first run and wish I'd seen it.

Bake

Kerry acted very Presidential, especially in his cadence and delivery of words. His content leaves something to be desired. (of course, the same can be said for LIE-berman, too).

PS, I hope you mean JFK in the sense of John F. Kerry, and not the real JFK.

George Bush got an F!

I thought Gephardt did really well tonight and was stronger than I've seen him in the past. Overall, I really see every single candidate honing their message, defining the differences and generally trying to be more inclusive and building off of each others comments rather than tearing each other apart. A fairly nice balance of complimenting opponents along with fewer, but better worded, criticisms. Good debate.

And doesn't everybody just love Al! He is so great!

Plays well with others...heheh.

They were asleep.

Kerry seemed oscillating, and Dean looked exhausted and unfocused.

Sharpton ("Slapping the Donkey!") was the one whupping ass during this forum, with Geppy (Bush report card: Playing with others, 'F') with a close second.