More of the same
Last night’s Democratic debates were…interesting. Hillary tried to make everybody happy, Martin tried to actually have his voice heard, and Bernie tried to play up his personality.
My general impression of Hillary’s last night was that she was trying to speak for the entire Democratic Party. Many pundits have said that she should save that for the general election, but that assumption that she is going to the general election is why she was bold enough to claim that voice. Hillary was trying to please her pals at the DNC so she also had to standout against the people on the stage. Yes Hillary we know, you were the Secretary of State so you know foreign policy. Cool. Someone needs to tell Hillary that not everybody loves her, because that cutsie little quip about big business was not what democrats want to hear. Maybe I shouldn’t blame Hillary, maybe I should blame the patriarchal society that tells us that women have to please everyone and not make anyone angry.
Speaking of angry, Martin was fired up last night. In my head, Martin has spent the past few weeks reviewing the last debate like a football player reviewing game tape. If nothing else, Martin showed up and I would not be surprised if his name recognition statistics have gone up. People are really split on Martin’s pushiness; I think it was necessary and appropriately forceful. To others, it was desperate and un-presidential. But for once, people are talking and thinking about Martin O’Malley.
Oh Bernie. It is no secret that I have been leaning towards caucusing for Bernie Sanders, but now I am not feeling it. At the debate, you could tell Bernie had been told to have more personality. I am the worst kind of voter because I love a politician with the je ne sais quoi of a celebrity, so when Bernie came out with a little sparkle I got excited. I was ready to get fired up and feel the Bern, but sadly that did not happen. Yea sure he showed us some snark and sarcasm, but nothing else seemed new. Bernie just put exclamation points on the same five bullet points: Make the 1% pay! Free college! Decriminalize weed! Down with Wall Street! I voted against war and Hillary didn’t!
At the end of the night, I was leaning more and more towards Martin O’Malley. I really liked that when he did get a chance to speak up, he had plan. But to be fair, that might just be Nixon-Kennedy syndrome because no matter what Martin actually says, he is a political hottie. The big game changer of the night, was the fact that Martin actually talked. Other than that, same old same old.
