Not so live blogging of debate

So, here's the deal. I had hinged my plan--which at one point involved having a gaggle of my newly made, goof-ball American friends come over for a debate party hosted in my living room--on the availability of my bro's TV which gets CNN International and just about every other channel in the world. Turns out Javier decided last week he was going to wait (I'm not sure exactly for what) before paying last month's SKY cable bill. Long story short, the party was canceled and I ending up watching the debate in my room, accompanied by a couple of straggling 'O8ama fans I rescued on my walk home, on my computer via CNN.com. Anyway, about the debate...

With an economic crisis looming just around the corner, the immigration debate, along with just about every other issue besides health-care reform, had been relegated to a relative after thought. That was, until last night's debate which was co-hosted by the Spanish-language Univision and held in Texas, where Latinos comprise 40% of those voting in the March 4 Democratic primary. Almost as to make up for lost time, the first five questions were all directly related to US-Latin America relations.

8:22 PM--Castro: Billary sounds like Bush talking about lending Cuba a helping hand in ushering in a new era of democracy in which freedoms of the press and free speech are respected. 'O8ama reiterates his belief that we can only mend relations with our gravest enemies through respecting them enough to sit down with them to talk face to face. He invokes Kennedy: "Never negotiate out of fear, but never fear to negotiate." Awesome. Of course, like Billary retorted, he believes 'preparatory work,'--whatever the hell that means--would precede any dialogue. It's sad that she's still stuck in the Cold War past where it's believed that only those weak in the knees would risk dragging themselves to the negotiating table.

8:26 PM--Economy: 'O8ama enumerates several of the Democrats' most fundamental economic tenets of ending tax cuts for the rich, making the economy more fair and ending trade deals like NAFTA that ship US jobs overseas. It's funny how even though 'O8ama opposed NAFTA's sister CAFTA, he always brings up the first--Billary always awkwardly distances herself from it while stopping short of totally dissing what many see as her husbands' most significant legislative achievement. She calls for a 'trade-timeout,' while simultaneously inviting a 'trade prosecutor' to work on enforcing the agreements currently in place. I promise Billary, NAFTA's failures, maybe unlike those of No Child, don't stem from some kind of half-ass implementation.

8:31 PM--Deportations of illegals: Nothing too exciting here. Within the first 100 days of her unlikely presidency, Billary pledges to pass legislation that ensures immigrants a path to legalization. 'O8bama says same ol' about securing our border and clamping down on employers that hire illegals. More than anything, he says, we need to tone down all this xenophobic rhetoric crap that does little more than provoke the ire of those seeking economic refuge in our country.

8:37 PM--Border fence: Surprisingly, both agree that before a border wall is built between us and Mexico, those who own land along the border should be contacted. Interesting concept. O, and Billary believes that considering how well 'smart fencing' has worked on dogs, it should be used to keep out immigrants entering from Mexico. OK, so she doesn't make the dogs comment, but it was clearly implied.

8:41 PM--A bilingual US: While she believes English is certainly a point of unity for our country, it shouldn't be made the official language. Word. 'O8ama, switching things up--as he's known in the Wild West--argues that more American students should learn a second language. On the question of whether or not 'O8ama speaks one himself, I conducted some preliminary research and discovered that "Obama speaks arabic that's how he communicates with his terrorist friends." Anyone know anything more about the matter?

With no real fireworks set off during the first half of the debate, we go to commercials and then come back with the focus of questions being less on policy and more on personal differences that set the two apart.

8:50 PM--Talk vs. action Billary makes her stale argument that actions speak louder than words. I can't believe that weak kindergarten expression actually drew applause from the audience. 'O8ama kills her on this one. Instead of taking the bait and defending words--as I'm sure the Billary campaign had been expecting--he agrees and proceeds to list off a few of his achievements of the last 20 years. He says that in his history of public service he "has acted a lot." Priceless. But it only gets better. When pressed about Billary's recent claims that 'O8ama plagiarized lines in a recent speech about the power of words, he straight up says that Governor Deval "gave me the line, and told me to use it." He then dismisses Billary's attacks as "silly season" and argues that more than anything, the American people want to know how they're going to get jobs, pay for college, be insured...etc. To put the proverbial cherry on top, he adds that his words "aren't just hope, but a $4,000 college tuition in return for national service..." Classic.

Perhaps the final nail in the 'just words' coffin was Billary's line about standing for "change you can believe in, not that you can Xerox." For the first and last time all night, she receives scattered boos from the audience and a class act shake of the head from 'O8ama.

9:40 PM--Life's greatest challenge: Most agree that this was Billary's highlight and probably the only question that she clearly won. Too bad 'O8ama didn't take more advantage of this one to really drive home his point of how the same reasons why he has the luxury of being on his way to the White House, allow endless opportunity for immigrants seeking a new life within our borders. O, and speaking of using one's own words, Billary totally gleaps--this might only exist in the world according to Marc Brown's friendly ant eater Arthur--two major parts of her answer: one from Sideshow Bill, the other from Edwards. Watch the two videos below.





Joe Sudbay over at Americablog sums up the night well:

The Democrats do have two great candidates.

But, tonight was supposed to be Hillary Clinton's chance to slow down Obama's momentum. That didn't happen. Both candidates did well and I would say he at least equaled her throughout the evening. Obama didn't take the negative bait and handled himself well. Very confident.

As he says, this was Billary's greatest hope to stage her comeback in anticipation for defending Texas and Ohio come March 4--she has termed both as her 'firewall states.' True, Ohio's debate next Tuesday will give her another shot. However, 'O8ama proved that he can truly rise above any baseless attacks she may have the nerve to throw his way. He appeared totally CCC the whole time. He never lost his cool and seemed to have the crowd's support in his being disgusted at Billary's 'xeroxed' and outdated Washington-style political tactics.

In Tuesday's debate, 'O8ama needs to clarify his stance on boosting the economy. From his speech he gave last week at the GM factory in Wisconsin, I know he has solid ideas such as creating millions of jobs in both the 'green' and public works sectors . He just has to talk about them in a way that will inspire, and not bore. Also, while immigration will be less of an issue in Ohio, he has to really solidify his whole rags to riches lifeline bit. If he can, I think he'll really appeal to millions of our southern neighbors who right now feel unwelcome to have a shot at the American dream that got 'O8ama to where he is today.