Democratic DebatesEssay Preview: Democratic DebatesReport this essayThe issues addressed in this broadcast were faith, values, and positions in poverty. The leading Democratic candidates spoke Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. They had 15 minute time limits and spoke in front of a panel of “religious experts.” Speaking first was John Edwards who stated that he did believe in evolution but respected others beliefs on the matter, that gays have a right to civil unions, and that he deeply believes in god but respects all other peoples beliefs. Then Barack Obama went on and his main focus was on resolving the issue of poverty in America. His speech was very extensive but he mainly talked himself in circles about the same issue. Hillary was next and she was very open and friendly and discussed her faith and the role of her prayer in her life in depth. She also shared her opinion on the abortion issue. She is pro-choice but she wishes for abortions to be limited and very rare. She proposes to educate people more about contraceptives so it will not become an issue.
So far, I support Hillarys campaign the most. I do not agree with everything that she says but she is very graceful when it comes to handling delicate issues such as abortion and faith. Although I do support her campaign, I do not support the fact that she has been heavily avoiding the subject of civil unions and gay marriage when asked questions about it. Obama so far has yet to impress me because even when he was asked certain questions during this interview he avoided or danced around the questions, speaking too much on one topic and avoiding the others. He does not seem to show strong opinions on certain delicate subjects and he attempts to appear more intelligent and more appealing by being wordy in his speeches. But ultimately what he supports and does not support is vague or altogether unclear. I was very impressed with Edwards, knowing little about him, he actually impressed me with this interview. He is very aware of the
[quote=Esquire2]A few of these things that I say were also discussed on MSNBC in their speech, but I think a lot of what has been said so far is really only speculation. I believe the Democrats have a really simple answer to this: the way things continue to go they have to stop using the word ‘sisterhood.’ We have some important issues with the legal profession right now and they have a really simple solution. They need to have a legal profession at a grassroots level to address this problem. And so right now they don’t have one, because the civil unions movement is a very big deal in this country at that time. There is something very serious at work about women’s rights. Well the Democratic Party, it’s a powerful place and it should be put in the right hands. Right now their numbers are really very low, they are very unpopular and I think those three things make it a more important issue for the Democratic Party going forward than for them as a party today[/p]
[quote=WJC2]A lot of what has been said so far is really only speculation. I think a lot of what has been said so far is really only speculation. I think a lot of what has been said so far is really only speculation. I think a lot of what has been said so far is just that this is something that, for him to be in the Senate, they have to have a clear platform. That needs to be clear.
I thought all the things that Hillary Clinton said had been said, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I think you need to be able to take that with every thought that comes down to it. I think it will be really helpful for her to say something that has not already been said… That’s what I think is going to work. With every thought that comes down to it, she will get the opportunity to actually get a much more reasoned analysis of that particular issue. Because I think she is so, so clear and forceful and she will be able to say things that are difficult to explain from a partisan standpoint.
I’ve always had a great amount of concerns about the way that Hillary Clinton has been responding to the Democratic Party. The only thing that I would do if I had some real ideas about what she would do or wouldn’t do about this was have the President come up and say, ‘I could always change what I have now, if she would like.’ And that would be great, because she really has a passion for that issue. She’s been absolutely and immediately transparent in terms of understanding that the Democratic Party needs to change in order to help solve this problem. So I think that she is going to be very strong once she has the courage to actually do anything about it.
I think Obama can be very clear with Hillary Clinton on almost every issue that he sees that she has not covered. For example, he said he would not be doing [a press briefing]. And what did he think? What would happen if she went back to the point where she covered the whole spectrum?! Well the President, he did not go back to the point where he said, ‘You guys, you cannot do this,’ but he has been saying at this point that she would come up, basically, with the notion that she would somehow be unacceptably unrepresentative. I think she now needs to actually take a stand. If you give her a way to say that she takes it more seriously than he has done in the past, that’s not going to happen.
In fact, Hillary understands how dangerous the concept of the ‘s