2nd Democratic Debate with Poll

I just finished watching the debate. Overall, it was much more exciting than the last one, though in my opinion it wasn't as informative as I would have liked. Here's how I think it played out:

• Obama: Great. He clearly did much better with this format. His shining moment is when Edwards reluctantly called him out as a "follower, not a leader" on the Iraq war. Obama responded "I was against the war from the start, so as far as leadership, you're about four and a half years late." He also made a great point about the idea of English as the official language is just an idea that divides us. He seemed much more relaxed in a debate that was more highly charged than the last one. People will remember than he seemed at ease.
• Hillary: Great. Her confidence was stellar and she used humor, which is a good way to remove her "cold" image. Her great moment is when she said sending Dick Cheney around the world was "hardly diplomatic" and earned big applause. Despite this, the MSM is already saying she did worse than last time and she needs the perception of doing well more than she needs to actually do well.
• Biden: Great. As with last time, Biden made good use of the little time he had. He was able to sound passionate about questions without seeming angry (though some commentators said afterwords that he did seem that way,) and seemed to answer questions directly most of the time, which was largely missing from this debate. His great moment is when he called for US intervention in Darfur, saying our "moral authority" rests on our decision to take action. I completely agree. Morality is earned, not innate in anything stamped with our flag.
• Richardson: Ok. This time, he sounded a bit better but he still took a swipe at the Democratic party by saying "I'm a pro-growth Democrat." A Daily Kos post asked the question, "What, are the other Democrats pro-shrinkage?"
• Edwards: Ok. Edwards didn't do much better or worse than he did last time. The big difference, though, was that this time both Hillary and Obama were a good head and shoulders above him. Picking a fight with Obama over Iraq didn't sound so good, but he made up a little ground by defending his healthcar proposal pretty well.
• Dodd: Poor. Once again, I feel Dodd did poorly even though he did no major screw up because he was boring in a campaign plagued by boring. Little more can be said about him.
• Kucinich: Poor. Gravel didn't overshadow him as much as last time, and he got some applause for some of his ideas, but he's become very marginalized. The entire party has moved to the left since 2004, and they seemed to do so even more tonight. He really wasn't needed.
• Gravel: Poor. Gravel added some excitement into the largely sterile 1st debate and got people talking. It turns out he's a one trick pony, and his angry attacks on other candidates became uninteresting when the big players were fighting each other. He's as marginalized as Kucinich now.

Who won the second Democratic Debate?
	Obama
	Hillary
	Biden
	Richardson
	Edwards
	Dodd
	Kucinich
	Gravel
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