POLITICO DIVA

This will be a long entry and hopefully spur quite a bit of comment from the peanut gallery (that’s you). I scored the hottest ticket in town last night – the Democratic Presidential Primary Debate. Here’s my scoop:

The You Tube format was one of the smartest things I’ve seen. To have real people asking straight questions with emotion is something rarely seen in politics. Even though the people making the videos were quite strange (if that’s “average America,” the phrase “anti-American” is not looking as bad as it used to), it was real. In so many cases, politics ignore the emotional element in an equation. Iraq – let’s look at budget, number of troops, benefit vs. risk of pulling out, costs associated, etc. – but when you have a man showing the flags that laid on the coffins of three of his family members, including his eldest son, it’s hard to ignore the emotional element, which is what all of us “average Americans” really care about. That was one of the more powerful videos (http://youtube.com/user/gwberryY). The two most entertaining were a snowman asking how the candidates were going to protect his snowboy from melting from global warming (http://youtube.com/user/kotasHQ), and a man playing his guitar singing about taxes (http://youtube.com/watch?v=3LH6SuSTvX4). The most disturbing was clearly when a man asked about the candidates’ stance on gun control, asking how he will know his baby is safe. He then says, “this is my baby,” and pulls out a huge machine gun looking thing. It’s too sick for me to even discuss.

Now the candidates:

Hillary Clinton is just phenomenal. She is the smartest one up there and has invaluable experience in the White House. She embraces the human element… she referenced all of the people in the videos by name. Some may say that’s “political” but I say it’s personal. As her campaign video humorously suggested, “Sometimes the best man for the job is a woman.” Agreed.

I love Barack Obama. Who cares about experience when you have all that passion? He’s poised, he’s charismatic and he’s truly passionate for change. And he seems to have a bi-partisan viewpoint which is a great thing for unity. I heard people grumbling that they thought he was guarded and scripted at the debate. Well you should have seen him at the after party. I saw more charisma and passion in his speech there than I did all night at the debate… he preached in a way reminiscent of MLK until the room exploded in applause.

John Edwards… swoon. He is awfully cute. Kennedy cute. He seems like such a nice man, but he also seems like such a “politician” to me. With every question, he’d turn it around with, “But I think the real question is….” The real question is the one that was asked, John. I wonder how sincere everything is – but maybe that’s just the twinkle in his sparkly eyes. I also HATED his comment on Hillary’s jacket – that was classless.

I like Joe Biden and I think he’s in the race. I particularly liked how he called the gunman in the video a complete loon. Joe has movie star white teeth and a wife who is just itching to wear her “First Lady” sash.

Dennis Kucinich – A funny, quirky, likable little ball of energy who gave a great debate. And I’m sure he’s related to Ross Perot.

William Richardson – sweet as cherry pie, but probably not the next President.

Chris Dodd – Was he the one who did the white hair bunny video? If not, I can’t quite remember him.

Mike Gravel – What a nut.

Anderson Cooper – wait, he’s not a candidate. Maybe he should be. He’s awfully cute as well.

Of course I will watch the Republican debate before penning in my vote, or else my republican Go’Diva Sister may divorce me, BUT…

My ticket: President – Hillary Rodham Clinton; Vice President – Barack Obama

Quickly on the social aspect… Three celeb sightings at the debate – The crazy director from Entourage!, Ernie Hudson from “Ghostbusters” and some guy from “The West Wing.” I think I was at the wrong after party. I thought it would be crawling with gorgeous politico men who were just dying to tell me their views on how to bridge the race gap in the South. Sadly, this was not the case. I even wore my very best Jackie O outfit. Oh well, at least John Edwards touched my hand.