A reader has just emailed to ask why Hillary has two sets of eyebrows, and to suggest that Joe Biden may be growing a ponytail. Could this be true? Biden isn't getting enough face time for me to really tell, but Hillary's eyebrows are indeed wacky.

Edwards just hit Hillary really hard, too. If you want troops to stay in Iraq, vote for Hillary. Actually, I think he's got a point. Her inability to commit to finishing the job and leaving by 2013 is one reason why I wouldn't vote for her, that's for sure.

Oh, wow, and he pulled out the "she's going from primary mode to general election mode" hammer. Obviously, Edwards is right, but this is nasty, nasty stuff. Totally warranted, but nasty, and I think Hillary's going to eat him alive. She's started about Al Qaeda in Iraq, in what looks like a surprisingly Republican-like effort to make him look like a wimp on defense. I have no doubt that he is, and she's not, but irrespective, the fact she's willing to show what I imagine are her true (rather more hawkish) colors is interesting.

***

OK, now we're referring to Rudy as "Rudolph."

More importantly, my debate-watching-companion points out that Hillary's chin looks tighter, and her neck is firmer, too. He suspects botox-- quite a lot of it.

Back to the point, though, Hillary has executive experience because she's done work for kids and stuff. Awesome. She's also starting to sound ranty-- this is not going so well for her tonight.

She's also considering eating Russert's privates with a nice chianti again, because he asked her about releasing her records from the National Archives. And she's refusing to discuss the point about Bill's letter saying "let's not release any documents, please."

Obama's trying to hit her on this, talking about secrecy and how her and Bill's secrecy looks like Bush-Cheney secrecy. Oh, and it's also about the fact that she's running on her experience, but we can't assess it. Go...

> Read more & share

This 30 second quickfire round thing is a bit of a joke, isn't it? No one is actually being teleported off the stage if they run over, there are no puffs of smoke, and no amusing noises to accompany candidates not disappearing from the stage. But, Brian Williams is going to get tougher on enforcing the cut-off time, so OK, I'll keep playing along.

Dodd is wasting time by telling us he has 30 seconds to talk about attracting people into medicine. He makes the cutoff point.

Biden thinks doctors graduate with too much debt, and they should get to write it off if they do public service, and thinks insurance companies are too Big Brother. Biden stays within his time.

Edwards wants universal care, and there's a nursing crisis. He wants to eliminate mandatory over time. He makes his cutoff.

Hillary want to give insurance companies an ultimatum. I bet she'll give them an ultimatum, all right. She's run over, however. Bam, she's outta here!

Obama's concerned about Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement levels, and college costs. He's met the cutoff.

Kucinich is on about the American NHS again. Surprise, surprise. He's over time, by quite a bit. Double blam, he's gone!

Richardson wants government to pay for two years of college in exchange for one year of public service. He's totally going to run over. Yes... he's teleporting away, as I type.

***

We're talking airplanes. Why does this keep coming up in debates? I fly a lot, and yes, it sucks, but flying has, in my 29 years of experience, always sucked. Since when are we replacing talking more about taxes or health care with talking about planes? My God. I'm not even bothering summarizing answers on this ridiculously specific and pointed subject.

***

Hillary wants to give drivers' licenses to illegals. Dirty hippie. Just joking. I don't really have an issue with illegals having drivers' licenses as long as they aren't substitute...

> Read more & share

It's the Social Security round, apparently. And Hillary's been caught out on some inconsistency, courtesy of an AP reporter.

Hillary says she wasn't being inconsistent, and she has a plan. By plan, she means loose principles and nothing specific on offer. But she's switched to talking about evil Republicans and privatization. Smart move, because she was clearly caught out here. BTW, talking Social Security is evidently entering the GOP's terrain (even though as Russert just pointed out, Bill Clinton conceded there was a problem with Social Security).

Obama's going to "Talk Straight." Kind of like "Straight Talk," but wimpier. Though he is correct that noting that there's a problem with Social Security is not buying into GOP talking points. I somehow doubt Hillary cares, though. Now he's trying to link it back to the politics-as-usual point, and how she's afraid of conceding that there's a problem because it might give Republicans an advantage, even if the problem needs to be dealt with. He's right, but I just don't see this as a winning issue for him. Democrats don't want Social Security touched, and Hillary's vagueness on the subject is offering them exactly what they want to hear, whereas Obama talking about lifting caps, and so on, is probably just going to freak people out.

Ooh, I think Hillary just called Obama a tax-hiker.

***

We're talking Obama/Osama confusion now. Fun, fun, fun. Obama has confidence in Americans' ability to see the truth when it's presented to them. Oh, really. Well, on the plus side, at least we're not in the UK, where something like 60% of teenagers think Conan the Barbarian was a real historical figure. I guess that helps some...

***

Now, we're talking fuel prices and stuff. Yawn. I'm afraid I just can't get excited here.

OK, Kucinich is doing the "we went into Iraq to steal their oil" thing. Well, at least it's marginally interesting. Ah-- he also mentioned i...

> Read more & share