Just flipped on the Democratic debate at a little before 9:30. The first exchange I saw was with Russert asking Barack Obama if he would support Israel attacking Iran if Israel thought it was endangered by the Iranian nuclear program. The question was framed a bit better and more sharply. But that was the gist of it. Weak answer. Obama didn't come down one way or another; he just rambled.

Not impressive.

9:31 PM.

Actually, Richardson just got the same question. He didn't do much better. Didn't ramble quite as long. But he also wanted to avoid the question.

I can see this is a question neither thought they had much to gain by giving an answer to. But I would think a candidate could say something like this: "The US is Israel's stongest ally. When Israel is threatened we will always stand with her, with the American military if need be. But an attack on the Iranian nuclear sites would be a grave step. And as president I'm not going to give any ally a blank check based on their own perceptions of the threat and without knowing the specifics of the situation in advance."

Not particularly smooth or articulate. But I would think the general point is clear. And a candidate, even one who doesn't want to offend anyone, could say that and also be able to do what's critical which is to refuse to sign off in advance, in the absence of any situational knowledge, on any attack the Israeli government might decide is necessary.

9:54 PM

Gravel is one weird dude. But sort of inspiringly weird in a way. He triumphantly said yes, I went bankrupt. But who'd I stick the $90,000 dollars of unpaid debts with? The credit card companies. And they deserved it!

9:56 PM

Russert hit Kucinich with the bankruptcy of Cleveland while he was mayor. His response was actually incredibly good, actually better than the facts of the case as I remember them.

9:59 PM

Russert now comes at Richardson with a list of all his gaffes, weird statements, etc. Good answer. I've noticed that Richardson's numbers, while still well behind the top three, are still pretty decent. I guess we just all assume that Richardson isn't pretty enough to win the nomination. But I could actually see him being a pretty good president.

10:10 PM

Russert starts in on Social Security. I thought he misstated the actuarial numbers in the initial questions -- saying that the program would be bankrupt in 20 years. But I may have misheard that. Biden says he'd lift the cap on payroll tax liability. HRC basically dodges the question. But then when Russert tries to get in her face, she slaps him down for some of his silly ignorance of the topic. Obama signs on for the cap-lift -- maybe.

One thing that's very interesting about this discussion is how little privatization is even getting mentioned. Until a moment ago no one had even mentioned it. Obama touched on it as an aside at the end of his answer.

Dodd mentioned it as an aside too.

I think what this means is that privatization is so dead people barely feel the need to mention it any more.

Of course, a constant backdrop to this discussion is Russert's amazingly militant ignorance of the topic, wrapped in a package of illusion that he has some idea what he's talking about. Unfortunately Richardson wasn't quite quick enough on his feet to knock down Russert's ridiculousness.

Okay, I'm about to lose my mind. Tim Russert is so colossally ignorant and talks so routinely out of his ass on the topic of Social Security that I'm not sure I can bear it anymore. Help. Please stop him.

10:45 PM

Obama, really good answer on torture.

10:56 PM

Russert's final question: what's your favorite Bible verse. Believe it or not, there were some decent answers.