I’m catching up on last nights debate by looking for clips on youtube.com. They certainly had a large panel: Senator Joseph Biden, Jr. (D-De); Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.); Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.); Former Senator John Edwards (D-S.C.); Former Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK); Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH); Senator Barack Obama (D-IL); and Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM). Of these, only three (Edwards, Obama, Clinton) rank above 2% in recent polls. Al Gore still rakes in 14%, by the way. With such clear front-runners, why were these others included in the debate? I can see the point in getting a broader perspective, but this crap from Mike Gravel is counter productive:
GRAVEL: We’re not united. I’m not united on many of their views. And I want to take on Barack Obama for a minute, who said he doesn’t take money from lobbyists. Well, he has 134 bundlers. Now, what does he think that is?
And, besides that, he has received money from a Robert Wolf, the head of the USB (sic) bank in the United States, who raised $195,000 — from this bank — wait a second — who has lobbyists in Washington…
COOPER: Your time is up.
GRAVEL: … and it’s a foreign-owned bank.
This is in response to the second question Gravel was asked, and he wastes his 30 seconds to pick on Obama. The Dems will get plenty of negative crap from the Republicans. The “second tier” / “dark horse” candidates in these debates should speak to the issues.