I believe The Project Runway premiere was on Wednesday night, the debate....Thursday.

fame up yet? He's parlayed his boffo reporting from Iraq in 1991 into ... a real nice tabloid-style reporting gig that gets more and more like a parody of a real journalist as time slowly marches on. I honestly can't believe he's not burned out by now on all this trash talk he has to do in the name of 'political entertainment'. He never appears to quite take himself seriously. Perhaps that's his secret to boob-tube success.

Which is ironic, considering their appeal to the presidential oath of office to support their belief. Unless I am mistaken, the President swears to uphold the Constitution as well as defend the country. Obama got it right. It's both, people. We do not need another president who is willing to chuck the Constitution under the pretext of "defending America".

...and they were given a transcript of that debate with names blocked out then asked to vote accordingly, Joe Biden would be our next President.

I think it was pretty sad, and pretty illustrative of the probelms with our nation, that Biden had to say' "This is important. Let me finish" while giving a detailed, spot on ANSWER to an important question, yet Hillary clinton was given as much uninterrupted time as she wanted to expound on the rediculous "gender card" controversy as though it was The View not a debate.

I finally had to turn the channel when the post debate discussion was nothing but breathless Clinton, Clinton, Clinton, Clinton, Obama, Obama, Clinton, Clinton, Obama.

There were people on that stage addressing the issues with real, definative and sound answers. It wasn't Clinton, Obama or Edwards.

We get the leaders we deserve.

A couple people have pointed out that "Project Runway" premiered its fourth season on Wednesday, not Thursday. In my defense, the good people at Bravo replayed the premiere at 9 p.m. on Thursday. I know this may not satisfy all critics. But if I called it, What you missed while watching "Ugly Betty," well, that would be just mean. And "The Office" and "Scrubs" are fine shows, but they make for a boring title. I would still argue that in the 9 pm block, a re-run of the Project Runway premiere was probably the most exciting TV going. Though I have not seen it, yet. I was busy Wednesday, and on Thursday, I had this debate to watch.

WTF? Can someone explain that question to me? Did it follow "boxers or briefs?" to the male candidates? I'm not a Clinton supporter, but that question smells.

No issues or differences of substance are ever offered up within the stifling conformity and extreme narrowness that constitutes US politics. Ultimately, this is because it makes absolutely no difference which of these candidates eventually achieves the nomination. And ultimately, it makes little difference which of the two war-mongering big business parties - the Democrats or Republicans - are installed in the general election, either. The vast majority in this country will still remain disenfranchised.

The majority of this country has no effective representation with any of these candidates, all of whom seem to represent nothing more than mediocrity in the persuit of more wealth and priveleges for a narrow elite. As objective conditions continue to get worse for the vast majority and their needs remain unanswered, something is going to give in this country - some day. It is just a matter of time.

All the meaningless posturing and rhetoric aside, such a day of reckoning is what all these candidates, and particularly the Democrats, seem most anxious to prevent.

In the interim, thanks, Mr. Shearer, for the entertaining treatment these stage-managed and meaningless events deserve. Reading pieces like, this or watching the Daily Show, are the only way I can personally stomach them.

The first couple times that Salon did these they were great but they are getting worse and worse.

Your synopsis of the debate last nite does not touch any of the important things that happened last nite. For instance, Clinton's rather hawkish follow-up to Senator Dodd at one point. Or the fact that on SEVERAL occasions Kucinich had the crowd cheering and clapping. Not to mention that you don't include ANYBODY's actual response to the question about human rights being more important than national security.

Then there is the fact that your synopsis does not mention that Clinton, Obama & Edwards all showed that they are Senators who know nothing about education as the other candidates shined while they answered. Biden & Richardson were both incredibly eloquent on the topic of education and yet your synopsis does not even touch it.

If I wanted a synopsis that portrayed the events of last nite as a soap oprea I would go to Fox News. Please go back to doing what you used to do best and that is breaking down complex political issues in an unbiased and meaningful way that is unobtainable merely by watching mass media. More and more the bias of Salon is becoming apparent. Please stop this, we don't need this, we need change. Progressive change.

Really liked top of your piece, but I think you missed an important word in graph about Hillary's rebuttal to Edwards. I think she said that one would hope mud-slinging "is NOT right out of the Republican playbook." Your piece did not have that word "not" and that makes a big difference.

Top of your piece was so great that it made me think you were going to deliver some interesting analysis about the rest of the debate. But you just gave us a laundry list of sound bites. I'm disappointed because I was sincerely interested in reading your analysis and insight.

But I'm glad you pointed out how ludicrous it was for CNN to waste so much time in the beginning of the debate. My husband and I could not believe the waste. And then later they didn't give the candidates enough time to give substantive answers. What a disgrace.

Between all of that and the technical problems, and the fact that people in the audience asked better questions than Blitz, Brown or Roberts, I think CNN has to seriously consider getting out of the debate business. Blitz and Suzanne reframed questions from audience members, so that the questions from those individuals were eventually forgotten and didn't get answered by all candidates. The young man speaking Spanish asked a great question, but that got changed and never answered. And the African American woman who asked about the Supreme Court got an answer only from a few candidates and then most of them only answered Suzanne's question about Roe v. Wade. Maybe Suzanne should ask questions on her own time.