I'm watching Democrats who want to be president participating in this "America Rocks the Vote" forum. The premise is that it's a town hall meeting in front of "young people." At this moment, any of these folks could get my support if they could formulate an answer without using the term "young people" as if they were talking about some other species. Bonus points if they can avoid acting like that other species has some massive inferiority complex and needs to be reassured that their views matter.
If you judge the candidates strictly on what they say, Al Sharpton is the one uttering the most quotable, non-hackneyed things…though he just forgot himself and repeated a joke he used five minutes ago. Since Sharpton has about the same chance of winning as I do, it's not great for the Democrats that he's stealing some spotlight and making the stiff guys look stiffer. Hope he's this funny when he hosts Saturday Night Live.
So far, the only spark of life among those with a shot at the title came when John Kerry began talking about his military history and the things he's done in Congress to oppose certain invasions, locate P.O.W.s, expose the Ollie Norths, etc. I doubt you can win the White House by running against past wars but it was nice to hear a note of passion amidst the same ol' catch phrases.