I just watched all the candidates together, Democrat and Republican on the stage together at once in New Hampshire. It was kind of strange. Watching Hillary Clinton try to keep a smile with Rudi Giuliani or Bill Richardson listening, I think, to Ron Paul. Or Obama giving everyone that kinda half man hug thing. Kind of weird.
In the end if I had been sitting in the audience I think it would have been interesting to sit there through the entire period the candidates were together. Those of watching us on TV only saw a quick snippet of the candidates greeting each other. I would have liked to have seen the whole thing, I think a lot could be learned.
I was surprised not to hear anything about the audience. I assume most were students at the college, and obviously there were some faculty there (and I had hoped more would be made over Gibson’s presumption that starting faculty are paid more then $55K.) Still, the post debate coverage mentioned repeatedly how exhausted the candidates were, and i think any fatigue was amplified by a very restrained audience. Had there been more response from the audience, I think all candidates would have been more engaged and at ease.
Anyway, it was a strange moment. As I remember, Fred Thompson looked particularly uncomfortable with it.
Comment by Proteus — January 6, 2008 @ 4:20 pm
As Charles Pierce at Altercation commented, Fred Thompson looked like he was dreaming of the bottle of Maker’s Mark in the dressing room.
Comment by RS Janes — January 8, 2008 @ 10:01 am