Recap of Congressional Black Caucus Institute Democratic Debate

I hope everyone tuned in to CNN last night to watch the debate between Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, and Senator Edwards. They had to face the Congressional Black Caucus Institute in Myrtle Beach, SC. This debate was important for members of the black community to watch because the candidates specifically spoke on issues that concern the black community.

I do not know much about Senator John Edwards, but he actually did alot better than what I thought he was going to do. Senator Clinton, once again, disappointed me but not significantly. Senator Obama made me love him even more, however, I did not fully agree with his policy on Universal health care....it was also the policy that both Senator Clinton and Senator Edwards attacked him on.

The debate was probably the most heated debate that I have seen in my lifetime concerning the Presidential elections. Senator Clinton and Senatore Obama were at each other's throats. Probably because they are both only 2 delegate votes away from gaining the Presidential nomination.

For all those who are not fully familiar with politics, the way the system works is that before the National Convention which I believe is held over the summer, each party has a string of candidates who attempt to win the nomination of that party. Whoever wins the nomination, will be able to run for President in the actual election. Right now, Democratic candidates are competing against each other for the spot to be voted into the 2008 election. Whoever wins the nomination will run against the nominated Republican.

With that said, the orator of the debate brought up an interesting question, which Democratic candidate is strong enough to win against the Republican candidate? This is probably the most important thing to consider since the last thing that most blacks want to see is another Republican in office. Even still, I think Obama is stronger than Clinton in that he has a strategic plan on how to win over the Republican voters (esp. considering he is a black man who has to win over people in Texas). He believes in a "transformative majority" in which everyone, despite their political party, works for the betterment of every citizen.

During the debate, Senator Clinton side track some of the issues and went into dirty politics by attacking Senator Obama on his overall character and integrity. This in itself made Senator Clinton look bad considering both Senatore Obama and Senator Edwards explicitly stated that they were there for the issues....and not to do tit for tats. Senator Obama did get sucked into going back and forth with Senator Clinton because he had to defend his stance which he did so very eloquently.

To me, it was Obama who had the most thorough and well thought out plans for the direction that he wanted to take the United States. Even though I feel like he is a person who prioritizes domestic policy over foreign policy (which is what I personally perfer), he had the best approach concerning foreign policy out of the three candidates. This surprised me because I thought that foreign policy was going to be where Senator Clinton would shine. Unfortunately, she did just the opposite. Initially she said that she wanted to have the troops pulled out within 60 days of her Presidency....but after Obama said that was not feasible because you have to gradually pull troops out of Iraq because of safety issues for the soldiers themselves, Clinton quickly changed her position and just repeated what Obama had said. To me, it shows that she has yet to establish a well-developed plan concerning foriegn issues.

In addition, Obama was the only candidate who talked about the financial impact of the war and how the monies could be spent on other things like education and that they still needed to work on stabalizing Iraq even after troops are pulled out because they do not want a repeat of 9/11. The other two candidates were primarily concerned with just getting the troops home to their families.

For all those who missed this democratic debate, there will be another one held on CNN on January 31st. I think at 8:00pm.

Tune in. Educate yourself. Vote.