Democratic debate comments

OPINION:

Just as our troops are fighting the terrorists in Iraq, so we don’t have to face them here at home, so I watched the Democratic Party presidential debate on Monday so that you don’t need to let those egregious people into your own living rooms. (Although, obviously, our troops in Iraq face deadly duty, while I only face deadly dull duty.)

But I did learn a few things. For the first time Monday, CNN provided us with sustained close-up shots of John Edwards’ haircut, and I can now understand why he paid between $400 and $1,200 a cut. At middle range, it looks deceptively like your average $18 strip-mall haircut. And it seems to look the same from the left front of his face.

But the close-up from his right front is a revelation. Undergirding the long side of his part is an extraordinary spring-like wedge of hair running from front to back. And though bouncy, every hair remains in place — even during vigorous head-shaking and bobbing. This gives his entire haircut a bouncy, youthful look. Most middle-aged men’s haircuts just sit on the head like a wet rag. Admittedly, the bouncy wedge does look a little flouncy when viewed from the candidate’s front right. But from any other angle and from all distances other than close up, it simply gives his entire visage a healthy, animated, youthful look. Well worth a thousand bucks a crack — at least in his part of the two Americas.

However, in Mr. Edward’s only memorable comment of the night, he rather put his foot into it. Each of the candidates was asked to describe something they approve of and something they disapprove of regarding the candidate to their left. Hillary was to his left and he expressed disapproval of her pink (or perhaps coral) sweater. The questioner clearly was looking for policy disagreements. So Mr. Edward’s reflexive comment on her appearance rather reminded the audience of his reputation for excessive concern with matters of grooming. It also was suggestive of his inner sexism (despite his wife’s claim that her husband is better than Hillary for the fairer sex) — as he would hardly have commented on a male candidate’s suit jacket.

Given Mr. Edwards essential vacuity (tempered by his instinct for Southern populist demagogy), he will test how far he can make his way on Arthur Miller’s “smile and a shoe-shine.”

Most of the rest of the debate involved the candidates showing little genuine emotion or conviction and no new ideas. Questions about health care were handled with outrage at George Bush and a total evasion of the challenges of actual cost controls. (Medicare, for example is unfunded through 2070 to the sum of 40 or more trillion dollars.) When asked by one questioner whether they would cut benefits or raise taxes — all the candidates agreed that neither were really necessary. Although, admittedly, Obama emoted far more sincerely-looking about the terrible problem than did the others.

Only one issue evoked genuine passion: how quickly it would take to retreat from Iraq. And here, the candidates had clearly been doing earnest private research before the debate. Gov. Richardson said he could get all the troops out in five months. Sen. Dodd claimed he could do it in seven months, while Sen. Biden was insistent that it would take a full 9 months to a year to move American troops and civilians down the two-lane road through Basra to the sea.

Bragging at how quickly they could retreat seems to be a peculiarly liberal inclination. While, as I recall, conservative little boys practice quick draw with their cap guns while playing cowboys and Indians; apparently liberal little boys practice how fast they can throw up their hands to surrender to the guys in the black hats.

(In truth, there are nasty rumors floating around in military circles regarding the level of casualties that may be taken during a retreat of 250,000 American troops and others. As unpleasant as the Saigon retreat by helicopter is in American memory — that was for only the last of the embassy personnel. President Nixon had carefully removed 365,000 soldiers from Vietnam over the period 1969-1973.)

Removing 250,000 Americans from Iraq over even a year on perhaps 20,000 flatbed trucks through a sniper, mortar and roadside bomb-infested two-lane road may result in more casualties than anyone wants to imagine.

But the Democrats on Monday were so hellbent on quick surrender and retreat that they never even mentioned casualties on the retreat. They should think about Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow.

Most remarkably of all, not one of the candidates even mentioned the danger of Islamist terrorism the entire night. The Democratic candidates seemed pretty cocky on Monday. But they may have an Achilles’ heel: national security. Their manifest indifference to the nation’s security may yet cost them public trust come next year’s election.