So I listened to the candidates' forum
you read that right. I listened. I did not watch. About half an hour before it started the tube on our tv set died, but I still had sound.
So I was listening to content and to tone of voice.
I also listened to the approximately 15 minutes of discussion afterwards, lead by Chris Matthews.
I have a few takeaways, and this is probably a good final diary for the current version of Dkos.
O'Malley offered a lot of good ideas. What was not addressed was that some of the problems endemic in what we saw in the Freddy Gray case are directly attributable to the policies he implemented as Mayor of Baltimore. Then again, a lot of supposedly liberal Democratic mayors were moving in the direction of no broken windows policing. I felt that was an issue that could have been more directly addressed.
I was disappointed on how little there was on education. Yes, Bernie again mentioned free tuition at public colleges and universities. And Hillary talked about the school resource officer in SC (to which I will return beneath the fold), as well as the increasing percentage of students receiving Free and reduced Meals (for increasing numbers it is breakfast as well as lunch), but there was no discussion of what this administration has done that has distorted and damaged public education, and whether any of them would take a different approach.
On a general basis, I see no change in the dynamics of the race. Yes, Sanders was able to offer some credibility to his long commitment to racial justice. Without seeing his picture from 1962, that he was protesting segregated university housing then in the North will carry some weight (and many people do not realize how segregated Chicago was and still is as a Northern city). I grit my teeth when he said he was there with Dr. King in 1963 - he was perhaps 22 then, I was 17, I was there, along with about 250,000 other people. But neither he nor I were there "with Dr. King" in any sense of a participation beyond that of a committed individual, which is noteworthy. His words implied a greater role, perhaps just awkward So I listened to the candidates' forum:
