| I hope some of you had the opportunity to watch these speeches. If not, they will be replayed on CSPAN and I imagine many of them can be found online.
Joe Biden: Biden had a bad first week of campaigning and he was the first to acknowledge it - with grace and sincerity. This is a serious guy who has done serious things in his career and he gave a pretty good speech. But the speech was more a foreign policy statement than presidential campaign speech.
Biden was still down in his hotel room when I left speaking with anyone who wanted to talk with him. In a different time he may have been a great candidate for this job. I'm betting he'll be the 2nd or 3rd to drop out.
Bill Richardson: Wow. Ok, remember my words here: Bill Richardson will be either of two things in this race - a spoiler for some other candidate much like Clark spoiled Edwards last cycle; or a sleeper candidate who could be thrust into the top tier and have an actual chance in the race.
Remember how Bill Clinton did better in NH than expected and the other candidates did worse than expected; propelling him forward. Richardson is poised to do the same. He sure as hell did it this weekend.
I had medium expectations of him and he blew me away. He was funny and smart and at-ease. And Presidential. He gave the best speech of the weekend when handicapping for the audience and purpose of the speech.
Learn about this guy and pay attention to him.
There is a long line outside his stuffed hotel room, but as of a few minutes ago he wasn't in there. I'm going to try again in a few minutes - surely he'll show...
Mike Gravel: The guy was a pretty forceful and effective Senator from Alaska - in the 1970's. He will have no impact in this race unless they allow him into the debate. If they do he will highlight the candidates who voted in Congress for the war, thereby reminding some in the Party that they are mad at those candidates. But that's it.
Tom Vilsack: Boring. I hate to sum him up that simply, but sheesh. Some speakers have the ability to make mundane things sound exciting; Tom Vilsack says important things but makes them sound like a meditative mantra. He disqualified himself with me for signing an English-only law in Iowa. And like Dodd yesterday, he just did nothing to distinguish himself.
He's a little better one-on-one; but still unexciting.
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Overall, the DNC Winter meeting was a success in introducing our field of presidential primary candidates.
Take a little time to research each of these folks - it will be interesting to see how the field narrows and refines itself over the next year.
Who is your favorite of the candidates who spoke this weekend?
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