The NPR debate

I listened to yesterday's Democratic debate on NPR today and was, like many others, duly impressed: with the format, the moderators, and the candidates themselves. Highly recommended. It's actually a discussion of real issues, not UFOs and soundbites.

All of the candidates (Richardson couldn't be there), as I said, were impressive and tended to agree more than they disagreed (largely because there were no "gotcha" questions from the NPR moderators, intended to tease out minor and incendiary differences). Dodd and Biden were, in my opinion, the most impressive when it came to their grasp of the issues. If the question for voters is, who has more foreign policy experience, Clinton or Obama, the answer is: Dodd and Biden.

All of the candidates were one other thing: likable. Something that doesn't come through in what little I've seen of the execrable TV debates.

There hadn't been a presidential primary debate on the radio since Republicans Dewey and Stassen in 1948. We need more of them.