Kristi and I watched the Democratic debate yesterday on George Stephanopolous' show on ABC. It was interesting. Kristi and I are regular viewers of Steph's show. We only get network, antenna TV at our place. But, being on top of a ridge in a strategic location, we are fortunate to be able to receive on our rabbit ears, WPSD, the NBC affiliate out of Paducah, Kentucky (Paxton media, yuck), WSIL, which is the ABC affiliate out of Carterville, Illinois (I don't know as much about those that own this station), KFVS, the CBS affiliate out of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and KET out of Murray, Kentucky. Also, out of Paducah there is Channel 49, which used to be UPN, but I can't remember who it is now. But, they show Judge Judy, so that is good. Then, there is a Fox station out of Cape Girardeau, but sometimes it doesn't come in too good. On certain days we can get Nashville, TN, or Evansville, IN.

On Sunday mornings, we watch Chris Matthews at 6:30 am on WPSD, the Meet the Press at 8 am on the same station. Then, at 9:30 am is Face the Nation on KFVS, and at 10:30 is Stephanopolous on WSIL. This week, Steph's show was the Democratic presidential debate. A couple weeks ago, it was the Republicans. That was awful. The Democratic debate was only a little better.

Our first comment was that Dennis Kucinich, regardless of how you feel about his positions, and we happen to like them very much, got less time than anyone else. Geez, is that what the Dems have come to?

I like Hillary, really. I think she's pretty awesome. She's a fellow Illinoisan, and she is not that far from my age. Yeah, she grew up in the suburban thing, but who can pick where they grow up? I'll probably vote for Hillary if she gets the nomination, unless a Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney runs against her, but I won't relish it. She voted for the war. She's totally system. In that regard, Obama is right. I like Obama too. But, he's from my home state, and so I have a little insight into how he does things.

I like Edwards, but geez, a guy that is so bright should have seen the 400 dollar haircut coming. He'll never get over that. It's kinda a shame. But, he will make a good cabinet secretary.

Bill Richardson is really a good guy all in all. I have an experience with him. When I was chair of the Citizen's Advisory Board for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant Dept. of Energy cleanup operations, nationwide stories broke in major media about how workers had been exposed to plutonium but never told. Richardson was Sec. of Energy. He made several trips to Paducah. During one of the trips, he made a speech to hundreds of "community leaders" in Paducah, and apologized to the workers on behalf of the government. He also met with the CAB officers. Since I was chair, I sat right next to him. This is documented in minutes of the meeting, which, at one point were posted on the Paducah CAB's website. I doubt if they still are. That CAB has been corrupted.

But Kucinich is the one candidate that actually had a vote in congress on Iraq and voted the right way. All the rest of the candidates, house and senate, that had votes, voted wrong. Sure, Obama did speak out against it, but he wasn't faced with the same pressure of having a vote.

We both thought that the debate was disserved by cutting Kucinich out, which was obvious. He even made a joke in a question about prayer, when he said, in the one liner winner of the night, "George, I've just been standing up here praying that you would call on me." Even Steph had to laugh. But there is a serious side behind all of this.

That serious side is that our society tries to crush the minority movements. In our society, 50% plus one wins everything. In many of the most democratic countries, voting is set up so that minorities have a place in the system. It forces near majority parties to make compromises to some minorities to build governing coalitions. This is a much superior system.

It's time the US gets off it's high horse and quits bragging about how we're the best at everything. We aren't. We have more nuclear weapons than anyone else, but that's about it. On all of the major quality of life issues, we lag far behind. But what candidate is talking honestly about the US and where we are in the eyes of the world? Not many, if any. We're going to be watching very carefully in the months to come, and we likely will support the Democratic candidate. But don't take us for granted. Don't try to run over us like we don't exist. You might come to regret that.