Thought: Wow, the democrats actually answered (most of) the questions put to them in today's debate at Drexel! Based only on answers to tonight's debate questions, the following is the rough order of who is closest to my positions, and thus, who is most likely to get my vote in the primary:

Dodd
Biden/Richardson/Clinton
Senator Barack "Freshman" Obama
Senator John "Populist" Edwards
That Random Guy Shouting On the Street Corner
Senator Dennis "Impeach the President" Kucinich

Seriously, is Kucinich insane? Drop out already! And Edwards is just getting on my nerves. His only points from me came in education and medical policy. Grrr. Obama seems listless, and only began to smile when he dropped that line about caring more about life on earth than life beyond earth, minutes from the end. Although Dodd will probably get minimal press which will be focused on either attacks on the frontrunners or legalization of marijuana, these two issues cost him points with me while still winning overall. Issue number one: support of a carbon tax, even if it is only for corporations, because (unstated) it will also be passed along to consumers, helping adjust the market into taking into account the negative externalities of carbon consumption. Biden still gets points for his federalism-in-Iraq plan, but loses points for stating he would stop imports from China. Come on -- you know as well as I do that that would lead to an enormous economic downturn.

I wonder: if all I had to go by for my opinions of the candidates were this debate, coupled with recent poll results, would it be smarter to vote for Dodd, the "highest rank," or to choose the highest rank of the frontrunners, namely Clinton?

Sorry that this post contains mounds of what I despise in political commentary, and lacks issues, but I have homework. i will return to the issues at a later date.