Man, did Sullivan nail the debates:
On Edwards: “Edwards revealed why he hasn’t caught on – not just the accent, but the exhausted and obviously phony Shrum-like rhetoric about “special interests” and lobbyists. I kept thinking to myself: the guy’s a trial lawyer. Who does he think he’s kidding?”
On Moseley-Braun: “Moseley-Braun is a complete embarrassment. She has nothing to say except “I’m a black woman.” She is, of course, an insult to black women, most of whom do not respond to life’s problems by reiterating ancient boilerplate about helping kids and moving forward.”
On Kucinich: “Kucinich was mesmerizing in his way, with his huge ears and beady little eyes. He kept arguing as if there were 170,000 U.N. troops sitting around, waiting to be told that it’s time to replace all those Americans in Iraq. Presumably he knows this is a fantasy. He doesn’t seem to be illiterate. He puts sentences together with correct structure and grammar. So how can he keep reiterating something that is as feasible as handing Iraq over to Martians? And why wasn’t he laughed off the stage?
”On Clark: “Clark was dull.”
On Sharpton: “But he’s a buffoon, another insult to black voters’ intelligence. He’s not a serious candidate for high office or any office. It seems absurd that real potential presidents have to stand on the same stage. It’s not a racial thing. He’s no crazier than Kucinich. But at least Kucinich has done something in elective office, if only bankrupt a city.”
On John F’ing Kerry, who, btw, served in Vietnam: “He’s the only candidate you just know for sure would be a terrible president – indecisive, vain, out-of-touch and incapable of rising to the occasion. Dean, Lieberman and Gephardt all strike me as men who could grow in the office. Not Kerry. He’s Gore, without the charm.”
The others got off with minor scrapes. The transcript, in its entire awfulness, is here.