Naturally I may be all wrong -- it happens!
-- but I have the feeling that this is no quirk, this is a real moment, a history moment, and I'm calling my son over to take a (slightly bewildered) look at it, much in the same way grown-ups called me over to watch Apollo launches when I was little. I haven't read what the pundits or the populus are saying, but even if it turns out to be a sort of awkward, fumbling step, I find it momentous that we have now had a debate of candidates on the Internet and not just over TV.
And I personally am glad that Democrats did it first -- I think it probably scores them some points in terms of being more modern and forward-looking and so on in a general way, and/or suggests a certain stodginess or overly staid character on the part of Republicans, by contrast. Just vague images, but still, maybe something.
Anyway, I was going to point out that at least Mark gets his answer on the issue of Obama's view on reparations, with a surprise chiming in from Mr K!
Quote:
YouTubers challenge with health care, Iraq questions
Sen. Obama took a question from a voter asking whether there will ever be reparations to African-Americans for slavery.
He said reparations are best made through schools. He talked about a school he visited in Florence, South Carolina, that had a portion of classrooms called the "Corridor of Shame" due to its untrained teachers and lack of books and other resources. "We have corridors of shame across the nation," he said.
Kucinich answered more directly: "We have inequality in health care, housing, employement and we must be mindful of that," he said. [But] it's also affecting poor whites. Yes, I am for reparations."
Edwards said he wasn't for reparations but he was for "creating equality."
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I must say that those 3 answers give me typical reactions to those 3 candidates: straightforward, sensible, valuable idea worthy of greater consideration and focus; idea for which something might be said philosophically but which is really out of whack with political reality, imo, and will thus never fly; and just a garden variety, vague, empty-sounding platitude.
Did Hillary not answer this one? I'd be interested...
Steve