Two Candidates Get It at Forum

Only one Dem candidate was presidential in last evening's GLBT-oriented forum on LOGO. Unfortunately, Mike Gravel has as much chance of winning the nomination as the scallops in bacon have of surviving a trip around the Harvard Club reception.

You can see the lowlights and highlights in clips on LOGO. Also, BMG had some live blogging and will surely have more detail today. As the AP preview suggested, however, there would be no surprises. Gravel and Dennis Kucinich are actually for civil rights, including those for homosexuals. The others are about getting elected. It was as in the Phil Ochs song about the U.S. invasion of Santa Domingo — ...the wheel is spinning And the cowards and the whores are peeking through the doors to see who's winning...

Bill Richardson: At the very bottom of political, moral and leadership was the New Mexican. Even worse than John Edwards' jive line about being on a journey on marriage equality, Richardson thinks he can convince us that he will do what's achievable. If we bought that in the 20th century, we'd still have legal racial segregation or if we had in the 19th, we'd still condone slavery.

Hillary Clinton: She has no moral standing here. She is only a nudge to the left of Richardson, although she seems to have 30 IQ points on him. She has ever so slightly modified her position to include changing the parts of her husband's disgraceful DOMA to give some federal tax and benefits rights to homosexual couples in civil unions or marriages. She claims to hunger for full equality, but does not have the platform or courage to demand it — another shallow incrementalist and no leader.

John Edwards: He is slicker and more honest than Hillary, but still keeping company with the wrong crowd. He grins his cute little boy grin and admits up front that he still opposed same-sex marriage and is not likely to go beyond civil unions. However, he does want to trash both DOMA (all of it, unlike Hillary) and the military's don't-ask/don't-tell policy. He won't lead on equality either.

Barack Obama: He claims that he is straightening out anti-gay Black ministers on their hate problem. However, he still conflates civil marriage and his religious rituals. As the other top tier candidates, he mealy mouths the issue and unlike Edwards rarely addresses it except to mumble something about civil unions, even though he knows they are separate and unequal.

Dennis Kucinich: Over at Ryan's Take, he captured Denny just right — essentially, all you need is love. He went all celestial, but is right on the marriage issue. Even with the right ideas, Kucinich came off like the hippy-dippy flake he is. Nearly all of his positions are sound, but I doubt he could get anything accomplished.

Mike Gravel: He looked and sounded like a President. He was credible, bright and right. He was the only one to note clearly that "Hillary, Obama and Edwards...can't their their arms around marriage." He shows the moral and intellectual power, and the vision necessary for leadership, that all the others lack. I read that he does not have the support to stay in or win the primaries, but again, he proved to be the best of the bunch.

The next post delves a little into each candidate's remarks at the debate-like-object yesterday.

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Tags: massmarrier, LOGO, Clinton, Edwards, Kucinich, Gravel, Obama, Richardson, HRC, same-sex marriage, civil unions, civil rights