Over at Joe's Dartblog, Joe Malchow takes a parting look at the theater that took place in Selma, Alabama over the weekend. What is striking, as Joe notes, is the absence of any substantive discussion of, let alone disagreement on, serious issues by the Democratic Presidential candidates:

For the Democrats, the only policy question that has piqued the national stage has been the Iraq War. And the flesh even there is thin: the newspaper reports are all about who has apologized for his or her vote in favor of the war. ***

[I]n Selma on Sunday...Hillary Clinton actually said that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 allowed her to run for President. There, Barack Obama said the same act allowed him to run for President. There, Mrs. Clinton spoke the words “We’ve got to stay awake, we’ve got to stay awake because we have a march to finish.” Mr. Obama, who would like to defeat Mrs. Clinton, said, referring to her, “We don’t have time for other folks to divide us.” Both ended their days singing the Pete Seeger song, We Shall Overcome. It was, if the lengthy Times report is at all accurate, a muddled spectacle of platitudinal nonsense and general embarrassment from two Americans who believe themselves capable of the presidency.

It's not hard to figure out that the Democrats don't like to talk about political philosophy or current issues because they haven't had a new idea since 1968. But it would be nice if a reporter would notice now and then.

Posted by John at 11:23 AM  |    |