Dems Battle In Second Debate...More Monkeys?

My personal favorite amongst a less than stellar group of candidates on both sides of the political aisle, John Edwards, got in a few excellent jabs on Hilary and Obama last night. Unfortunately, after reviewing the answers to the questions posed last night and watching video of the debate, I fear there are quite a few monkeys on the Democratic side of the aisle as well.

Edwards went on the offensive early, attacking Clinton and Obama on their votes in the senate, supporting additional funding for the war in Iraq but without a timetable for troop withdrawal...

"They went quietly to the floor of the Senate, cast the right vote, but
there is a difference between leadership and legislating," Edwards said.
"Senator Clinton and Senator Obama did not say anything about how they were
going to vote until they appeared on the floor of the Senate and voted. They
were among the last people to vote."

Both Senators shot back, of course, and I was disappointed that Edwards didn't fully articulate the meaning of his statement about the war on terror becoming a bumper sticker slogan. He repeated the phrase three times, but never really brought his point home. The war in Iraq, dubbed the "war on terror" by the Bush administration, is no longer a war on terror...plain and simple. It's that fact that Edwards is trying to bring to the forefront with his bumper sticker reference. Unfortunately, the other candidates appear to be inclined to continue funding the war under the guise of supporting our troops and getting them what they need. What Edwards has maintained, and what I think keeps getting lost in all these war funding debates, is that the best way to protect our troops is to get them the hell out of the middle of another country's civil war and bring them home.

Honestly, until the other candidates are willing to have a serious discussion on the issues of war funding, gay rights and human rights in general, we'll continue to see nothing but more politically minded monkeys standing on the debate stages.