The Big Debates

I watched the primary debates last night and all I can say is that I am more undecided now than I was before. I am not a Republican, but I watched their go at it and thought it was a lot of posturing and jabbing at each other. I am also pretty much appalled by the Republican take on managing immigration and wished they would have spent less time talking about walls and sending illegal immigrants to the "back of the line" and more time discussing the economy, which is in the process of grinding down into recession and will probably be the number one issue by November 2008.
The Democrats were a lot more civil and worked harder to find common ground. I had been leaning toward voting for Obama, but I actually like what Bill Richardson had to say the best (aside from his take on how to deal with Pakistan.) I get the feeling that Hillary Clinton is the toughest of the bunch, which of course gets her labeled a "bitch" by people who feel threatened by that. A lot of people make a big deal about Obama's race, but that's a non-issue to me and I feel, over all, there a lot more people in this country threatened by the thought of a woman as Commander-in-Chief than a guy who's father was African. Lots of people say "Oh, I wouldn't mind a woman in office, just not THAT woman." That's fine to say, but once those same people start throwing around the B word and the Ice Queen label, the sincerity of their "I'm fine with a woman in office" statements falls flat. At the very least, the inherent depth of their sexism is showing.
Edwards panders to emotion rather than intellect, which is a big red flag to me. I'm afraid his shucks-y manner and the fact that he's the only status quo white guy in the Democrat lineup is going to pull him a lot of votes. Obama is very charismatic and I do like what he claims to be offering. I'm just afraid I'm a little too jaded to believe he'll be able to pull off as much Change as he promises. I really may not know who I'll chose until I walk into the voting booth on Tuesday.