A Presidential Debate

right here in Mississippi and you missed it!

[I do so wish I were certain that my computer-- not this one I'm using-- had dried out because I have a wonderful photo to go with this post. Mr. Big Food and I are in the middle of a nasty streak of computer problems, so I cannot risk introducing this computer-- Mr. Big Food's Big Food Computer-- to my camera.]

The debate was sponsored by Students for Ron Paul and by Student Democrats and featured student stand-ins for Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Barack Obama. Newt Gingrich was notably absent because was giving a speech in Jackson this evening. Really. No stand-in was available.

You should have seen them! All the candidates were gussied up in suits and ties, except for Stand-In Rick Santorum, a last minute volunteer who only had time to run home and grab a starched white dress shirt to threw on over his T-shirt. Still, it was a good look for Santorum: jeans, boots, and his starched Sunday go-to-meetin' shirt. All he needed was a spit cup and he'd really have been a man of the Mississippi People. He was on fire when Mr. Big Food asked about the Heller & McDonald decisions. To paraphrase, "Here in Mississippi we love our guns." He blushed a bit when Mr. Big Food interrupted and said, "They love them in Pennsylvania, too." Last-Minute-Santorum-Stand-In recovered well. 

Stand-in Romney had a similar slip. "Oh! That's me, not Romney." Slips are revealing. Stand-in Romney had personality and conviction. 

All of the not last minute stand-ins had clearly studied their candidates-- with respect to both platform and presence. Stand-In-Paul was the best with respect to platform-- which shouldn't surprise since he organized Students for Ron Paul. I thought his response to an audience member's question-- if you cut the budget, what's going to happen to all of the people who rely on social programs, and who is going to build roads?-- was astute. Part one: When so many people are relying on federally funded social programs to survive, something's wrong that needs to be fixed. Part two: The only reason states get federal money for roads is that drinking age thing. (He was more articulate about this.)

Stand-In Obama won on presence. It took me a while to figure out that he was the Student Democrat. He presented a perfect caricature of Obama. "Call me the 'Food Stamp President.' I'd rather be called that than the 'I Died from Starvation in the Street President'."

Really, I thought it was a joke. I first thought he was a stand-in Republican plant-- comic relief.

Sadly, he represents Student Democrats. And does so wonderfully.