Working Late Night: Debate Debrief

Just some thoughts for the mind
I take a glimpse into time
Watch the blimp read "The World Is Mine"

If I ruled the world (Imagine that)
I'd free all my sons (I love em love em baby)
Black diamonds and pearls (Could it be, if you could be mine, we'd both shine?)
--Nas, Lauryn Hill

The analysis and media spin on the debate has already started to revolve around Martin's attack on the Charter's S. 33 "Notwithstanding Clause", which allows parliament to disregard supreme court decisions.

Without a clear policy guide or reference, Martin is free to make up policy on-the-go, but I wonder how many of his own Liberal candidates knew about this? What will they tell their constituents at the riding level? I imagine that if they did know there was not much warning, and they didn't they must be livid. At this point, it smacks of desperation.
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I was interested in the CBC's side angle camera shots of all the leaders after one had just attacked another. Harper and Martin were attacked the most, and their reactions were quite different. Martin seemed to be channelling Chirac with his raised eyebrows and frowns, while Harper seemed to ignore the personal insults and kept taking notes rather than give the CBC the shot of the Conservative leader with steam rising from his ears.

Cool, calm
Just like my mom
With a couple of valium
Inside her palm
--Eminem

Harper was cool and collected under fire.... He even managed to smile a bit, and looked relaxed. I loved the answer to Martin's attempt to draw him into the non-debate about the Charter:

"I think our Constitution strikes a balance between the British system, where there's just Parliament supremacy ... and on the other hand, the American system, where the courts are always supreme. I think our Charter provides a balance."

It took the heat out of the allegations he is too far to the side of the US' worldview and instantly showed Martin's proposal to be firmly in the US' camp of judicial supremacy.

I'm cool as a cucumber
In a bowl of hotsauce
You got the rhyme and reason
But got no cause
--Beasties

The post-debate polling looks good, and Harper won. I'll say this as well: in the last debates of '04 he didn't look this good. Whatever the polls or pundits say, he looked like PM material this time, whereas last time he just looked kinda whiney. This time, someone close to me who (had a previously negative impression of Harper), came around to him. Hell, even on expectations he impressed people because voters are expecting (in some circles) a fire-breathing monster. And that US Republican jibe by the mediator with the 1989 New Jack City flat top haircut was ridiculous. How tired was that ****?

I got rhymes like politicians steady politicin'
Stick a move, I don't age or I am fooled
Been maximizin' my time like
We fightin' in the spotlight
'Aight then
You want a battle you must be trippin'
--Checkmate