The Democrats and Hedge Funds

Last night's presidential debate was fantastically dull. Maybe I've seen too many of these over the years and been spoiled by some of the authentically wry moments of the past. I remember 1984 when, Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings skewered senator and former astronaut John Glenn, saying he'd "spent too much time in the capsule." I loved 1988, when the Democrats got asked their favorite drinks and each seemed to calculate the best political answer--Richard Gephardt, as I recall said "milk"--and Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt burst out "Tecate beer." Alcohol--and an import, too!

So last night's consensus that Iraq is a mess and Bush is a stubborn dope was sleep-inducing, even with the occasional rants of former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel who seemed to embody all the flintiest traits of two decades worth of outlier candidates like Ross Perot (irritable), Adm. James Stockdale (confused), Pat Buchanan (demagogic) and his peace-candidate rival Dennis Kucinich (far out, man.)

The only time the concord was intriguing is when Edwards and Hillary both passed up an easy shot at criticizing hedge funds. Both could sounded like industry spokesmen, praising them as party of our great free market system and Hillary--for whom I will often acknowledge during this campaign, my wife makes TV ads--seemed to walk up to the edge of calling for more regulation of the industry and then backed away. Was it about not upsetting the donor base? Probably. But if I had to guess, I bet Clinton and even Edwards are like most of us--still not entirely sure what hedge funds are and ambivalent, at best, about what they mean for the country. I do know that if there's an Amaranth Advisors-type meltdown before the next debate, it will have a way of gelling their opinions.