Last week in South Carolina the eight announced hopefuls (I’m still pullin’ for you Ali G!) for the 2008 Democratic nomination met to “debate.” This fat honkin’ slice o’political theater has been re-run on MSNBC several times since, and has been edited and condensed in Daily Show soundbite-montage-style in various forms online (If history were written using only tidbits of viral marketing one might think former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel dominated the event).

I’m an election geek, so I was looking for the basics: Tie color, lighting, stage position, camera angles. Throughout the campaign process, top candidates from both parties are trained, poked, and prodded to take full advantage these near subliminal elements which in aggregate add to the publics estimation of that indefinable yet all important quality of appearing “Presidential.” Take stage position for instance (supposedly random, by the way):

The Right Wing
Richardson (Gov-NM)
Dobbs (Sen-CT)

The Center/Mainstream
Edwards (Sen-NC)
Biden (Sen-DE)
Obama (Sen-IL)
Clinton (Sen-NY)

The Left Wing
Kucinich (Rep-OH)
Gravel (Sen-AK)

The mainstream media is once again attempting to short circuit our electoral process by choosing our front runners for us by emphasizing Obama and Clinton. Personally I didn’t see anything in the debate that excited me about any of the candidates beyond the fact that none of them are the current Administration. In that light, my pick for the top two clear winners of the first debate are: John Kerry (Sen-MA) and Al Gore (former USVP)!

Both are smart enough to realize that it’s ridiculously early to even announce candidacy, never mind hold a staged and manipulated debate. Both have also won Presidential elections in the past. These two facts alone put them head and shoulders above the rest of the field.