This past weekend I satisfied my appetite as a political junkie by watching two presidential debates.

On Saturday I saw the Democratic debate that was held in Chicago at the YearlyKos convention. Easily the most spontaneous of the debates held so far. All the candidates had their good moments. The consensus seems to be that John Edwards was the most impressive. Hillary Clinton's defense of taking money from lobbyists did not go over well with the YearlyKos audience.

On Sunday morning I watched the Republican debate that was held at Drake University in Iowa. What a contrast with the Democratic debate! One candidate claiming that he would bomb the holy sites in Saudi Arabia. It was clear that all of them except Ron Paul have moved beyond advocacy for the "War on Terror" to advocacy for a "War on Islam." Scary stuff. It was depressing to see Romney, a member of a religion that was once persecuted, using every opportunity to demonize members of the Islamic religion.

The Republicans must have some focus group evidence that there is a considerable number of people out there that will buy into hate and fear-mongering.