As promised, I analyzed the Democrat candidates’ ability to respond to direct questions with clear answers in their second debate. The goal is the same as it was when I analyzed the Republican candidates in their third debate.

I wanted to discover who among them is most likely to answer the question asked, who prefers giving hollow answers by speaking about a question but never actually answering it, and who’s given to avoiding the question altogether. I also don’t evaluate the merits of the candidates’ answers. That’s a value judgment each voter has to make independently.

I will say though that Wolf Blitzer should never moderate a debate again if he can’t figure out how to shape clearer questions. With at least 15 years of experience as an on-air reporter at CNN, you would think he’d be a better moderator. I will take him to task in my next post.

Just like last time, I reviewed the debate transcript and broke down the candidate’s responses into five categories and valued them accordingly:

• 4 points = clearly answered a direct question
• 3 points = clearly answered a question posed to another candidate
• 2 points = gave an empty answer to a direct question by discussing the subject without answering the question
• 1 point = gave an empty answer to a question posed to another candidate
• 0 points = Didn’t address the question subject at all

I also didn’t give any points for clearly taking a position on a question that nobody asked. And now on to the awards ceremony.

The Straight Talk Award for being the one most likely to give a clear answer to a question goes to…

1. Mike Gravel (90% likely)
2. John Edwards & Chris Dodd (tie 82%)
3. Barack Obama (80%)
4. Bill Richardson (81%)
5. Joe Biden (77%)
6. Dennis Kucinich (55%)
7. Hillary Rodham-Clinton (47%)

The DC Shuffle Award goes to Hillary Rodham-Clinton for actually being more likely to give an evasive answer than a clear one. The scary part about that is that she’s the current Democratic front runner. Did she just have a poor debate performance or is she really that slippery? I may have to analyze the earlier debates to see what the longer-term trend is.

The Penn & Teller Award goes to the one who is most likely to give the illusion of answering a question without actually doing so. I call them empty answers. And the winner is:

1. Hillary Rodham-Clinton (26% likely)
2. Barack Obama (20%)
3. Chris Dodd (18%)

The Buck Stops Here Award for never avoiding a question goes an impressive number of candidates: Barack Obama, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, & Chris Dodd.

A special Who Am I and Why Am I Here Award goes to Dennis Kucinich who showed up to a debate only to avoid addressing more than one third (36%) of the questions put to him. And this was with a softball pitcher lofting them down the middle at him.

Unfortunately no one earned The Put Up or Shut Up Award for never giving an empty answer. Seems they all have a bit of the hollow platitude in them.

The Moderator’s Pet Award for being asked the most questions goes to…

1. Hillary Rodham-Clinton (19 questions)
2. Barack Obama & John Edwards (15)
3. Bill Richardson (14)
4. Joe Biden (12)
5. Chris Dodd & Dennis Kucinich (11)
6. Mike Gravel (9)

Wolf once again skewered the amount of camera time each candidate had by directing the most questions to the front-runners, if there can be such a thing seven months away from the Iowa caucus in January. Hillary Rodham-Clinton actually got more than double the number of questions offered to Mike Gravel. What’s especially sad about that is Mike Gravel was the most likely to answer clearly while Hillary was the least likely. What a waste of air-time as the Talk Clock on Chris Dodd’s website demonstrates.

So by looking at the chart and then my analysis, I can reasonably conclude that I learned twice as much about Mike Gravel as a candidate in about 1/3 of the time it took Hillary Rodham-Clinton to tell me half as much about herself. I know that last statement is a bit of a brain twister but it’s worth thinking about carefully. Almost like those high school algebra problems I disliked so much.

The analysis metrics can be found here

It’s your turn in the barrel next post, Wolf.