During last night's nationally televised Democratic debate at Drexel University, there were countless questions about war, rumors of war and (supposed) softness on the Bush-Cheney administration's foreign policy. Heck, one of the TV heads even asked what each of the candidates wanted to dress up as for Halloween. And the final minutes of the debate dissolved into hilarity as Tim Russert got Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio to discuss his encounter with a UFO.
What was missing?
"There was no discussion about city-based issues," said Democratic mayoral nominee Michael Nutter, working Spin Alley way past midnight. "It's astounding to me that in a two-hour debate there were no questions about crime - it's unbelievable, to consider that, unbeknownst to the candidates, a Philadelphia police officer was shot as they were talking. There was no discussion of education funding, no discussion about poverty, in a city with the highest poverty rate of any major city." (25 percent)
Nutter knows that those aren't pressing issues in Iowa or New Hampshire, and that it's hard to chew up 20 minutes of debate time on Iraq and Iran and then bring the conversation back down to North Philadelphia, but..."The candidates have got to figure out how to make the federal government more relevant to the lives of citizens in cities," Nutter said.
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