The July 23 Democratic Debate

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Grade: C-

Didn't get to talk for the first 20 minutes — and it was downhill from there. When he did speak, Richardson's boisterous, engaging off-camera personality was nowhere to be found, and his staff should be sued for malpractice for allowing him to appear with make-up that made him look more like The Thing from The Fantastic Four than any candidate for president should. Had his best answer of all the debates with a stirring pitch for America to play a moral role in Darfur and elsewhere, although he got a bit caught in the weeds even then.

—by Mark Halperin