It's becoming a cherished tradition: When the Democratic presidential candidates gather for a debate, the Chris Dodd campaign breaks out the stopwatch.
It did so for the talkfest at Dartmouth College on Wednesday, and the speaking-time stats underscored that Hillary Clinton is the dominant figure in the race.
She logged 17 minutes and 37 seconds of air time -- roughly four minutes more than the second-place finisher, Barack Obama. Reflecting how Clinton's been extending her lead in various polls (with the exception of that pesky little contest in Iowa), that's a reversal from the figures for some of the earlier debates, when Obama led and she ran second.
One trend remains unshakable: Mike Gravel has a lock on being the least-heard.
The N.Y. Times Caucus blog offers another measuring tool: a word count. And what did we learn from a careful study of these figures? Well, even though Bill Richardson and John Edwards had roughly the same amount of speaking time, the latter crams a lot more verbiage into his responses.
No surprise, given Edwards' past life as a trial lawyer.
Biden by the numbers
For an East Coast guy, Joe Biden showed a laudable awareness of a different part of the country. But a barb he directed at Bill Richardson left us wondering whether he's lost touch with his own roots.
At a forum in Davenport, Iowa, Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, touted his experience in the executive branch of government (it distinguishes him from the plethora of senators -- including Biden -- he's running against). In particular, Richardson extolled his efforts to expand health insurance coverage within his state.
Biden decided to offer his own contrast, this one on governing New Mexico versus the entire country. "My good friend from New Mexico, God love him," Biden began. "His state's a couple million people. Give me a break. He can pull that together. Pull together 300 million people. That's like saying, you know, 'I played halfback when I was in high school; I can play in the pros' -- a different deal."
His point sent us to the U.S. Census Bureau for its latest population estimates. New Mexico: 1,954,599 (Biden was on the money). Delaware (his home state): 853,476. It appears Biden has been playing politics in the ankle-biter league.
A forbidden step
Surrogate campaigners are usually a boon to presidential campaigns because they attract crowds and publicity when the candidate is somewhere else. Candidate spouses , mainly wives, are especially popular surrogates.
