The ring was still in my ears from banging out rock and roll when we turned the TV on to watch the rest of the first Democratic Party debate of the 2004 Presidential run. It was taking place less than two miles away from our practice garage on the campus of the University of New Mexico. With a glass of Jim Beam in hand, we listened and joked for the next hour or so. A few hours later, we watched the first half hour.

My impressions:

The one who wanted to do almost nothing different from the current Prez, but spoke well and long about not really wanting to change anything: Joe Lieberman.

The one who wanted to dismantle the entire system and start over (in four years, no less): Dennis Kucinich.

Neither of these two have a chance in hell of beating Bush because of their extreme views. You can't be a spit away from the incumbent and talk about change, and you can't talk about rebuilding government from the ground up and not be labeled as an extreme liberal. The best candidate for the Democrats would be a mix of these two.

The one who went from "who the hell is this guy" to "I want to kill this guy" (impressions are from the congregation in the small garage I watched the debates in): John Edwards. Good looking, upper-class southerner with no ideas.

The one who looked and talked like he already is President: John Kerry. His hair has gotten two inches taller in the last week since he announced. Not radical enough for me, but damn if he doesn't look and sound Kennedy-esque.

The one everyone has been talking about and all the candidates running want to knock on his ass: Howard Dean. Has a look of deer-in-headlights occasionally, weird hand gestures and what the hell is that smile? But at the same time, he's pushing the agenda and making the other top candidates accept that he's in the running.

The one who had interesting ideas about health care and poverty, surprised everyone and represents the most minorities in one package: Carol Mosely Braun.

The one with all the slogans, no substance and too many consonants in his last name: Dick Gephardt.

The one who looks like a turtle: Bob Graham.

The one who was AWOL (he missed connecting flights and couldn't make the debate): Al Sharpton.

The one who got beat up on the most: President Bush.

The one who isn't running, but actually mentioned education: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.

You'd think they could have gone for two hours: it's public television! Some re-run of "This Old House" ran after the debates, I think some of the lame programming could have been cut so the candidates could have talked about education in a more detailed way.

Other than that, I thought it went well. I dug the occasionally bi-lingual question from the hottie at Univision--even though none of the candidates could speak Spanish without reading from a script and totally screwing it up. I loved that it turned into a Bush-bashing party, because I've been pissed off for a long time at the pussy-footed approach the Democrats have been taking with the Prez. The only way they can win this is to point out the differences between themselves and the current Prez.

I hope a few of these candidates will realize they have no chance and fall out soon. I hope the eventual Democratic candidate takes some ideas from Kucinich--he's at best the Paul Simon of this race; at worst, he's Perot. Way too weird looking to be elected (bad hair, big ears), and much too left to draw from the middle.

I don't know who my favorite is right now--but I know I'm voting for one of these people. If there's anything the last Presidential election taught me it's this: the Green Party candidate will never win, the Democrats need as much help as they can get, and we can't go through another four years of Bush.

Matt Worley loves to be an armchair politico.