I didn’t listen to yesterday’s Dem presidential debate on NPR (I admit it; I have “debate fatigue”), but the AP ran an amusing feed about a poorly used prop during the event.
Dennis Kucinich has been aggressive in arguing that the United States spends way too much on defense and he’s gone after Howard Dean on a few occasions for Dean’s belief that we shouldn’t cut military spending.
“It’s interesting to hear Governor Dean’s assertion about how he won’t balance the budget — or how he will try to balance the budget when he refuses to admit that there needs to be cuts in the bloated Pentagon budget,” Kucinich said yesterday. “I don’t see how in the world, when you have something that at this point takes up about 50 percent of the discretionary budget…”
And at this point, Kucinich apparently held up a pie chart to show how much of the budget goes to the Pentagon. Of course, this was a radio debate so no one could see it.
NPR’s Neal Conan noted, “Congressman Kucinich is holding up a pie chart, which is not truly effective on the radio.”
To which Kucinich replied, “Well, it’s effective if Howard can see it.”
Cute retort, but dumb prop.