Last night I watched the second night of the Democratic debate. I’ll make this brief, because I agree with the following CNN article.
WINNERS
*Kamala Harris: The California Senator gave the strongest performance not just of Thursday night’s debate but of either nights’ debate. She was calm, poised, knowledgeable and, yes, presidential…
* Pete Buttigieg: If you knew nothing about Buttigieg going into Thursday night, you would have assumed from his performance that a) he was a senator or a governor who had been at this for a long time and b) a co-frontrunner with Harris in the race. That person would be stunned to learn that Buttigieg is currently the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and running at the back of the lead pack. He was serious, smart, thoughtful and probing. * Michael Bennet: Look, I don’t think that the Colorado senator is somehow going to shoot from 1% to relevance in the polls based on his performance in this debate. He wasn’t that good. But, for someone who a) no one knew going into this debate and b) had limited speaking opportunities to make his case, I thought Bennet performed well. Bennet’s incredulity with Biden’s belief that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would start working in a bipartisan way if the former vice president won the White House felt genuine — and was powerful. In short: Bennet came out of this debate looking better than he went into it. Which is a win.
LOSERS
*Joe Biden: Well, that went poorly. From the get-go, Biden seemed too rigidly attached to his stump speech and his talking points. He struggled to fit his points into the 60-second time limit. He got defensive — as we predicted — when Harris pushed him on his comments about segregationist Sen. James Eastland and his opposition to school busing and quite clearly lost the back and forth. Badly.
* Bernie Sanders: The Vermont senator learned a tough lesson Thursday night: Debating nine people as one of the frontrunners for the nomination is a very different beast than debating a single, establishment frontrunner when you are the freewheeling insurgent. Rather than passionate, Sanders came off as just plain loud. Rather than committed, he came across as repetitive. And, even worse, there were large periods of the debate where Sanders seemed to just plain disappear…
* Marianne Williamson: Watching the author and spiritual adviser on the debate stage reminded me of my own experience playing high school basketball: Hopelessly out of her league…
* Andrew Yang: Yang’s online army insisted that this first debate would be his break-out moment — a chance to push his message of the dangers of automation to the general public. The only thing that evoked automation was Yang; in the few moments when he spoke, he sounded like a robot.
* Eric Swalwell: You know that guy in high school who has a catchphrase? And, the first time you hear it, you’re like “That’s not bad!” But by the time he says it for the 30th time before lunch, you have to fight down the urge to vomit in your mouth? That’s Eric Swalwell and “pass the torch.”…
Inserted from <CNN>
I think that the only Kirsten Gellibrand was not included with the winners is that the moderators gage her so little time.
To watch the entire debate, click here.
Here are Key Moments from the NY Times.
At least they agreed on the need flush Putin’s Pervert. Biden’s deference to home rule on busing looks all too Republican. Slam dunk for Harris.
Here are some awkward moments from the Washington Post.
“My time’s up?” Biden surrendered and ducked.
I think Rachel Maddow was shell shocked.
I disagree with Rachel. Biden did back down by saying “I’m out of time,” when he could not answer Harris.
What did you think?
RESIST!!
VOTE BLUE!!
8 Responses to “The Democratic Debate – Night 2”
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The back and forth between Biden and Harris was a WOW moment there on stage. Harris shared her story to Joe and brought the facts home. She won that round, and slam dunked the ball. imho.
I liked Swalwell’s comments too.
What a night!
AlterNet did include Gillibrand among the winners. (They called the three winners Harris, Gillibrand, and anti-Trump voters.) They also said that Harris “left Biden a smoking crater.” I’m very pleased with what Bennet did, but damn, I want him to stay in the Senate. And believe me, that is not just from selfishness. We all really need voices like that in the Senate.
For anyone to think that McTurtle will be available for bipartisanship is delusional. He, and Boehner were the architects of cutting off cross-pollination, would not even allow GOPIGGIES to lunch with Dems! Goddamn traitor!
I’m thinking Harris did herself some serious good. Sorry to hear your spin on Bernie, not that I doubt it. He may be working towards becoming rather irrelevant, personally, though not irrelevant as a force nudging the party to the left. Still, there is a lot of time between now and the actual nomination process.
I, too, totally agree w/ CNN’s assessment of Debate Night #2.
At this point, I would be comfortable w/ Beto & Hickenlooper dropping out and start running for their respective state’s Senate seats.
(And not JUST those two dropping out.)
Night two sure got to be a bit wild.
It was a shocker when Harris brought up the situation of busing. She certainly stood her ground with Biden.
I had forgotten that she was a district attorney earlier in her career too. She has the qualifications.
I feel we have a long way to go till the time comes where more will drop out of the race.
I wasn’t able to watch the debates. It wouldn’t matter anyway. I have my field narrowed down to four. Joe and Bernie aren’t part of the four. I’m hoping for women to bring it home. It’s a long time between now and the elections. I’m concerned trump and his ilk (Putin, Saudis, Kim, McConnell, RWNJs, Satan, the kitchen sink) will interfere, not allow the elections to take place.
Thanks for the link — I did watch the whole debate. What a scene of chaos as candidates repeatedly spoke over each other. Finally, Harris said (or words to that effect) “We’re not here for a food fight. We’re here to put the food on people’s tables.”
I liked Harris and Buttigieg and think Harris won the night. As much as I like Sanders and what he stands for, I think he was in the slow lane. And unfortunately, I think that Biden shot himself in the foot with his reply to Harris, not that Joe hasn’t had previous occasions of ‘foot in mouth’ disease. I also thought Swalwell was very passionate about gun control.
It was interesting to hear commentators on night 1 talk about the lack of comment about defeating Trump, and then on night 2 say there was too much talk of defeating Trump and not enough on their policies. Perhaps the debate needs to hear from fewer candidates and give them more time. With that, more debate nights to give them all a chance.
Ultimately, Trump must go down in flames replaced with someone strong and progressive!
Thanks and delayed hugs to all.