The autopsy on MSNBC was why wasnāt there any comparisons to Trump? I welcomed a Trump free debate.
Learned that Tulsiās Sister is a fucked up as Tulsi.
Reality:
Perhaps the biggest takeaway of the first Democratic debate is that everyone is talking about it. Try to think of another time when an incumbent President was being challenged and everyone was excited about the first debate between the people vying to challenge that incumbent.
People are tuning in rather early for this, and I think we all know why.
Came in on the last half. Quick thoughts, based only on the last half,
Warren hardly spoke a word or was questioned in the last half.
DeBlasio was throwing bombs.
Beto, of previous interest to me, sounded very canned, unreal, distant.
Gabbard spent most of her time touting her military creds, and ignoring her early-life prejudices as youngster stuff, yāknow?
Who is this Ohio Rep Tim Ryan? Is he Repub plant? He started bashing Dem āelitesā from the coasts. WTF?
Todd still sucks.
a few observations ā
Mikes should be turned off 5 seconds after the first warning. And if a candidate goes 60 seconds over in aggregate, or interrupts someone more than once, they should be disqualified from the next debate and/or asked to leave the stage.
The only ānon leaderā who did themselves much good is Castro. Three viable candidates come out of this debate, Castro, Booker and Warren.
The rest of the āminorā candidates failed to do what they had to do which was get enough people to contribute cash to run a viable campaign. There were two ways they could have done this ā go after Biden, or go after Pelosi.
They would have, of course, resulted in lots and lots of criticism, but taking on the Party establishment will always attract lots of attention, and enough money to remain a viable candidate.
We can all agree that Chuck Todd sucks.
Twitter Universe slammed trumpās tweets.
Re-posted from another thread:
Quick Debate Hot Take. I listened on radio livestream on a long drive so my impressions might be different from the tv watching audience.
- Elizabeth Warren looks like a front runner. She will be within a statistical tie of Biden before too long imho. She has superb communication skills and sheāll punch Trump in the gut repeatedly.
- Julian Castro was very impressive. He proved why many believe he should be getting the attention that has been bestowed on Buttigieg. He killed it on immigration and gutted Beto in the process. Heās a man of substance, heart and accomplishment. I think the Warren-Castro ticket got a big boost today.
- Bill De Blasio, 'da Mayor!, showed up. He really has done some good things in NY and can speak to a lot of issues substantively.
- Beto - Not that good. I liked his answer on the impeachment question, but he was gutted by Castro on the immigration issue. Did he and Booker really think that speaking crap Spanish was going to go over well with Castro on the stage? Really, this was the first day that I thought he should bow out.
- Booker - Not that good either imho. I know Josh liked him, but he got clowned in the early portion of the debate and didnāt come across as a serious player to me who could take on Trump.
- Klobuchar - Got off some good lines here and there, but still sounded like sheās running for Governor in a light red state. I donāt get her candidacy. When your highlight on addressing inequality for African Americans is a bill that Trump signed, you just donāt know your audience.
- Inslee - reminded everyone that we all shoulda been talking about Trump more, and has one of the most accomplished records as a Governor who has implemented changes in voting rights, health care and climate change. Despite the fact that I like his agenda and record a lot, he didnāt make quite the impression that DeBlasio did among the back of the pack crew.
- Delaney - Ya knowā¦no. I didnāt really need his interruptions.
- Tulsi - completely nuts. She canāt hold her stuff together for more than 5 minutesā¦well maybe 3 minutes. Her first few comments actually sounded reasonable and then she goes off on the break, hops on Twitter and blasts MSNBC for favoring Warren. Then, she gets into a back and forth with Ryan on the Iraq War and doesnāt seem to think the Taliban had anything to do with sheltering Bin Laden when 9/11 happened.
- Tim Ryan - I thought he was good in the first hour then he lost me with his characterization of the party as a party of elites and playing up this forgotten man stuff.
I thought the fringe candidates, like Ryan and Tulsi, got too much air time. This field shouldāve been cut to 7.
Yes. Any one of the people on that stage tonight would be a much better president than the stooge today in the Oval Office. Will vote for any of them.
Warren didnāt hurt herself, so she won.
Thought Klobucher and DeBlasio did well.
Not as impressed as others seem to be with Booker and Castro, but they were good on immigration (Castro) and urban disinvestment and gun violence (Booker).
I liked Ryanās pitch for blue-collar, mid-America. Coastal elites ignoring the decades-long abandonment of the Rust Belt put Trump in White House.
The others had tough time standing out. Delaney really had no business being on that stage.
Yes! What a joy and a relief to have a whole two hours during which trump was not the focus of anything. To be sure, almost all of them referenced his terrible policies, but we were finally seeing news coverage of somebody other than the unspeakable.
How about lightning-elimination rounds?
At regular intervals, the candidates could vote their most-annoying colleague off the stage.
Moderators, too. Todd would be the first to go.
Hereās who I have moving on to the next round (if these debates were run like American Idol): Warren, Inslee, DeBlasio, Castro, Booker.
Hereās who is out:
Beto: too flat, got schooled by Castro
Klobuchar: 34 bills? Really?
Delaney: sorry heās from my home state of Maryland
Gabbard: had good moments, then had a Trump-like Twitter Tantrum after debate.
Ryan: yes, we need to appeal to āregular peopleā, but use of āelitesā and āIvy Leagueā are conservabot words.
Finally, after Chuckās debacle of an interview w/Trump and his weak moderating tonight, Todd needs to be replaced at MTP with Maddow. Looking forward to tomorrow night.
Gawdalmighty, what a sātshow. Pack your bags for four more years of the Great Orange Pretender with ringmaster McConnell, Linseed gram cracker, and friends.
There was NOBODY on that stage tonight that can give this no good Orange Bully the whipping he needs to get in order for the Democrats to win.
What was far worse, the only things missing were juggling clowns, dancing ponies and elephant pyramids. If that was any sort of serious ādebateā than Iām John Forster Dulles.
It made the Democratic Party look as if they couldnāt organize their own picnic, let alone anything that might look like a genuine ticket or a post-election victory set of policies to put right whatās gone so wrong since January 2017.
I didnāt vote for Trump in 2016. I didnāt vote for Clinton in 2016.
But after listening to that MESS tonight, which will be even bigger tomorrow night Iām sure, I can make one clear, definitive statement:
I donā want to vote for ANYONE I saw tonight, any more than I would vote for the Orange Goon, and Iām just as likely to dig a hole in the backyard after tomorrow nightās Circus of the Absurd, pull some lumber and canvas over it, and consider my prospects in Israel or Canada until 2024 or 2028, if thereās any bit of America left by then.
In that same vein, candidates like New York Mayor Bill de Blasio got more airtime than they would have otherwise by shamelessly talking over other candidates and the moderators.
Yes, de Blasio dropped to the bottom of my list with all that interrupting and talking over, and, may I say, bullying. Weāve had enough of dominance games, chest thumping, and loud voices. I want to hear what individuals have to say, not the biggest loudmouth.
I donāt blame Beto for going with the spanish. I blame him for going on-and-on-and-on in Spanish. That was extremely counter-productive, because it alienated those of us who donāt speak spanish.
My takeaway is that no one knows who āwonā the debate until the polls come out next week.
I thought Gore destroyed Bush in their debates, and thatās why Al Gore served two terms as President and we spent $6 trillion fighting climate change instead of invading Iraq like I dreamed that one time when I had the flu.
I will say it because Iām an assā¦Meh at the Spanish chops. If I wanted to watch Lettermanās stupid human tricks Iād fire up youtube. Iām not saying thereās no value in it, just that the undeniably blatant pandering almost bothers me. Youāre white. Iām white. Theyre white (or not hispanis). Stay in your goddamn lane and dont be a pretender. Just speak sense and empathy and no, you dont get a Snausage for learning some planned, disingenuous appropriation nonsense.
Also, seems minimizing Biden is the consensus strategy as opposed to attacking. This is straight up advertising industry think. Avoid giving him more mic time by not attacking and thereby making it fair for him to be given opportunities to speak and rebut. Whittle down the name recognition effect and dont test or risk his proven debate skills. This is a legit strategy but one I think wonāt work. Biden is liked and likable so the sort of free pass a look over here instead approach gives him may not gain all that much ground. It will certainly help them to work in concert to attenuate his mic time, so to speak, but I dont think it is enough. There are easy ways to respond and compensate for it if his campaign people arenāt morons.
I love Joe, but the REAL way to make inroads against him his not to try to minimize him and relegate him to outside the conversation, but to engage him on the issues. These people are struggling for ways to differentiate from each other. Alot of the ways they distinguish from each other are hair splitting as far as most people are concerned.
Biden is a Big Dog. He takes up space on stage and in peopleās heads. If you want to stand out, you engage him yourself in respectful non-attacking manner and use him to highlight your differences and as a sounding board for your different ideas and why you are the one who is the vanguard of change and progressā¦while everyone else pretends they can ignore the frontrunner into not being part of the conversation. You cant. Thatās cowardice and weakness. It wonāt impress anyone.
I thought Booker and Castro both brought their A game, just like Josh observed. I was a bit disappointed with Warren. She had good answers, but Delaney hit her in the face on the Medicare for All question when he said the hospitals would ALL close. She did not respond to this bullshit and should have forcefully pointed out, that WITHOUT Medicare, the hospitals would already be closed, and the Funeral Parlors would have a booming business.
Klobuchar had a better answer - the Public Option. If you let everyone under 65 buy into Medicare and (quietly) phase out employer tax deductions for health care premiums, the marketplace quickly moves everyone to a single payer system without anyone mandating the change. In a single payer system, even those expensive hospitals will have to clean up their acts and become cost-effective.
Maybe viable in the short run but a death knell in the medium run as Bernie found out.
The activists in the Democratic Party have had it with people running as Democrats but bashing the Party which makes it much more difficult to take the Congress.