Democratic Debates

Start in a half hour. My expectations are low.

Lotta speechifying. As expected.

A few good zingers.  Tim Ryan and William DeBlasio and John Delaney are making fools of themselves.

Warren pretty much owned the first half.

Overall, much better than expected; singularly, ho-hum, with few exceptions.

2nd night highlights:

• Eric Swalwell said he was 6 years old when Joe Biden said it was time to pass the political torch to a younger generation.  Oh course, he was probably talking about HIS generation, not Swalwell's when he said that.  But I thought it nicely nailed the coffins shut for Sanders & Biden.
  
• Kamala Harris spoke forcefully and movingly about busing and race, and sounded presidential.
  

Advancing to the next round:

• Kamala Harris - invoked civility and issues-orientation while still ripping her competition to shreds
  
• Pete Buttigieg - spoke in complete sentences and was the smartest person on-stage by far
  
• Eric Swalwell - might not have a Kennedy charisma but has a well-thought-out agenda
  

Toast:

• Joe Biden - sounded old and confused.  Said his first act as president would be to defeat Donald Trump
  
• Bernie Sanders - I decided I couldn't stand 4 years of listening to him speak
  
• Kirstin Gillibrand -- shrill and unlikeable.  Had some good policy points, but seems very unlikely to advance
  
• Marianne Williamson - an author, never held public office.  Spoke well, made salient points, but way out of her depth
  
• Andrew Yang - Barely spoke.  Totally unconvincing when he did.  Running sounds like a vanity project for him
  
• Michael Bennet - zero impact
  
• John Hickenlooper - zero impact
  

Issues:

• Gun Control - Swalwell proposes buying back all assault rifles.  Good idea, but that dog will never hunt.  That genie is out of the bottle.  Somebody else suggested thumbprint locks, another good idea past its sell-by date.  Nobody on the 2nd night had the gravitas of Booker on the 1st night on this issue, but somebody DID mention a yearly license for all firearms ("If you have to buy a license for a car...") which seems both doable and likely to make a difference.  For instance, you have to show a valid license to buy ammunition.
  
• Universal Health Care - Sanders wanting to put all private insurers out of business on day one seems like a hard sell.  The "personal choice" option -- guaranteed coverage unless your employer covers you -- seems like employers would drop insurance like a hot potato if they didn't have to cover employees.  I don't know what the answer is.
  
• Taxing the rich - everyone wants to reverse the Trump tax cut.  Another good idea but the resistance would be fierce from Amazon and Apple and Google.
  
• Immigration - everyone wants a pathway to citizenship for migrants fleeing violence or economic collapse.  Everyone wants "a Marshall Plan" for improving the conditions in Latin America, which also makes sense.  Rachel Maddow couldn't get a straight answer from anyone about decriminalizing illegal border entry.
  
• Climate Change - everyone agreed this is the keystone issue of our generation.  Nobody has a clue what can be done about it.  Even if the US goes 100% carbon-neutral, there's the rest of the world to consider.
  
• Strategic Alliances - everyone agreed we must work with the rest of the world, not piss 'em off.  Unfortunately this idea has yet to be sold to the American public.
  

It's funny how Bernie Sanders' signature positions on taxing the rich and Medicare for all are now considered mainstream Democratic platform issues -- but Bernie himself is not.

Second set of debates underway tonight.

Lotsa speechifying. Lotsa talking over each other.  CNN’s debate rules of very short answers is a good idea, but the candidates have not bought into the idea of answering questions rather than speechifying.

We’ll see if CNN can rein them in.

SURPRISING number of candidates parroting Republican talking points.

I like the policies of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, but I wouldn’t want to listen to them for four years. They’re too strident.

Night Two.  

Kamala Harris has Joe Biden's pants cuff in her teeth.  Joe Biden is the drunk uncle at Thanksgiving.  Michael Bennett fell off his bicycle on the way to the debate, and he wasn't wearing a helmet.

Yang actually made good points about health care and immigration. He needs more airtime -- maybe he has some ideas beyond giving everyone a guaranteed monthly income.

 Insley is a single issue candidate, and hecklers keep interrupting (where are the ushers?)

Heavy sigh.  Looking for a candidate to stand out and inspire.  Not finding.

Cory Booker is eating Biden's lunch. If Biden doesn't fall precipitously in the polls after tonight there will be no justice.

Still, nobody's mentioned impeachment. That's shameful.

Cory Booker won the night. Didn't get as much airtime as Biden, but shown every time he did.

Anyone on the stage would be better than Trump. That's a low bar though.

Time to start winnowing the field. Doesn't matter who it is.

The next debate I guess will be supposedly limited to seven candidates.  I'm guessing:

• Joe Biden
  
• Kamala Harris
  
• Cory Booker
  
• Elizabeth Warren
  
• Pete Buttigieg
  
• Bernie Sanders
  
• Beto O’Rourke
  

Ten candidates, but nothing new under the sun.

OurRevolution wrote:

Pundits: stop embarrassing yourselves.  We all saw who won.

Corporate media pundits are working overtime to convince voters that our movement’s ideas — like Medicare for All and ending big money’s control of our political system — didn’t dominate last night's debate.

We’ve fought too hard over the last three years advancing these ideas to allow their propaganda to go unanswered. Voters deserve to know the truth about who is working for their best interests (Bernie Sanders), and who is working for corporate special interests (Joe Biden) — and Our Revolution is organizing across the country to make sure that working people hear the unfiltered truth about our shared progressive vision.

As with every other presidential debate this year, the most remarkable thing about last night was the extent to which our progressive vision of this country’s future dominated the discourse. Make no mistake: because of our grassroots activism, major change has already happened in this country.

But the corporate elite do not want voters to see that. They want Americans to believe that we can’t guarantee healthcare as a human right because too many people love their private health insurance companies too much. They want Americans to believe that bold, immediate action on the climate crisis would be too expensive, and that we should just do the bare minimum instead.

They lie because they know that our political revolution has already changed the Democratic party forever, and they know the 1% and the candidates they prop up don’t stand a chance if the 99% continues to get organized.

There's some truth in this.  The Olde Guard of the Democratic Party (Pelosi, Biden, et al) are fond of moving slow and not rocking the boat, but I think Democratic voters are well beyond that now.  They know we need bold, fast moves to undo the damage of the past 4 years.

As to the debate:

• Castro has proven he's too nasty to be likable
  
• Yang has aquitted himself quite well and is a lot less unrealistic than he used to be, but he still has zero relevant experience.  Maybe a cabinet position.
  
• Harris has slipped in everyone's estimation.  She is shrill and dogmatic and speaks over other candidates and doesn't answer direct questions, just repeats her stump speech
  
• Sanders and Biden are too old and too white
  
• Mayor Pete gets more and more attractive with every appearance
  
• Elizabeth Warren gets more and more plausible with every appearance
  
• Cory Booker doesn't make much of an impression.  Cabinet
  
• Amy Klobuchar has a good agenda but doesn't seem like she has the aptitude.  Cabinet
  
• Beto always seems reasonable and calm.  TOO reasonable and calm.  Cabinet
  

So, if there’s any justice in the world, it’ll be a Warren/Buttigeug ticket.

CNN wrote:

Joe Biden is the frontrunner for a reason

With each debate, former Vice President Joe Biden's performance has improved. He handled the predictable incoming questions much better than past debates with greater passion and authenticity. Biden finally began to remind voters of his experience and accomplishments, not only as a senator, but as vice president, proudly serving at the side of the Democrats' most popular living president. No one else in this race has that resume.

Fuck.  CNN is Russian "corporate media" to a T.  How can they ignore what everyone else saw clearly, including The Huffington Post?

Huffington Post wrote:

Former Vice President Joe Biden gave one of the strangest answers of the night in Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate, connecting kids listening to TV and record players as a way to erase the stain of slavery on the country.

In 1975, Biden scoffed at the idea of the country needing to address slavery and its legacy, stating, “I don’t feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather. I feel responsible for what the situation is today, for the sins of my own generation. And I’ll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago.”

At Thursday’s third presidential debate, ABC News moderator Linsey Davis asked Biden about that quote and what responsibility Americans now need to take to repair the legacy of slavery.

In his answer, Biden never directly addressed what Black Americans face beyond a brief mention of saying there’s “institutional segregation” in the country and that he tried to address redlining, the practice of systemic racial discrimination in the mortgage and other industries.

But then Biden pivoted to talking about “poor schools” ― without directly mentioning race again. His meandering reply was hard to follow at times, but it essentially broke down to arguing that schools need more money, that teachers and parents need more help, and that poor parents need to change how they raise their children.

Joe Biden wrote:

I propose that what we take is those very poor schools, the Title I schools, triple the amount of money we spend from 15 to $45 billion a year.  Give every single teacher a raise, the equal raise to getting out ― the $60,000 level.  

   Number two, make sure that we bring in to help the teachers deal with the problems that come from home. The problems that come from home, we need ― we have one school psychologist for every 1,500 kids in America today. It’s crazy.

   The teachers are ― I’m married to a teacher. My deceased wife is a teacher. They have every problem coming to them. We have ― make sure that every single child does, in fact, have 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds go to school. School. Not day care. School.

   We bring social workers in to homes and parents to help them deal with how to raise their children. It’s not want they don’t want to help. They don’t ― they don’t know quite what to do.

   Play the radio, make sure the television ― excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night, the ― the ― make sure that kids hear words.  A kid coming from a very poor school ― a very poor background will hear 4 million words fewer spoken by the time they get there.  

First of all, this idea of some sort of word gap between rich and poor children has been questioned and criticized. If there is a gap, it’s not clear how big it is. Other researchers say that the entire concept could be counterproductive, including to families of color.

“He’s talking about people in communities like mine listening to record players,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said to CNN after the debate, questioning whether Biden had what it took to be the nominee. “There are definitely moments when you listen to Joe Biden and you just wonder.”

In August, Biden also drew attention when he said that “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids,” appearing to equate income and poverty with race. He quickly corrected himself, however, and added, “Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids — no I really mean it, but think how we think about it.”

Fox News is pushing The Russian Agenda too:

Fox News wrote:

In the most contentious Democratic debate thus far, a winnowed field of 10[sic] Democratic candidates took the stage in Houston Thursday night and sparred over hot-button issues such as health care and immigration.

Notably, this was the first time that frontrunners Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden shared the debate stage. At the end of the night, Joe Biden emerged as the winner and Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders were the surprise losers.

It's quite clear to me that Trump and his Russian propaganda machine want to run against Biden, as the easiest man to trounce.

Debate #4 is no new news. Sad, in a way. The reason Barack Obama electrified the electorate is that he was different, he was honest, he spoke truth to power, he told it like it is.

These guys are business as usual. These guys are small ideas. These guys are making stump speeches instead of listening, instead of actually addressing the questions asked.

Those who are not Old White Men still talk like Old White Men. Tom Steyer's first debate performance was solid, for another Old White Man (& businessman to boot).

Debate #5 is still nothing but speechifying.

None of the candidates have that "new President smell" like Obama. Too bad. Trump 2020.

Only six candidates have qualified for the December 19 debate.  One can hope that anybody not qualifying for this one will quietly drop out of the race -- except maybe the billionaires, who don't need to care about the voters.

Quote :

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who officially announced he's running on Sunday, isn't accepting donations, which will make it impossible for him to qualify.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Only six candidates have qualified for the December 19 debate.

Tom Steyer wrote:

Democracy works best when all of our voices are heard.

That’s why, last week, Tom called on the Democratic National Committee to open up its debate requirements so voters can hear from a diverse group of candidates before selecting a nominee.

Add your name to tell the DNC you support a more diverse and inclusive January debate.

Poor billionaires, not enough donors to qualify. But they REALLY REALLY want to buy their way in.

Just like in 2016, when the DNC fucked up royally by denying Bernie Sanders the nomination, in 2020 they're repeating their error by allowing billionaires to dictate their policy.

Buncha fucking idiots.