Some things from last nights debate.
Biden:
He dealt particularly well with the toughest question he got, which was about
a recent Washington Post report on how leaders, including those in the Obama administration, misled the country about the status of the war in Afghanistan. He said he argued against nation-building there and emphasized disagreements with the Pentagon about things such as the troops surge. And he’s got
documents to back that up. He had previously struggled when asked to own particular elements of the Obama legacy, but he did not on Thursday.
Biden also described how he connects with voters, including by talking like a child who stutters — something
he struggled with when he was younger. Trump’s former press secretary Sarah Sanders appeared to not pick up on what Biden was actually doing and ridiculed him on Twitter, which could be a lasting moment from this debate. Sanders later apologized and deleted that tweet
Mayor Pete:
Buttigieg under fire: The most pointed exchange of the evening — and one of the most pointed exchanges of any debate to date — came when
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) went after Buttigieg. Hard. It was pretty brutal. She pointed to a fundraiser he recently held
in a wine cave. “Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States, Mr. Mayor,” she said, punctuating it by referring to $900 bottles of wine and addressing him directly.
But Buttigieg, as he almost always has been, was prepared. He noted he was the least wealthy of anyone onstage, and then he hit back just as hard. He noted that Warren transferred millions raised for her Senate campaign to her presidential bid, which included money raised at big-dollar fundraisers. “This is the problem with issuing purity tests you cannot yourself pass,” he said. Warren has largely avoided attacking other candidates and has avoided being attacked herself. The fact that she opted to go after Buttigieg reinforces what a force he has become in this race — and how, even with a more mainstream approach, he has apparently peeled off some of her voters.
Buttigieg also parried a series of attempts by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) to goad him, including on his views of press freedom and his comments about the Washington experience of his opponents. It may not have been fun for Buttigieg, but he passed the tests. He’s a force in this race.
Bernie:
If there was one issue that dogged Sanders in his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton, it was his inability to appeal to minority voters. And for one striking moment on Thursday, that problem reared its ugly head again.
The candidates were asked about the declining diversity in their debate field, and when the question was presented to Sanders, he opted instead to try to return to a previous topic, climate change. Debate moderator Amna Nawaz of “PBS NewsHour” cut in, though. “Senator, with all respect, this question is about race. Can you answer the question as it was asked?”
The crowd roared. Sanders tried to rescue it by saying people of color would suffer from climate change, too, and then he offered some boilerplate about problems that plague minority communities. It was one moment, but it came just after the only minority candidate onstage, Andrew Yang, gave a detailed answer citing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and it briefly revived some old demons.
Sanders also, shortly thereafter, responded to a
quote Barack Obama recently gave about old white men running countries. When debate moderator Tim Alberta noted Sanders was the oldest candidate onstage, Sanders interjected, “And I’m white, as well!” It wasn’t awful, but it may not have been the time to emphasize that.
For the first hour-plus, this looked less like a debate and more like a town hall, in which each candidate was able to use a bunch of talking points, unchallenged. Then things turned. It was Warren vs. Buttigieg, yes, but Klobuchar in particular was looking to mix it up with just about everyone. The candidates took exception to the moderators’ questions. Sanders waved his arm when Biden was talking — as he is wont to do — and Biden told him, “Put your hand down for a second, Bernie.” Biden even sought to one-up Warren on her selfie game. It was evident that we are about a month and a half from the actual votes.
Part of Democrats’ challenge in 2020 is to compete with the news machine that is Donald Trump. And that was particularly the case Thursday night, the day after
Trump was impeached. It was perhaps an unfortunate bit of timing, including because it was six days before Christmas, and that won’t be the case in the future. But this was a really substantive debate, and it will be a shame if people weren’t tuned in.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/elect...cratic-debate/ar-BBYbn1h?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp
