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On the Democratic Debate
Esta noche, vi el debate presidencial Demócrata. Lo siento … Tonight, I watched the Democratic presidential debate. Bilingual statements in broken Spanish (and broken English) were a theme, as were dire warnings on climate change, attacks on Trump, and a general thrashing of Beto. In summary, I’ll second the President:
BORING!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2019
Whether you supported Trump in the primaries or not, at least he made the debates interesting. None of the ten candidates on tonight’s stage lit a fire in the public imagination or gave them a reason to sit through the two-hour event.
Standing behind the lecterns were Cory Booker, Julián Castro, Bill de Blasio, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Tim Ryan, and Elizabeth Warren. If you asked “who?” after at least five of those candidates, you weren’t alone.
Ohio Rep. Ryan promoted the need for a working-class party that doesn’t pander to the coasts or play identity politics. It was nice knowing you, Congressman. Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney also hewed centrist, stressing his business experience. However, one eagle-eyed viewer was distracted by his resemblance to a popular cartoon character.
#DemDebate pic.twitter.com/AeNPOR7wU5
— jon gabriel (@exjon) June 27, 2019
O’Rourke looked like a child lost in a department store; his clammy fear wasn’t helped by the haymakers thrown by NYC Mayor de Blasio and former San Antonio Mayor Castro. Beto has devolved from last year’s media darling to this year’s punching bag. He doesn’t know what to make of it.
Like Beto and Julián, Booker also flaunted his rudimentary understanding of español while stressing inner-city poverty and, oddly, trans politics. Seems a rather niche issue to repeatedly return to. Castro one-upped him in the pandering department, however, scoffing at the idea of mere reproductive rights since he wants “reproductive justice” for trans Americans. Whatever the hell that means.
Washington Gov. Inslee focused exclusively on the “climate crisis,” while Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard made waves among the non-intervention set. She wasn’t queried about her apparent respect for Syria’s Assad, yet demanded America bring back her fellow servicemembers and keep them here. (She also won the Google primary.)
Minnesota Sen. Klobuchar attempted a zinger by calling Trump “all foam and no beer,” which fell as flat as week-old can of Hamm’s. Her workmanlike performance was dull but avoided falling to either extreme of her party.
That leaves current media favorite Elizabeth Warren who stood centerstage. The NBC hosts gave her a remarkable amount of time early in the proceedings, but as the debate dragged on she was less and less visible. I forgot she was on stage for the last 30 minutes.
Since few voters made it the whole two hours, I doubt that will hurt her much.
Published in General
I think he’s on tonight.
We stood it for 6 minutes before turning to a screwball comedy on the old movie channel – it’s a shame there’s no one running that’s decent.
“Especially African-American, Transgender-Americans!” – Cory Booker
The amount of linguistic gymnastics the left engages in to appeal to 0.0001% of their base never gets old to me!
EDIT: And Elizabeth Warren answered a question I proposed here a few days ago: Apparently, Latinx is pronounced “Latin-ex.” This will be a thing going forward so everyone please update your spreadsheet accordingly.
Couldn’t watch it. All I see in that group is the Portland city council, or the Multnomah County commissioners. There is no way I could drink enough beer, or ingest enough magic brownies to dull the pain.
Isn’t this just the mirror of 2016’s Republican primary “biggest, deepest bench”? Except so far there is no Trump. There is no authentic person talking about the biggest issues voters are interested in and affected by. Trump is still the only person occupying that space on either side of the partisan divide. I sure hope some other right leaning authentic personality is girding his or her loins for 2024.
I suspect we’ll have to find another outsider. The Beltway Crowd still hasn’t learned the lesson of 2016, and largely believe that they can return to 1990s-style politics.
It’s pretty big. I don’t know that it’s all that deep.
I get why the Mike Murphy class would cling to that paradigm, but why would hungry politicians still cling to it? I may have an answer: their authentic selves would be even less interesting, more annoying, and less substantive than the fakey scripts and flat “jokes” written up for them by the Steve Schmidts of the world.
Me, too. Washington is full of fools and
theirother people’s money, and these political P.T. Barnums can still sell them a broken model.It is really hard to turn a gendered language like Spanish into a gender neutral language. But it probably makes woke English speakers feel good to try.
Also, “Latin*” and “Spanish” are reflection of imperial colonial genocide and must be dropped.
The pandering and delusion is strong with that one. Sheesh!
I only wish eating regenerative dirt was the most ludicrous plank in the party platform.
Jon,
Damn it, Jon, they are one of our two major political parties. I think you could have spoken about them with a little more respect. Certainly, the format was interesting. I liked it when they all came out of the little car.
Regards,
Jim
Hmm, new defense for a transgender man who murders his pregnant wife?
I agree with Jonathon V. Last. The winners were Biden, Trump and McConnell. The losers were Beto, Warren and Gabbard. https://thebulwark.com/circular-firing-squad/#
That was actually a pretty good piece.
The normal Democrats like Delaney (I would also add Hickenlooper who was not in the debate last night) have no chance of winning this Primary.
Last hits on Trump’s biggest strength in getting re-elected and it is who ever the Democrats actually nominate. 2016 Trump benefited from skeptical voters who were willing to vote for him to stop Hillary. The same is likely in 2020. Trump could easily get votes, from people who don’t really care for him, because the Dems just can’t do normal.
I love McConnell. He is too valuable running the Senate otherwise he’d make a great President.
Among the Democrats, the best of the lot are Bullock, Hickenlooper and Delaney.
He would have been all out of conservative judges if certain people around here got their way.
LOL.
They all get crushed by “Someone Else”…..
If I got my way, Rubio would be President so that’s not true.
I suspect the big winners from last night’s debate will be everyone who was not there, it was so underwhelming that the bar is set incredibly low for tonight’s debate.
If a handful tonight pull off a moderately competent performance they’ll stand out like stars compared that mess.
https://babylonbee.com/news/empty-podium-expected-to-win-democratic-debates-by-wide-margin
The empty podium won it hands down.
If memory serves Trump was at 1-2% four years ago at this point. JEB and Walker were in the lead.
Me too. Rubio was my favorite out of the 16 OTT (Other than Trump)
You are doomed.
The debates were all screwball and no comedy.
Just looked it up. Merriam-Webster added it.
Yay.
La-teen-ex. Pronounced like Kleenex (the gender-binary term preferred by Klanspersons).
gender non-binary term preferred by Klanspersons^
That is the irony of conservatism.
You can preserve, but you can’t return.