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On the Democratic Debate, Round Two
The second night of Democratic primary debates was more contentious than the first. It also presented the first candidate to stand out from the bloated stage. Sen. Kamala Harris was focused, fierce, and used her prosecutorial experience to fillet current frontrunner Joe Biden. She made the most of her ten minutes or so of speaking time while Joe made the least of his.
Biden is just three years older than Trump, but he appears decades beyond. He was confused, had trouble hearing questions, and stumbled over his tongue. Bernie is a year Joe’s senior but seemed almost vibrant next to the former VP standing at the adjacent lectern.
A source close to the Biden campaign tells me his staff is “freaking out” about his poor performance tonight.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) June 28, 2019
Halfway through, Kamala hit Biden with an ‘I won’t call you a racist, but you’re really a racist’ attack that will be replayed for months.
Older Democrats might blanch at the strategy but the base has to wonder if Joe can hold up for the next year-plus, not to mention a potential four years in office.
Bernie was Bernie. He hasn’t changed a political position since he dropped a Buffalo nickel to see Battleship Potemkin at Loew’s Oriental. He definitely misses his 2016 sparring partner; Hillary is a kingmaker in reverse.
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg showed how he became a darling of think-tankers and green rooms. Thoughtful, polished, and professional, he helped himself in the crowded field and stressed his Midwestern roots. Whether a TED Talk will work against Trump is a far different matter.
If there’s an award for most interruptions, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand won the gold. Next to a confident Kamala, however, the performance felt desperate and tinny. Another interruption machine was Rep. Eric Swalwell, who flaccidly attacked Biden’s age and delivered corny one-liners. The applause he awaited never came.
A lot of wonks looked forward to tech exec Andrew Yang, who has worked hard to engage voters of all stripes. The moderators essentially ignored him; they went to him once in Hour Two because China was the topic. Oof.
Colorado’s John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet made little impact, playing the roles of moderating voices-of-reason. They got as much traction as the two no-names playing those parts the first night.
New Age guru Marianne Williamson floated at the edge of the stage, promising to oust Trump by “harnessing love.” I recommend she makes some quick shekels by selling branded love harnesses on her website; Williamson isn’t long for the campaign.
Out of two nights, four hours, and 20 candidates, Harris is the only identifiable winner. In this case, “winning” only means raising her profile and causing Democrats to give her a second or third look. Kamala is outstanding in a formal setting, but she’s atrocious off-the-cuff. A couple of town hall stumbles could take off the shine.
As for the policies? Please. Wide-open borders, DC dominance of healthcare, trillions in new spending, and fourth-trimester taxpayer-funded abortions for women, men, and housepets. The further Democrats race to the tree limbs, the easier it will be for Trump to saw them off.
Published in Politics
In case you can’t remember which one is Marianne Williamson…
If Marianne Williamson had managed to turn the “harnessing love” line into a dig at Kamala Harris and her means of fast-tracking her cursus honorum, Williamson might not have won, but she would at least have made some kind of impression. As it was, I was expecting her to start pushing healing crystals as the answer to our heath care needs.
If you can sit through these things you’re a better man than I am Gunga Din.
Buttigieg did much better than you are giving him credit for, and Sanders did worse. Mayor Pete makes insanity sound reasonable. That’s going to play well.
Biden has never been anything more than an empty suit that could reliably repeat talking points given to him by the myriad of people much smarter than him. He is not very bright at all, he’s very sensitive to this being pointed out, and now he has a really bad face lift that will not convince anyone he’s not old, and certainly won’t make him any smarter.
The Democrats are so outraged and serious that they are hilarious. Look at Bernie’s vehement expression (what he does with his jaw, mouth, and teeth) when he tells that whopper about healthcare (“the vast majority of Americans will pay less under single payer…”) Harris assures Biden with great seriousness, “I do not believe that you are a racist.” As if to say, “but there are a lot of people who think you are a racist.” How could anybody stand four years of this stuff?
After watching Harris own Biden, every voter under 30:
What’s busing?
It would be lovely to see a real “debate” about substantive, ideas (assuming any of these candidates actually have any, and you know what they say about “assume”), one in which maturity, intellect, and thoughtfulness, rather than a desperate scrambling for personally relevant stories to illustrate emotionally wrenching sound bites, were front and center. (I guess I sound like an old fogey, in the world of Generation Me2–Look, I’m Running For President, But Really, I’m Relatable And Just Like You!)
We’ve been treated to two mind-numbingly dull and repetitive episodes of “Can You Top This?” as each candidate tried to outdo the others with tragic personal circumstances (prostate cancer, crushing student loans, appendectomies, victims of gun violence, sexism, racism, crushing medical bills, homophobia, etc.—if there was a candidate claiming to be a victim of sexual assault, I must have slept through it, or perhaps someone is saving that up for the next round). If it wasn’t that, then it was massive virtue signaling—“I invented school busing,” “I voted against the war in Iraq,” “I marched with Dr. King,” “I fixed all California’s” immigration problems,” “I fixed all New Jersey’s crime problems (but please don’t forget that I have masses of friends who were the victims of tragic gun violence,”) and then Mayor Pete virtue signaling from the other end of the spectrum and giving the “I screwed up” speech, sounding like nothing so much as Dobby, Harry Potter’s house elf. Or, how about the “look at me, I’m speaking Español (or at least pronouncing Spanish names), with flourish and flair!” I’m only surprised Elizabeth Warren didn’t manage a shout out to her own people in their “native” tongue–perhaps the smoke alarms couldn’t be turned down, and the fire department wouldn’t play ball. And the giveaways—when these folks talk about “the land of the free” they’re not talking about the American Revolution. Not that one, anyway.
I’m not sure how many more of these I can watch. When Marianne Williamson isn’t the looniest person on he stage by much of an exponential factor at all, the Dems ought to be in big trouble. Are they? I guess time will tell.
I think I found a campaign theme for Joe Biden, though:
That’s a wonderful suggestion.
Just make a note that love harnesses are no more ridiculous than free health care for illegals or free college for all.
Yes, it has come to this. And that’s what voting Democratic is: embracing madness as the new normal.
I’ve always thought it was Harris’s to lose. Her only huge weakness is being bad on her feet when she doesn’t have a ready answer. Every one of her attacks that I heard last night were scripted and practiced. For their part, the media will do everything they can to make sure she is never blindsided.
First H v. T debate:
Senator Harris, what will you do repair the disastrous situation in which the country currently finds itself?
Mr. Trump, as an Old. White. Man., how can you possibly lead a young, diverse country which overwhelmingly hates you?
I can’t believe that we have to pay attention to those idiots.
What a great line! :-)
I might have been a better man at the beginning, but I was downright addled by the end, and I wasn’t even drinking.
Government Healthcare
Free College
Student Loans
Free Healthcare for Illegals
Abortion
Universal Basic Income
Reparations
Did I forget anything?
Jon, you deserve combat pay from Rob and Peter for wasting two nights of your life!
So, what I’ve understood from this week is that there’s not a single Democrat who isn’t for open borders, everyone welcome, give illegal immigrants (who will no longer be illegal) all sorts of free stuff: healthcare, education, housing, food, which will be paid for by hard-working taxpayers who will continue to pay ever-increasing costs for these same things.
This is essentially the Democrat platform: Americans becoming slave-labor in their own country.
(No wonder our Open Borders Republicans want us to vote for Democrats!)
Buttigieg did the best I thought. I feel sorry for Joe Biden – I think he was egged on to run, but he’s had his day in the sun and it shows. They are all more or less for the same things – it’s who can be the most stern and forceful in their rapport. Some looked ever-rehearsed and canned which isn’t the same as confident. I didn’t like the panel that asked the questions – they rushed the candidates so they had to talk fast – why not ask less questions? No one looked relaxed. It reminded me of an old western where all the gunslingers are sizing each other up. The Republican debates were more relaxed – I think people smiled.
Did not watch any of it but unless they talked about free abortions for men, then they didn’t out crazy the first night.
Did anyone else notice that Joe Biden seemed ready to incarcerate the CEOs of Big Pharma when he takes office? (I’d have to see that snippet replayed.) Apparently, the Dems are ready to hold Big Pharma hostage to low prices while spanking the manufacturers for prescribing drugs that are ruining the lives of Americans. I’m confused with their confusion.
Wait. We have to? I didn’t get the memo, so I watched neither debate. And unless someone holds my family hostage, I won’t watch any speechifying they may do in the future.
Jon,
What is really interesting about Kamala’s attack on Biden is the deep truth it threatens to reveal. The Democratic Party was the party of Slavery & Separate but Equal and the Democratic Party didn’t want to give women the vote.
Biden was chumming up to the most virulent segregationists in the Senate. They were all Democrats!
Regards,
Jim
Yes. I find that to be a very fascinating development. The new “woke” Democrats are smearing the old guard Democrats as the party of slavery and Jim Crow! Formerly, Democrats were united in the belief that they were so very, very pure, and that the parties “switched places” on race issues. We know that’s not true, but Democrats have been united in this fantasy about themselves.
Well, now they’re not so united, and the fantasy has fallen to pieces.
And there is not enough popcorn.
The scary part is that we have seen the future and it will come. Relentlessly. Like the Terminator.
I’m not writing this in jest, I believe that Joe Biden is beginning to show some signs of dementia. He has trouble when asked questions that are not part of a carefully scripted speech.
Kamela Harris is not really against slavery, she just wants all of us to be slaves to the state. She is shallow, and full of memorized platitudes. The Mayor of South Bend is no different, he has an intellect a mile wide and an inch deep.
Generally speaking, politicians rarely strike me as being smart. There are exceptions, of course, but not many.
This is not new for Biden. He really has always been stupid. He is always only good when parroting talking points. The press has been covering for him for decades. There’s a reason he’s known for stupid gaffes.
The tragedy is that I think they sincerely believe that identitarianism, socialism, and tribalism are substantive ideas. Reparations; open borders; free stuff totaling in the trillions; racial, sexual, genderal, recriminations; busing (hello 1970’s, it’s nice to hear from you again); men really can be women and vice versa; abortion on demand without limit (even the limit of an actual life); abortion for men?!?; Orange Man Bad; persecute/punch a nazi and pretty much everyone white and male is a nazi. They believe that these are substantive pressing issues in need of radical transformation away from regressive white male thinking.
Ed,
You could write the Democratic Party platform statement. It is important that we realize what we are dealing with. This isn’t the Democratic Party of Harry Truman or Jack Kennedy. Almost nowhere does this party’s fundamental beliefs even coincide with reality.
Regards,
Jim
Biden won’t win the primary. It’s between him and Warren on who gets the Jeb treatment, sucking all the money out of the primary and crashing and burning spectacularly.
I think Tulsi Gabbard is the most likely to take away the Blue collar Dem vote that Trump won. She has the highest potential to beat Trump as her foreign policies mirror Trump’s that have broad appeal. Her challenge is getting out of the primaries. Since the Ds have proven themselves not above rigging their primaries and they still maintain some control over their nominees with super-delegates, that won’t be easy. Her isolationism is not kosher with the elite (as in those running the DNC and holding all the money), even on the Left, so I don’t expect she’ll win with their approval, setting her up to be a potential Democrat Trump.