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Debate Roundup, Night 2: Joe’s Back and Tulsi’s Coming with Him
The second night of the second round of Democratic primary debates was a livelier affair than Tuesday’s offering. The Wednesday Ten were Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang, Mayor Julián Castro, Rep. Michael Bennet, Gov. Jay Inslee, and Mayor Bill De Blasio.
The breakout last night was author Marianne Williamson, who was the most Googled figure in 49 states. How about for Round Two? It was a 50-state sweep:
The Hawaii congressmember earned it. Her most striking moment was calling out Kamala Harris for her prosecutorial excess in California:
Harris made big gains in the first debate, so her opponents were ready to humble her. The former California AG seemed unprepared for the new attention and, by the halfway point, she played nothing but defense. Harris had the most to lose and she lost it.
Most improved was Biden, who corrected his tired, befuddled performance earlier in the month. He meticulously prepared for the second round, dismissing incoming attacks with sharp oppo research on his accusers. He still has lost a step from his glory days, but he seemed a decade younger than he did at the first debate.
Since Biden entered as the frontrunner and the other candidates spent plenty of time attacking each other, he won this debate.
Castro gained a bit of momentum in the first debate but did little to capitalize on it Wednesday. Booker was all over the place, criticizing the infighting (it’s a debate, Cory) before attacking Biden and others. His most memorable moments were introducing something called “marijuana justice” and dropping the S-bomb on live TV.
Gillibrand seemed to check out of the debate midway, utterly confused when the moderators asked her a question. Perhaps she suspended her campaign during the first ad break. It was easy to forget she was even on stage and she can’t be long for the 2020 race.
Andrew Yang has received a lot of attention from independents and was excellent throughout. He’s certainly the most earnest person on the stage, whipping out statistics and detailed policy plans on every subject. He also delved into Williamson territory by exposing the falseness of political showbiz:
We’re up here with makeup on our faces and our rehearsed attack lines, playing roles in this reality TV show. It’s one reason why we elected a reality TV star as our president. We need to be laser-focused on solving the real challenges of today.
Gov. Jay Inslee did well for himself, hewing to his all-climate, all-the-time message, while De Blasio again proved himself to be one of the most unappealing politicians in America. Rep. Michael Bennet remained a non-factor, as expected.
If CNN wants to keep hosting debates, or at least keep viewers watching, they need to greatly improve their coverage. There were microphone issues throughout, with feedback, clicking and unsteady audio quality. Not to mention the several interruptions by hecklers.
Published in General
When you try to change a person’s mind. It usually isn’t best to insult them first.
Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners
27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
If Jesus did not eat with the sinners and if he was not polite to them, no one would ever listen to him.
What I find interesting here is that because she is attracting the attention of conservatives, the leftists now have their knives out for her. Today on left-Twitter: She’s an agent of Assad! She’s a Russian plant! She’s a Republican stalking horse!
All of which says to me that Dems have no interest in reaching across the aisle to take votes from the right. They want their hard left party purity. Perhaps they’re adopting the GOP’s “lose with dignity” approach to elections?
Let’s not roll the dice in the first place and find out. Look, I’m very happy with the President’s record on the Supreme Court, the economy, and foreign policy. I also like the way he stands up for the flag and the country. I’m not thrilled with the debt Congress racks up but at least we have had robust economic growth. Elected a Democrat and we will see record debt AND low private sector economic growth. The US lost a lot of middle class jobs and small businesses during Obama’s presidency. We also had historic ally low levels of workforce participation. And healthcare insurance premiums rose despite the stated goal of the ACA to lower them.
I think we will just have to agree to disagree! And thank you for your civility, which is the fundamental social virtue!
The knives were already out in Gabbard’s mind, in that she filed the $50 million suit against Google last week for essentially deplatforming her ads. Left unsaid in the suit, but not so much by the candidate’s attitude before and during the debate, is that Silicon Valley was trying to kneecap her campaign because they saw her as a potential threat to hometown girl Kamala Harris in the woman’s lane of the presidential primary race.
Harris’ comeback today was pretty much the equivalent of “How many divisions does the Pope have?” in terms of its arrogance and contempt for what she sees as a powerless figure. Which is why that and the Google suit make the Google trends map so schadenfreudetastic, since if Gabbard can parlay that into some added poll numbers, she and Harris could be getting closer and closer in the polls over the next couple of weeks.
I forgot about that lawsuit. Yes, it makes sense that Google would help clear a path for Kamala, and that Gabbard would be one of the chief obstacles.
I find Harris almost a more frightening figure than Warren. It’s a good thing that President Trump is going to win handily.
Of course the country will “survive”. Russia survived the Bolsheviks. Cuba survived Fidel.
What a stupid straw man argument.
But will the country I grew up in and love be recognizable if any of those clowns takes power ?
People still don’t realize how much we lost over the 8 years of Obama. And if one of these Democrats wins in 2020, I don’t think we’d ever recover.
Here’s another effort to clear a path for Kamala:
California Removes Arrest Reports From Kamala Years
Routine website redesign obscures Democrat’s record on criminal justice
That can’t be right.
I believe it’s 1,500 marijuana convictions. But the problem is that many of them were likely plead down from more serious or other crimes.
That was my impression too.
People who will get more votes than Bill De Blasio in the Demoncrat primaries:
Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Josiah Bartlet, Homer Simpson, Bart Simpson, Maggie Simpson*, Ben Dover, Stu Pedaso, Irving Schmidlap, Marianne Williamson, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Barry Obama. . .and Donald Trump.
*Lisa won’t because Elizabeth Warren is already in the race.
I can see Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in my mind’s eye, traveling around to small, midwestern towns, taking the stump, and sweetly but condescendingly explaining to white, conservative women from the suburbs why they are racist. There she is, just going from town to town, just sort of speaking her mind. I can hear her saying, “I understand you. I used to be just like you. Really, I used to be just like you.” Like I said, I see it, but I just don’t see it getting a lot of votes.