I happened to turn on the Democratic debates right at half time. The CNN commentators lamented about how peaceful everyone was and how little the candidates attacked each other in the first half.
Apparently, I missed nothing.
The peace soon ended with Senator Elizabeth Warren attacking Mayor Pete Buttigieg over wine cave fundraisers. She accused Pete of going after high net wealth donors.
He responded with an attack on her purity tests.
Wine Caves vs Purity Tests
Popcorn Rating
I rate the above exchange as 4.5 bowls out of 5.
It was well worth watching.
By their “oohs”, the audience seemed to agree.
Who Won?
The big winner, as I see it, was popcorn growers. More people will tune in for the entertainment with exchanges like those.
More seriously, Mayor Pete made Warren look like a two-faced hypocrite.
Amy Klobuchar then blasted the both of them for bickering with each other for an exchange rating of 3.0 popcorn bowls.
Klobuchar had a good night, especially given her position as second from the end. The moderators almost totally avoided the candidates at the end podiums, Andrew Yang and billionaire activist Tom Steyer.
Biden left me scratching my head with some lame answers. Then again, he seems to be running a “say as little as possible” campaign hoping not to stick a foot in his mouth.
That is what Boris Johnson did in the recent UK election, even to the point of not showing up for some debates.
Biden also got to speak last and for the first time all night, at least in these eyes, delivered a sincere 60 seconds without fumbling, but also without much emotion.
For that performance, Biden gets a popcorn rating of 2.5 bowls. If he had any emotion in his delivery, I would have upped the rating to 3.0 bowls. Otherwise, he was truly boring all evening except for one inspirational moment when he butted in on Medicare, challenging Warren on what it would cost.
“I’m the only guy who has not interrupted. I’m going to interrupt now. It cost $30 trillion. Let’s get that straight: $30 trillion over 10 years. Some say it costs $20 trillion.”
Popcorn rating: 3.5 bowls out of 5.
With that, I suspect Biden did the most of any of the candidates to help himself.
The bar for Biden was 2.0 bowls out of five. Overall, I will give him a second-half 2.8 bowl rating but with a couple of good moments vs the expected 0-1 good moments.
When the bar is set low enough, even Biden might be able to hop over it. This time he managed, easily.
Poll: Who Lost?
Wine Caves vs Purity Tests
Who lost the Debate between Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg?
If you missed it, watch it here:https://t.co/Cp4NOKCnYt
— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) December 21, 2019
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
I have an idea. If you want to be poor be poor. One check and bam join the masses.
My “popcorn” expectations for the next debate are soaring.
Warren: “we decided years ago that candidates would not be picked by rich ppl in smoke-filled rooms.”
In the lawsuit against the DNC by Bernie voters for rigging the primary for Hillary the DNC the DNC lawyer LITERALLY SAID ““We could have voluntarily decided that, ‘Look, we’re gonna go into back rooms like they used to and smoke cigars and pick the candidate that way,’” Bruce Spiva, lawyer for the DNC, said during a court hearing in Carol Wilding, et al. v. DNC Services Corp., according to court filings exclusively obtained by TYT Politics. […]”
Kinda would be nice if the MSM reminded the voters of this.
Has anyone else noticed that Yang usually comes out significantly on top for right leaning websites “who won” non scientific polls? Last time I looked Yang had over 40% of the 75K votes on Drudge. I have seen the same elsewhere.
I obviously deep insight on this topic… Just curious why this result consistently occurs. `
He comes off as a normal person
It was more entertaining than a Trump rally which has become so boring. Trump fatigue has set in.
You’re anti-trump so your statement is disingenuous, as usual.
I voted for Trump in 2016. I may do so in 2020 as his immigration policies have helped me in the labor market. That doesnt mean I cant criticize him. This is America.
I could not get drunk enough to watch any of it.
The second half was a riot. I missed the first half. From what I understand, I might have turned it off.
But what about Bernie? Everybody is ignoring The Bern. I would think that is where the real entertainment value can be found. He just might be the biggest idiot of the whole bunch, but that too could be debated.
Bern is actually very clever. Notice that he never says how he will pay for things. He is bright enough to know it won’t go down well.
Contrast that to Warren who makes an idiot out of herself every time she tries.
My vote for biggest idiot is Warren.