In South Carolina, Bernie Sanders Takes Heat in a Messy Debate.
It was the tenth overall debate, and candidates on stage included Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, billionaire Tom Steyer, and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
On the debate stage, candidates tried to direct attention to Sanders, with Bloomberg pointing to the Vermont senator’s vote against the Brady Bill, which mandated the establishment of a background check and stricter gun control measures.
Bloomberg, who took a beating in last week’s Democratic debate, appeared more steady on Tuesday. After a widely panned performance during his first time on stage with his rivals, the billionaire businessman responded to criticism about his record on policing, sexual harassment and donating to Republican political candidates with what seemed like more prepared remarks.
Biden predicted a win in South Carolina on Saturday when he was pressed by the moderators on his sinking poll numbers in the state.
“I will win South Carolina,” Biden said in response to a question asking if he’d end his candidacy if he doesn’t get the votes. “I don’t expect anything. I’m here to ask. I’m here to earn. But folks, I intend to win South Carolina and I will win the African American vote here in South Carolina,” Biden added.
Mish Debate Assessment
I missed the first 15 minutes of the debate.
My assessment of the rest was “boring”.
Overall I thought Biden did about as well as he could have.
Bloomberg did much better than his first debate. Admittedly, that is a very low bar, but when you have billions to spend, it might matter.
Buttigieg and Klobuchar both did OK in the debate, but it will not matter unless they pull some sort of miracle in South Carolina.
Billionaires can stay in as long as they want, but at some point the DNC will need to up the requirements. Curiously, there were 7 candidates on stage Tuesday evening compared to 6 in Nevada.
The primaries were supposed to weed out candidates.
Super Tuesday Loom Large
- Super Tuesday is March 3, a week from today.
- If Biden does very well in South Carolina on February 29, and I expect he will, it may be a brand new ball game headed into Super Tuesday.
- The easy road for Sanders is now in the rear view mirror.
- I still see no path for any candidate to get 50% of the delegates heading into the convention.
In short, Biden did what he had to do to stay in the race.
On Saturday, the voters in South Carolina will set the stage for Super Tuesday.
If Sanders does not have a huge plurality coming on March 3, he likely will not get one.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Bloomberg sounds like Fran Drescher. 🙂
Only reason Trump was elected was because Obama was a pathetic failure,only reason we’re gonna get Bernie Fidel Sanders or Elizabeth Pocohontas Warren is because Trump is such a pathetic failure….ie in a bankrupt failed state..failure breeds failure!
Trump never did, never would have, beat Obama in a heads up electoral showdown. He beat Hillary, which is very, very different, and infinitely easier.
Problem is, none of the currently running Dems would come within a mile of beating Obama either…… Obama got Sanders voters without alienating Biden/Bloomberg ones. None of the current front runners can pull that off. I sort of think Klobuchar and Buttigieg would come the closest to not alienating half the party, but both of them have proven to be about as charismatic as the average high school debating team kid and his mom.
Holy crap!!! We’ve been losing a million a month to guns and I’ve been wasting time studying a damned coroavirus; Thanks Joe.
Yes we need Biden to win so the DC swamp can fill again. Those Democrats are lost without his kick back schemes
Biden looks like he belongs in a memory care ward.
Whoever, whatever….you really think there s one fck out there capable of sorting out the cesspool that s been created in recent decades ?
Biden seemed perpetually angry throughout the debate. No one really stood out as doing great or awful. There were a lot of crazy things said, but the craziest was Joe Biden repeatedly saying 150 million people have been killed by gun violence in America since 2007, which he correctly pointed out is more than died in all the wars since Vietnam.
That might be more than all the people who have died in wars in all of recorded history. WW2 killed about half that many.