Last night changed close to nothing for the 'Big Three' (Biden, Warren, Sanders), in my estimation. Biden was better than the last two outings, despite a dreadful answer on foreign policy and a wild, weird answer after he was asked about slavery reparations. He faded in the final interminable hour, but gave a beautiful last answer on resilience from setbacks. Warren sounded her usual notes, was fine, but didn't stand out. Sanders, apparently battling a rough sore throat, did his normal shouting and pointing. At some point, this crew will have to go after each other, hard, but that moment hasn't arrived. It's still early. Status quo.
As for the others, Castro diminished himself with a snotty (and inaccurate) attack on Biden (even though the age/coherence issue he referenced is real), Booker performed well (his incurable try-hardism aside), and Harris had another lackluster night. I like Yang, and he had good responses on education and immigration, but he's just not a serious contender.
It felt like more of the same for everyone else: Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Beto. In other words, a lot of treading water, all around. ABC News moderators asked more questions about foreign policy and national security than we saw in the previous debates, but it took over an hour-and-a-half to get to those topics, and the discussion pivoted away fairly quickly. Jorge Ramos is an shameless advocate on immigration issues, but he did ask a good sharp question of Bernie on Venezuela. I do wish they'd asked more questions about issues that haven't already been litigated extensively in every previous debate, and pressed with more follow-ups. I'll leave you with my single tweet summary:
Status quo debate for the Big Three. Biden, despite a few late stumbles, had his best performance thus far. The big awaited showdown with Warren never arrived — ie postponed. Booker up, Harris down; everyone else treaded water.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 13, 2019
One more stray thought: Imagine being a protester who decides to start heckling someone as he talks about losing his wife and child. Disgraceful.
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