Last night's debate: winners, losers, and survivors

[FOR SOUTH CAROLINA DEBATE, go HERE.]

Who won last night's "debate"?

Let's start with the authentically weird. According to a Drudge Report "instant poll," and a separate poll from the Washington Examiner, another right-wing site, Wednesday night's big winner was — Tulsi Gabbard. Don't ask me, although I suspect it has much to do with her military service; pseudo-patriotic right wingers just can't get enough of guys and gals in uniform and who play with things that go boom.

From there, Drudge and Examiner readers were in accordance with more mainstream opinion. They both chose Elizabeth Warren as the winner (in second-place, that is). Other victors were Julián Castro and Cory Booker. For reasons not entirely clear, they also liked John Delaney, who mostly made his mark last night by cutting in and not playing well with others, especially the moderators.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews had a novel take: "I think the winner tonight … was probably Joe Biden, because to quote Sherlock Holmes, 'the dog wasn’t barking tonight.' No one took on the Democratic frontrunner the whole two hours. And I think that’s a big surprise." A surprise, perhaps, but its bigness is doubtful. Each candidate possessed such little time to extol him- or herself, why squander it on Joe?

As expected, Warren dominated, except for a momentary lull midway. She aimed for progressives rather than Biden's liberals, and she scored. Although her strategy is ideal for the primary season, in which the most politically motivated prevail, it would haunt her in the general election season. "When the moderators asked the 10 candidates which of them would support eliminating private health insurance as part of a single-payer health care plan," notes the Times, "only Ms. Warren and Mr. de Blasio raised their hands."

That position is a killer with the general electorate. But since Warren's intent is to command the Democratic activist base, she has boxed herself in. Sixty percent of the electorate have a private health insurance plan and, by and large, they like it. Thus Trump & Co. couldn't be happier with Warren's mandatory single-payer-ism. The election could well turn on that issue alone.

From that perspective, Warren was the biggest loser last night.

On another note, "Do you have a plan to deal with Mitch McConnell?" Warren was asked. "I do," she replied. Turns out, though, her "plan" is somewhat gossamer. She promised to fight, fight, fight the Senate's prince of obstructionism, and that is no plan. I imagine McConnell was most amused.

Beto O’Rourke proved once again he's unquestionably not ready for the big leagues; Castro came well prepared and was surprisingly effective; and Booker, whom I had deemed little more than a wanton demagogue, was thoughtful and eloquent. Simply put, I misjudged him.

Bill de Blasio can go home now — now that he's proven himself intolerably obnoxious; Amy Klobuchar was quite reserved — which I like — but that approach became troublingly incongruent with the night's increasingly boisterous proceedings; and Jay Inslee and Tim Ryan are still Jay and Tim Who?

Now, off to another round.

Comments

[Peter G]

I absolutely did not expect any of them to go after Biden. The only open line of attack would be policy disagreements and Biden is staying out of those. More personal attacks would essentially end their campaigns. I thought the gang up on Beto predictable for any lesser lights anxious to run for the VP slot.

I note that you are one of the very few commenters who got the significance of Warren’s plan or policy to end private insurance. That is going to cost her dearly in union support. They know exactly what that means. That ought to help Biden quite a lot.

[Peter G]

You almost certainly noticed this too. Not a single Democratic contender had a thing to say about Trump’s idiotic trade policy. I think there is a reason for that.

[AnneJ]

I wonder if Kaiser-Permamente would have anything to say on the matter of ending private insurance.

[Peter G]

Lots of people and corporations have dogs in this fight. But I think for the purposes of becoming the Democratic candidate major factions in the party have a say. Labor unions definitely do. What do they get out of Warren's proposal? Inferior insurance to what they already have. And they get to wait in line with people they don't want to wait in line with. And, in order for this new system not to collapse almost immediately, they will have to pay higher taxes.

Forget the hoo hah about income disparity, or millionaires and billionaires. You don't have enough of them to pay for this. In countries that have reasonably comprehensive health the middle class, in their millions, pays the lion's share of the bill. In the U.S. they don't want to do that.

[AnneJ]

And that's the problem. Nobody wants to pay for such things even when they are in favor of having them.

[AnneJ]

I commented on Obnoxious Bill De Blasio last night off topic on the previous thread. He'd be lucky to stay mayor of NYC after last night. So insufferable!

[ren]

People don’t vote on policies. They vote on impressions. Impressions depend on who you are and what you respect. For me, a positive impression for the job is defined by pragmatism, dignity, and toughness. Impressions are only tangential to the question of who might actually be the best president.

There are lots of people like me that you could categorize as coarse with just a fuzz of refinement. I think they call us independents. We want to see these elements: intelligence, a steady hand on the throttle, no drama, authenticity, and backbone.

Ms. Warren always seems like she is ready to go to pieces. Ms. Gabbard doesn’t seem desperate for the nomination (I like that) but her currency needs a boost that might not come unless we go to war the Middle East. Bernie seems like he’ll blow a gasket any minute. Mr. DeBlasio appears to live up to the reputation of a New Yorker. Mr. O’Rourke and Mr. Castro seem like they need more seasoning. Ditto for Mr. Buttigeig and although he seems the most well-spoken, that “Mayor Pete” moniker/ persona is an albatross. Mr. Booker has a handle on the issues (different than policy proposals) and he looks like he can punch.

Vice President Biden has the experience and will draw the sharpest contrast in the adult vs. toddler department. He’s my favorite for the office but I fear he might give the impression of frailty. Finally, there is Ms. Harris. She seems to have the elements. I wish we could vote for the whole ticket, not the just the candidate. I’d go with Harris at the top of the ticket and Joe for VP. He’d be mocked for that but I doubt he cares and it’s not relevant anyway. It’ll never happen but think about it: everyone knows the veep’s job is to attend weddings and funerals so Joe could have the chill job he deserves after so many years of public service but he’d be there to bring in the experience Ms. Harris will certainly need since it’ll take a team to clean up Trump’s mess. The impression she gives me is that she has the prosecutor’s smarts, evinces a steady hand, calm under fire, mostly says it like she means it, and Trump would have a tougher time belittling her with his schoolyard antics (not that he wouldn’t try). If Trump loomed up behind her during a debate it wouldn’t surprise me if she turned around and kicked him in the balls. Had Hillary done that, she’d be president.

[Peter G]

Progressives on the far left,though not all of them, are fond of pointing out that the public loves their progressive policies. But they never ever consider who is willing to pay for them.

[Halster]

Nobody bothers to point out that either people would pay taxes for single payer or premiums to private insurance companies but you wouldn't pay both. The public needs an education on how this all works and how it has worked in other countries. Even Richard Nixon, of all people, was an advocate for universal coverage back in the 70s.

[Halster]

I should also mention that Ted Kennedy expressed regret over the years for not working with Nixon to at least get something started. Who knows how it would have evolved over 50 years.