It was showtime in Las Vegas and all six remaining viable candidates came out swinging. The issue was they all beat the piss out of each other (actually mostly the piss out of Bloomberg) and spent almost no energy going after the big elephant not in the room. And it became very clear that the Democrats are probably not going to beat Trump in November.
The Democrats left are a mishmash of recycled ideas, fake teeth and a guy screaming at everybody.
Biden wants us to go back to Obama circa 2012, Pete and Amy do too. Mike wants to take away your large soda but make you sign an NDA to do so. Elizabeth sounds like a professor when her audience are a bunch of high school drop outs and Bernie is going to have a coronary at any time.
The grand ideas of Medicare for All sounds great but nobody has quite figured out how to pay for it. I hear the argument about lower deductibles and copays from Bernie but that feels like the politician who says he will cut the debt by going after pork. Good idea but it won't put a dent in the pig
But the debate will not be remembered for policy but rather how badly Bloomberg did. He doesn't inspire in his tone, he lacks political bravado and his pragmatic approach doesn't make for good sound bites.
Anyway here is our top 6
Warren. There were times when everything she says sounds well thought out practical policy which is about as exciting as watching paint dry. There are times she attacks her rivals where it sounds like she could undermine Trump with pure debat smarts but the times she sounds genuinely passionate is when she best resonates. I'd love to see her on stage against Trump but I'm sure Trump will avoid debating all together
Pete. He never seems flustered, he never seems angry and he never seems out of his league even when his experience clearly keeps him out of their league. His exchange with Amy on the Mexican President was actually legit but he was made to look small by Warren
Biden. I'm shocked that Biden takes spot 3 because he so often falls flat but last night he seemed like the good Biden. The Biden who speaks to people, the Biden with some fire, the Biden who can connect . But his is startling to look more and more like a grandfather more concerned about his melanoma treatment than policy.
But it helps that everybody avoided going after him, it was a weird deference to the old guy. Maybe they are trying to keep him around to knock him out later
Bernie
He's nuts but does make a good point about Denmark and Canada
Amy
I want to love Amy
I want to embrace Amy
I want to put a lawn sign up supporting Amy
But she is so bad at this. The woman who plays her on SNL looks more like Amy than she does herself.
Bloomberg
Over the lasts five weeks I've moved more and more to embracing Bloomberg. I hate the buying a presidency thing but also do love the idea of not being able to be bought by special interests. I think Bloomberg is genuine about issues I care about (global warming, gun control, keeping people healthy) and I think he has the right pragmatic skills to make it work. I like that he wouldn't be beholden to anybody which works if you agree with him on the major issues
But I can't imagine Bloomberg up there with Trump and it going real well. He looked so overmatched and his double down twitter ad campaign afterward seemed like he was overcompensating
But the real winner of the night was Donald Trump because it was a total sh*t show