Sheesh, these debates are getting tough to sit through. Let's be real, most of these candidates don't have a snowball's chance in hell and a majority of last night was platitudes or attacks on policy without actually presenting many solutions. My favorite moment of the night was Bernie, Yang and Warren each reacting to job loss (framed via automation though Warren pushed back against that frame) and proposing wildly different solutions to the same problem. My least favorite part was 20 minutes of Foreign Policy where everyone basically repeated each other besides Tulsi who set herself apart but did so with an oversimplification about the American troops that shielded Kurdish forces from Turkey's attacks smh. Anyway, let's rank everyone...
12. Beto - Do I have to explain this? His only successful moment was talking about marijuana legalization aka the Glass Joe of debate issues. Besides that he got punked by Pete, couldn't back-up his mandatory gun buyback call with any concrete explanation for how it works and was as bad attacking other ideas as he was defending his own.
11. Harris - WTF happened with Harris? She was a star of debate two but has been awful in the last two debates. She tried to get a standout attack by demanding that Elizabeth Warren say Twitter should disable Donald Trump's account. I'm open to that discussion happening, but it's such a tiny aspect of a much bigger challenge that it was ridiculous and distracting...not to mention the 1st amendment implications that would undoubtedly be raised. Other than that, she was utterly forgettable.
10. Tulsi - Donald Trump pulled back between 50 and 100 troops from shielding the Kurds. Within a week, Turkey had bombed our allies the Kurds so badly that over 100,000 people have been displaced and the bombing has forced us to move around 1000 troops because Erdogan is going all the way in. That move allowed an attempt at genocide and Tulsi used it to push an anti-imperialist message then tried to question other candidates' credentials. You can't push a shoddy, decontextualized version of events in the Middle East then claim authority on it, I'm sorry. The rest of the night was trash too. Her most effective moment was complaining about being called a Russian asset when she sounds more like a useful idiot to me. I'm tired of pretending she doesn't suck as a candidate, I thought she'd bring value to the debate by pushing for a peace approach globally but she's not even good at selling that. I'm beginning to think she almost cut out on this debate because she wasn't well prepared.
9. Booker - This one pains me, because I think there are aspects of Booker's platform that would be great to sell to the American people. He's just too busy trying to hit some big speech moment to actually put his policy proposals on stage against everyone else's. Baby Bonds are an interesting proposal bro, quit telling the moderators they suck (we all know) and use your time to meaningfully sell yourself. Dude was vapid all damned nights.
8. Steyer - He barely spoke and the most memorable moment of his night was when he co-signed most of Bernie's case against billionaires. The billionaire who had nothing better to spend his money on besides wasting around 7 minutes of debate time really spent a chunk of that 7 minutes helping the Socialist explain why billionaire's shouldn't exist with their ridiculous concentrations of money while people starve, are homeless or die from preventable health issues. But his actual answers weren't terrible, just not helping him or saying anything special.
7. Klobuchar - Got a TON of time which helped her cover her bigger miscues with some decent sounding answers. But the reality of her push on stage was that it was almost entirely focused on stealing Warren's steam. She was on the attack which helped hide just how worthless her policy proposals are. There's nothing bold about her ideas except that she's pushing incrementalism at a time when the American public is tired of the same ole BS. That's not to say she was bad but she was served alley-oops all night, got the third most time to speak and the press seemed poised to hype her performance even before the debate started. Now tell me...which of her policy proposals do you remember from last night and believe will galvanize the voting public? I'll wait
6. Castro - I think Castro has been one of the most consistent debate stage performers. Last night he had the line of the night when he compared Trump's decisions to lock up children at the border with his decision to leave the Kurdish border unprotected which set free ISIS soldiers. Trump policy has freed terrorist soldiers and locked up children. Great hit. Castro generally touched upon some decent policy prospects but didn't get into much detail, so he dips a bit...but the line of the night plus no major gaffes is good enough to hit the top half of performers.
5. Yang - I thought Andrew Yang sold his ideas better than most people on the stage. He was able to press his UBI right up next to Bernie and Warren's bold solutions and not seem out of place with them. His drug policy proposal was the best on the stage. That UBI got a couple of co-signs too from Castro and Tulsi. But he also can be misleading on certain things. He's selling a VAT tax that has a LOT of room for error and easily becomes regressive because the costs pass on to the consumer in most real world cases. His UBI is designed in a way that will squeeze some social services (VAT tax + squeezing other social services = the Friedman model period). He also mentioned European wealth taxes to push back against Warren but Warren's proposal actually took lessons from the failed Euro Wealth taxes so he was fronting heavy there. I think you could argue he was top three, but I think if you contextualize what he's selling there are still a lot boxes he isn't ticking. That said, he's gotten better each time out and deserves his polling standing as he consistently outperforms most of the field.
4. Warren - The field was determined to keep Warren from winning another debate stage and succeeded. She had some of my favorite moments, especially breaking down Accountable Capitalism and pushing for Union strength. But she really should just acknowledge taxes go up but the increase is offset by no more private insurance deduction, no premiums, no deductibles. That one piece of refusing to concede allowed Biden to call her vague and others like Pete and Beto to take pot shots at her position without room for a response in some cases. Klobuchar also went on a warpath trying to pose Warren's comments as divisive attacks while simultaneously joining in on the attacks on Warren. All of that is to say, Elizabeth Warren did really well not to completely tank in the face of constant attacks. She scores fourth because none of the other attempts at attacks hit and most flamed out awkwardly (thinking Tulsi and Harris both).
3. Pete - Buttigeig came out swinging so much that the whiffs will be forgotten for moments like his haymakers on Beto. Dude aggressively fought against M4A better than anyone else by mostly zero'ing in on Warren refusing to acknowledge that taxes go up while overall costs go down for most Americans. What Pete managed that some others didn't, was he pushed some of his own ideas (Medicare for all who want it) and sell them while also grabbing plenty of attack moments. That's a balance where as much as I hate the guy, I think newcomers and casual viewers will remember him unlike the vast majority of the other candidates. Pete did really well on the gun topic with solutions, hitting good solution ideas although my brother remarked that it sounded extra rehearsed with the repetition. Either way, I can't speak much on candidates who balanced attacking with policy like Pete did. He gets an added boost from the press really selling him.
2. Biden - Joe and Bernie get 1a and 1b to me because they gained the most from this debate and it's kinda handicapped for different reasons for each. Biden has been AWFUL on the debate stage with major gaffes each time out up until last night. Last night, he was much better. Biden's never gonna have the most exciting policy, but he did show that he can be forceful. I truly believe most of his support is due to the belief that he can take the fight to Trump and that was how he composed himself last night. Here's why I mention this is handicapped though. He still had gaffes...he burped, he tried to take some of the credit for the Consumer Financial Protections Bureau. He also got dunked on early by Warren with M4A and later by Bernie when Bernie pointed out Joe's Bankruptcy bill and Iraq push. But none of that stuff hit quite as hard as past debate hits and gaffes while Joe's personal performance was easily his best of the cycle.
1. Bernie - I said well before the debates that the key for Bernie in this debate was to show that he's healthy and still about it. That would be enough for him to help himself after a dip in polling from the heart attack imo. But Bernie went above and beyond by having standout moments built on policy rather than rhetoric. If it hasn't happened prior, Bernie finally set himself apart as the top dog when it comes to talking M4A. He got to mention his Green New Deal (one of only a handful of references to climate action by candidates thanks to no questions about it directly) and the 20 million jobs it can create. He also had the luxury of everyone focusing attacks on Warren; so Bernie got to press forward a lot of proposals without much kick back besides Yang whose stance than took a shot from Warren which helped Bernie again (love that truce). Anyway, in terms of who got the most of their policy goals laid out, Bernie stood out heavy. He also referenced union empowerment, took a bold stance against Turkey's action (not an ally), new approaches on social media monopolies and also managed to make the crowd laugh audibly on more than one occasion. Then the final piece that built up Bernie was the endorsements of three Squad members including AOC's intended endorsement for Saturday (I'ma be at the rally). Bernie followed a strong debate performance with three big endorsements from well liked Dem's. That's a really nice bounceback. We'll have to see if it actually hits polling.
Sidenote: I've heard Cenk and Sam Seder reference a new nationwide George Washington University poll with Warren first, Bernie second and Biden down to third but I can't find it...anyone have that link? I've only seen reports about Warren being in first but can't find the full poll numbers.