Patterico's Pontifications

7/30/2019

2020 Democratic Debates!

Filed under: General — Dana @ 6:04 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Oh boy!

This is so representative of our 2020 politics where everything is theater, and everyone is determined to out-pander the competition, no matter how outlandish and absurd:

It took over 100 people eight days to build the set for CNN’s Democratic debates. Nine 53-foot semi-trucks were needed to haul in all the equipment. There are more than 500 lights, and 25 cameras at the debate location.

Watch it here.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

112 Responses to “2020 Democratic Debates!”

  1. So surreal. Who are these people.

    Dana (bb0678)

  2. Warren says she’ll decriminalize border crossings.

    Dana (bb0678)

  3. I’ll start watching once the field is down to, say, five.

    felipe (023cc9)

  4. Are there Greek columns? I’m not tuning to it if there are no Greek columns.

    nk (dbc370)

  5. Heh. There’s sure a lot of people who think they would make the best President of the United States.

    Dana (bb0678)

  6. No coincidence Star Wars is airing on TCM tonight. This whole overly hyped show looks like the bar scene; Kevetching Ol’Jew, Marion the Librarian, Amy Gnome; The Bald One, Parkinson’s Beto, Peter Buttofcourse, Magical Marianne and assorted governors where trees out-number people. CNN may just have become the Death Star after all–and the Orange Man Rebels know their mission.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  7. I can’t watch ’em anymore. They had me reaching to check if my wallet was still there every time one of them opened their pie hole.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)


  8. Oliver Darcy
    @oliverdarcy
    It took over 100 people eight days to build the set for CNN’s Democratic debates. Nine 53-foot semi-trucks were needed to haul in all the equipment.

    __ _

    Gotta have BIG production value and showcase BANG.

    Especially when you’re saying withdrawing from the Paris Accord is just an example of America’s unwillingness to cut back and deal with the climate crisis in the few years we have left.

    Or…….they might be selling something.

    harkin (92ce59)

  9. Dana; it’s absurd.

    CBS managed the Nixon and JFK w/a podium, a chair and a glass of water.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  10. And the actual value of the world money supply dropped by the amount it cost to put this on. I know it’s a microscopic proportion but add Trump straws, KISS gear, Ariana Grande concerts, etc. etc. etc. and it adds up before you know it.

    We can talk about the carbon emissions some other time.

    nk (dbc370)

  11. da bait

    mg (8cbc69)

  12. Imagine if they spent their money on the poor…. giggle, snort, laugh…..

    jason stewart (fbca57)

  13. They do spend loads of money on the poor.

    Even keeping people convinced they are wards of the state and that’s the best they will ever be…..adds up.

    The problem is they have no interest in improving the human potential, only the vote numbers.

    harkin (92ce59)

  14. I’m following the debate by reading people’s reactions on Twitter, while watching a young guy who played college ball with my cousin’s son make his Major League Baseball debut tonight — in the starting lineup no less!

    Do I understand correctly that it took Marianne Williamson — Marianne Freakin’ Williamson — to suggest to her fellow Democrats that providing free college educations to the children of the wealthy may not be such a capital idea?

    JVW (54fd0b)

  15. “The problem is they have no interest in improving the human potential, only the vote numbers.”

    You’re projecting.

    Davethulhu (bc6fa6)

  16. This guy is live-Tweeting and clearly is from a right-of-center perspective, so I found his observations to be amusing.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  17. Omg, Don Lemon asked the candidates:

    “What do you say to those Trump voters who prioritize the economy over the president’s bigotry?”

    Dana (bb0678)

  18. It sounds like all of the questions given to the candidates except for Sanders are along the lines of “[Non-Sanders candidate X] why is Senator Sanders’ plan regarding [insert issue here] so God-awful stupid?”

    JVW (54fd0b)

  19. “What do you say to those Trump voters who prioritize the economy over the president’s bigotry?

    Priorities, priorities.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  20. Half watched. No reason for most these candidates to be on the stage. They ain’t going anywhere. Next debate should be Warren, Bernie, Biden, Harris and one more. Everyone else to the Kiddie table.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  21. Omg, Don Lemon asked the candidates:
    “What do you say to those Trump voters who prioritize the economy over the president’s bigotry?”

    Did anybody say “Man does not live by bread alone”?

    nk (dbc370)

  22. The D’s platform in 2020: Open borders, Amnesty, Free Everything, Climate Change, Gun Control, and death to white people.

    Sounds like a winner!

    rcocean (1a839e)

  23. Sure,vote for the crazy lady:

    Warren is actually advocating that we publicly vow not to use a nuclear weapon unless another country uses it first. This is what she’s actually saying. Complete and total lunacy. Terrifying lunacy, actually.

    Dana (bb0678)

  24. You know that line about food, but with the ration cards it will be.

    Narciso (72d34b)

  25. Astonishingly boring. Over-hyped, overly long and wayyyyyyyyyy over budgeted.

    There’s something seriously wrong w/t current management at CNN. Newsy and CSPAN are your best sources for news and information anymore.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  26. So, I wonder who of tonight’s crew Bill Kristol, Jonah, and George Will are supporting? I’m just waiting for David french to make “The conservative case for Liz Warren”.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  27. Also Warren:

    “We are the Democrats. We don’t take healthcare away from people. That’s what the Republicans do.”

    Oh really:

    FACT CHECK: Under @BernieSanders’s plan, over 100 MILLION Americans will lose their current healthcare plan.

    Dana (bb0678)

  28. @23. Especially when America has already used them first.

    Twice.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  29. Andrew Quinn
    @AndrewCQuinn
    Leader McConnell has kept the Senate in session until 9:43pm and counting to keep moving judges. We have confirmed four judges and voted to advance 10 more.

    __ _

    harkin (92ce59)

  30. Warren claimed there were “colored babies” in “Cages” at the Border. Think of about that! Babies in cages, OMG. I’m just glad they weren’t play pens.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  31. I noticed Cthulhu left early… out of embarrassment?

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  32. Next debate should be Warren, Bernie, Biden, Harris and one more. Everyone else to the Kiddie table.

    I might be tempted to agree with you, if not for the fact that the Democrats are all talking up the virtues of socialism. If they think equal outcome is more important than competition dictated by clear rules and procedures, then they deserve to have 20+ candidates scrapping it out until Iowa and New Hampshire.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  33. 28… by their words, you will know them…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  34. I Loved Bernie. His reaction shots were hilarious. Every time he listened to another candidate, he looked like he’d just smelt a broken toilet. And those arm movements. He kept pointing and jabbing his finger in the air. Talk with his hands? He talked with his arms. I expected him to start flapping and get airborne.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  35. “Warren is actually advocating that we publicly vow not to use a nuclear weapon unless another country uses it first. ”

    Good thing Swalwell dropped out. It coulda got ugly.

    Democratic California Rep. Eric Swalwell suggested on Friday that the U.S. government could use nuclear weapons on its own citizens if they fight back against firearm confiscation.

    https://dailycaller.com/2018/11/16/swalwell-gun-owners-nukes/

    harkin (92ce59)

  36. Warren claimed there were “colored babies” in “Cages” at the Border. Think of about that! Babies in cages, OMG!

    What do you expect from a party that believes it is appropriate for 25-year-olds to remain on mommy or daddy’s health care plan?

    JVW (54fd0b)

  37. Why watch the CNN replay or endure the instant analysis by Cuomo Buttafoolco and crew… the bar scene in Star Wars on TCM is coming up and is a much more entertaining synopsis of the event.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  38. thanks for watching, keep those comments coming.

    mg (8cbc69)

  39. None of these debates are really important yet, it’s all sound and fury. Also, most people up there don’t have a chance and Bernie doesn’t realize that his chance is gone and his numbers aren’t going to do anything other than go down. He started at his ceiling.

    Nic (896fdf)

  40. The beatings will continue till morale improves,

    Narciso (72d34b)

  41. 28 “Twice”
    __ _

    Fletch: “Dropped the big one, huh?”

    Marvin Stanwyck: “He dropped TWO big ones on them.”

    harkin (92ce59)

  42. Oh, Kaboom!

    Andrew Yang | @AndrewYang

    I hate to say it but most of the green manufacturing jobs will go to robots.

    6:30 PM · Jul 30, 2019·Twitter for iPhone

    I might have to get me one of those geeky-cool lapel pins.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  43. That was back when Chevy chase was still funny, or so we thought

    Narciso (72d34b)

  44. @38. Ratings will be uneven; kept dipping into Close Encounters… same difference; CNN set designers stole Spielberg’s neon bells-and-whistles look.

    @40. Seems to be the night for kvetching.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  45. More Andrew Yang:

    Andrew Yang | @AndrewYang

    We should be honest that government-funded retraining of workers doesn’t work. The success rates for the manufacturing workers of the Midwest were 0-15%. Almost half left the workforce.

    7:04 PM · Jul 30, 2019·Twitter for iPhone

    And then the old “forget about your stupid idea; let’s talk about my stupid idea:

    Andrew Yang | @AndrewYang

    Only 33% of Americans go to college. We should focus on plans that help Americans who pursue all different paths, like the #FreedomDividend of $1,000 a month.

    7:14 PM · Jul 30, 2019·Twitter for iPhone

    I think he’s technically wrong on that last point, and that it’s a little over 50% of Americans attend at least some college and 33% end up getting a degree.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  46. Who amongst the founders foreknew that facilitating nonsense disguised as debate would become a cottage industry

    steveg (354706)

  47. The money spent kept at least 100 people from being poor for 8 days, plus another few days to break it all down

    steveg (354706)

  48. We do have a “no nuclear strike at all” pledge for non-nuclear signatories of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, BTW. Just in case you chance to be talking to a hippie.

    nk (dbc370)

  49. I do like one of Yang’s earlier tweets

    I’m sitting in a hotel room with my team. It feels like we are about to watch the most boring football game in history

    Kishnevi (8d3389)

  50. There is memery and an altered wikipage announcing that John Delaney was killed by Elizabeth Warren.

    urbanleftbehind (8c0984)

  51. Yang would be an interesting head to head against Trump, but I think the Dems should go Warren/”API” which would cover both Yang and Gabbard.

    urbanleftbehind (8c0984)

  52. Btw, he has a new bit of merchandise for sale
    https://shop.yang2020.com/collections/accessories/products/shot-glass

    Kishnevi (8d3389)

  53. Who is John Delaney?
    [Only half joking]

    Kishnevi (8d3389)

  54. “I remember the year that Clayton Delaney died” is now running through my head.

    Thanks, urbanleftbehind.

    nk (dbc370)

  55. Btw, he has a new bit of merchandise for sale

    Damn, that’s clever. How prescient was I to rank him as the top Democrat in terms of great swag?

    JVW (54fd0b)

  56. There is memery and an altered wikipage announcing that John Delaney was killed by Elizabeth Warren.

    That’s funny, because the Twitter thread I was following during the debate thought Warren was like nails-on-a-chalkboard in a room with the meanest assistant principal all night, but he predicted that the media would claim that she had a great night.

    JVW (54fd0b)


  57. Bloomberg TicToc
    @tictoc
    The number one most-searched Democratic candidate tonight in 49 out of 50 states, according to Google Trends: Marianne Williamson
    __ _

    Stephen Miller
    @redsteeze
    And CNN hasn’t mentioned her once in post debate panel.

    Cable news is dead.
    _

    harkin (92ce59)

  58. Nine 53-foot semi-trucks were needed to haul in all the equipment. There are more than 500 lights, and 25 cameras at the debate location.

    And it still looked incredibly cheap and cheesy. Not a single US flag, as someone mentioned, except for the one in that poor veteran’s march into the arena…I mean, auditorium. Ryan did not put his hand over his heart: woke winner. Klobuchar sang along: going for the Middle America vote.

    Then, more dopiness. Opening statements: time to do the dishes.

    Constant interruptions by the referees…I mean, journalists.

    I lasted about half way.

    Patricia (3363ec)

  59. Unlike tulsi, Williamson might summon dark forces against CNN for their insolence.

    Narciso (72d34b)

  60. Ryan done f’ed up, he should be carrying the mantle of DINO Moulton … he might get replaced in his district by the Nancy Pelosi-Salena Zito mashup Capri S. Cafaro.

    urbanleftbehind (8c0984)

  61. CNN is the bot network, it has little relation to reality.

    Narciso (72d34b)

  62. Brief encapsulaton of Jim Geraghty’s review of the debate:

    Sanders – Old man yelling is growing boring and annoying.
    Warren – No major flubs, so good performance, even though her plans don’t exist in the realm of reality.
    O’Rourke – Hopeless.
    Buttigieg – Smooth and polished, but too boring for rageoholic Democrats this year.
    Klobuchar – Forgettable.
    Bullock and Hickenlooper – Would have made good Democrat candidates in the 1990s.
    Delaney – Compared him to a designated driver trying to corral the drunks in his car.
    Ryan – Like the other second-tier white guys, good performance but not enough.
    Williamson – He thinks she could be this year’s Trump: laughed at by the elites but appreciated by those who find the debate to be predictable and stale. She doesn’t talk policy at all, except for in the vaguest terms, but she has an appeal to those who respond viscerally to her leftist-populist anti-establishment message.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  63. Paul Mirengoff at Powerline points out that only two candidates on the stage tonight, Sanders and Warren, have any real chance of being nominated, yet they spent the entire evening mostly avoiding debating each other. He speculates that they are keeping their powder dry for January. He thought the unknown white guys served a valuable purpose in pushing back against the rampant leftism, and he thought Robby O’Rourke’s performance was better than Jim Geraghty did.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  64. A neighbor had a Williamson 2020 party tonight. They hijacked a few of those realtor open house signs with a deadhead style motif that pointed the way to their home. Somehow I bet some want to be attendees got hopelessly lost anyway. In my younger, cynical single years I’d have crashed the party (what are they going to say?) and tried to meet girls who could be mesmerized by what listening to a seashell at the beach has to say after a bottle of wine (when you go topless in the sun, the freedom of your spirit is set loose to dance) like an r rated fortune cookie

    steveg (354706)

  65. Pretty depressing stuff.

    Ryan, Delaney and Klobuchar were occasionally sensible.

    Beto actually gave sane answers on tariffs and immigration. I was shocked.

    Elizabeth Warren is a much more effective advocate for Trump’s economic policies than Trump himself (Tucker Carlson pointed this out a month or two ago).

    Unintentionally humorous moment a few minutes ago when they were interviewing Warren on CNN. She said something like (paraphrasing): “President Trump has already made his one-sentence argument: that if you have any problems in your life, or you’re not happy about something, it’s the fault of somebody who looks differently or worships differently than you, or was born somewhere else.”

    Without pausing to take a breath, she then segued seamlessly, into her one-sentence argument: that if you have any problems in your life, or you’re not happy about something, it’s actually because of somebody who’s wealthier than you.

    Dave (1bb933)

  66. From Powerline
    “O’Rourke spoke well and plus he had a decent shave”

    OK. On to the White House then

    steveg (354706)

  67. “green manufacturing jobs”

    They pulled that out of the file of “old, useless promises” in the back of the cabinet. Didn’t Obama do that with the bailout? And it amounted to a bunch of guys putting in weatherstripping (incorrectly) in Texas?

    Patricia (3363ec)

  68. In this day and age, the only living American who can beat Donald Trump at and with his own game is Oprah Winfrey.

    Run, Oprah.

    Run.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  69. yet they spent the entire evening mostly avoiding debating each other.

    They each explicitly refused to attack the other when prompted to do so in post-debate interviews too.

    Buttigieg – Smooth and polished, but too boring for rageoholic Democrats this year.

    He seems like the smartest one of the lot. But irredeemable policy-wise.

    I was disappointed with Bullock. It was the first time I’ve seen or heard him and he was billed as a moderate, but didn’t come across that way at all.

    Dave (1bb933)

  70. I still love My Little Aloha Sweetie, but damn if I’m not starting to warm to Marianne Williamson’s good nature:

    Sarah Mucha | @sarahmucha

    I asked Marianne Williamson if the debate night went the way she thought it would. “I’ll tell you later when I see the memes,” she said, laughing.

    9:25 PM · Jul 30, 2019·Twitter for iPhone

    Imagine hippy crystal chick being the candidate who has the shrewdest understanding of the Social Media Primary of 2019.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  71. Several other really annoying Warren tropes.

    She goes on and on about how corrupt Washington is, and her solution is “massive structural changes” – to give Washington vastly greater power over everyone’s lives and spending…

    Also, she and Sanders kept repeating that the health insurance industry made $20B in profit last(?) year.

    So that’s about $80 per person, which doesn’t really seem so excessive. How much profit did the food service industry, or the entertainment industry make?

    $20B is about 0.1% of GDP.

    But they want to “fix” this horrible problem of $20B profit by creating government programs costing more than 10x as much…

    It’s a classic example of innumeracy. $20B sounds like a huge amount of money, but it’s a drop in the bucket in comparison to anything relevant (the size of the economy, the size of the health insurance industry, the size of the federal budget, etc…)

    And they want to “fix” that, with a govern

    Dave (1bb933)

  72. Ha, ha, ha! Trump would win every debate with Oprah by the simple expedient of throwing her a Twinkie every time it was her turn to speak.

    nk (dbc370)

  73. Oops, sorry for the typo/sentence fragment…

    Dave (1bb933)

  74. nk (dbc370) — 7/30/2019 @ 10:13 pm

    I don’t even want to THINK about what she’d have to throw Trump…

    Dave (1bb933)

  75. I never saw the appeal of that lady. I watched five minutes of her show one time at my dentist’s waiting room, and the drill was more pleasant.

    nk (dbc370)

  76. For comparison with the alleged $20B profits of the health insurance industry, according to this page, the “Food, Beverage and Tobacco” industry made profits of $55B in 2018.

    The motor vehicle and petroleum/coal industries each made about $10B in profits (for a total of $20B).

    Dave (1bb933)

  77. Have they all released their tax returns? For the past five years? https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-07-30/trump-tax-returns-california-ballot-gavin-newsom-law

    nk (dbc370)

  78. One last comment because I don’t think anyone here has mentioned it yet: a lot of right-leaning folks on Twitter are pointing out that two topics which were not discussed tonight were the Mueller Report and impeachment. Make of that what you will — could the DNC have demanded of CNN that those topics be omitted?

    JVW (54fd0b)

  79. A neighbor had a Williamson 2020 party tonight. They hijacked a few of those realtor open house signs with a deadhead style motif that pointed the way to their home. Somehow I bet some want to be attendees got hopelessly lost anyway. In my younger, cynical single years I’d have crashed the party (what are they going to say?) and tried to meet girls who could be mesmerized by what listening to a seashell at the beach has to say after a bottle of wine (when you go topless in the sun, the freedom of your spirit is set loose to dance) like an r rated fortune cookie

    steveg (354706) — 7/30/2019 @ 9:45 pm

    You sound like my kind of friend in our younger days. Good times.

    NJRob (4d595c)

  80. If you want to get all technical and stuff, the Constitution gives each state legislature the absolute right to determine how its electoral votes are awarded.

    Every state already requires you to submit certain paperwork now to appear on the ballot and be eligible to receive those electoral votes, so I don’t see what basis there is for a court challenge if they simply require additional paperwork.

    Dave (1bb933)

  81. Good catch there, JVW. Impeachment is such a divisive issue in the party now, I’m sure leadership said it was off limits.

    Dana (bb0678)

  82. What relevance do the candidates’ views on impeachment have?

    There are nowhere near 67 votes in the Senate, now or ever.

    If they win the presidential election in 2020, Trump is gone. If they don’t win, Trump stays.

    What they think about the subject makes absolutely no difference.

    Dave (1bb933)

  83. Dang! Do you mean to tell me that there’s a real chance that California’s legislature might not award its electors to Trump in 2020? Bummer, not fair, man!

    Read the article again. It’s for the primary only.

    nk (dbc370)

  84. What relevance do the candidates’ views on impeachment have?

    There are nowhere near 67 votes in the Senate, now or ever.

    Same could be said about outlawing abortion, yet not an election cycle goes by that Republican candidates aren’t grilled about that topic.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  85. They only ask gotcha questions in Republican primary debates.

    nk (dbc370)

  86. @75. What makes you believe he wouldn’t eat it himself– or better still, date it.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  87. @82. Notivd that, too, but doubt it. They had so many other pressing topics to prattle over.

    But as an aside, consider not being an enabler; stop using Twitter.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  88. Same could be said about outlawing abortion, yet not an election cycle goes by that Republican candidates aren’t grilled about that topic.

    And pointlessly so.

    Dave (1bb933)

  89. While Roe is unlikely to be overturned, the President’s views on abortion do have some relevance while he/she is in office, in terms of signing/vetoing legislation involving public funding.

    But if/when they take office, the Democratic candidates’ views on impeaching Trump will be entirely irrelevant, because Trump will no longer be in office.

    (One could make a better case for asking them about the Mueller report and the Russian attacks it documents, from a national security and international relations angle)

    Dave (1bb933)

  90. #92 —

    I think what to do with Trump, if he loses, is something to ask the candidates. Also, the reforms to make to keep some of the more egeregious Trump actions from recurring also make some sense. Questionas about the advisability of a policy preventing the indictment of a President also make some sense, as the executive branch does belong to the President.

    Your point on impeachment is well-enough taken. Though I would be interested in thoughts about structural reforms for a Congress that doesn’t do its job might get interesting answers.

    Appalled (d07ae6)

  91. “What they think about the subject makes absolutely no difference.”

    They’ve learned they need to rein in the “crazy”. If it polled better outside their rabid base, it would be a top topic for discussion.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  92. Just because they call it a debate, it does not make it a debate. It’s not even a group interview. It’s a showcase for the Democratic party’s offering, and they have no interest in showing any of them in anything other than the best possible light. “They” being the DNC and their media party organs. The production values that Dana listed in the main post make it obvious, I would think.

    nk (dbc370)

  93. You learned nothing in eight years, you want to give them a change to teat the country down again, you may well get your wish, like the song goes

    Narciso (72d34b)

  94. Magical thinking has a place at the head of the Democrat table.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  95. “…you want to give them a change to teat the country down again, you may well get your wish, like the song goes.”

    It would be the Carol Doda of teat downs!

    https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQsFOHqkLrAgyUxMa6qLPqFwdql-QKvKpRQorXeYQp5AGNS13SofQ

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  96. The correct term is “breastfeed”, narciso.

    nk (dbc370)

  97. …or motorboating

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  98. When the loons’re said to’ve held the House
    And Venus aligns with Mars
    Marianne will rule the planet
    And we’ll be seein’ stars
    This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius
    The Age of Aquarius
    Aquarius! Aquarius!
    Harmony and wishful thinking
    Empathy in robes and sandals
    The straight subjected to derision
    Golden acid dreams and visions
    Mystic crystal revelation
    Focus on group masturbation
    Aquarius! Aquarius!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  99. Magical thinking has a place at the head of the Democrat table.

    While the (Grand) Wizard of Oz has the GOP nomination locked up…

    Dave (1bb933)

  100. @97. Showcase… an entertainment gimmick familiar to ‘e Pice Is Riht’ viewers… as opposed to ‘showcasing’ the 2016 GOP cast of 17 characters, eh:

    http://2016election.com/list-of-declared-republican-presidential-candidates/

    Swoon for them heady days when Jim Gilmore graced the stage…

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  101. ^’The Price Is Right.’ Typo.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  102. 20. rcocean (1a839e) — 7/30/2019 @ 7:40 pm

    Next debate should be Warren, Bernie, Biden, Harris and one more. Everyone else to the Kiddie table

    The next debate should probably have ten people, and there will be no spillover.

    https://www.npr.org/2019/07/29/745606868/debate-may-be-last-ditch-effort-for-struggling-democrats-to-stay-alive

    In additon to Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke and Cory Booker have already qualified. Andrew Yang’s said he had met the polling threshold (he already had met the donor target, and for the third debate they need to meet both qualifications) but on Tuesday the DNC said one of the polls Yang’s campaign was using didn’t qualify as part of their calculations. Amy Klobuchar hasd met the polling standard and she had 120,000 individual donors and is getting 1,000 a day so she should have 130,000 in more than enough time. And Julian Castro should also make it.
    there will be

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  103. Well, Dana, to be fair, CNN did have to prep the stage for two debates involving 20 candidates over two nights in a large auditorium, so the production costs for something like that would be a bit excessive. It’s a large undertaking, and they wanted to give each candidate the opportunity to make their best appearance.

    Compare that to when Fox News interviewed Ted Cruz in 2016, when he started winning primaries. Trash on the floor, sounds of dishwashing in the background, they went out of their way to denigrate him, to make him appear poorly. I haven’t watched Fox News since that night. It wasn’t just an insult to the candidate, but to the audience.

    Tonight’s debate will be the one to watch. All eyes will be on Biden. He’s regained a commanding lead in the polls, and the question is, can he be the one to defeat Trump?

    I don’t know. I really don’t care at this point. Both parties are dead to me now. I’m waiting to see who the Libertarians will nominate, and what Amash will do as an Independent.

    I don’t watch these debates, because they’re not really debates. They’re auditions for the primaries. And since I don’t vote in Democratic primaries, they’re meaningless to me. There won’t be any Republican debates, since the GOP and the RNC has gone all in behind Trump and will not fund any primary challenger.

    This will be Biden’s third race for the Democratic nomination. In the previous two, he didn’t win a single primary. So Democrats might want to think about that before they make their choice.

    Since 1980, when I was first eligible to vote, I have never voted for a Democrat at the state or federal level, only at the city and county level because there always were only Democrats on the ballot. I couldn’t care less who the Democrats nominate. I was a Reagan Republican in college at UT, attended his announcement for re-election speech on Auditorium Shores in Austin in 1984, met William F. Buckley that year when came to campus to film an episode of Firing Line, participated in the campus debate, and wrote poetry for the Texas Review, the campus conservative student newspaper.

    That party, the conservative-libertarian Republican party, doesn’t exist anymore. The GOP is now all Trump all the time, and it sickens me. What happened? I don’t know. But I do not and will not vote for fraud.

    We’ll see how this all plays out. It doesn’t matter to me who the Democrats nominate, because I will not vote for him or her. It doesn’t matter to me who the Republicans nominate, since they are all in behind Trump, and it will be Trump. I didn’t vote for him in the last election, and I will not vote for him in the next election, nor will I vote for any Republican who supports him.

    So I am a man without a party now. I’ll be voting straight Libertarian or Independent, whenever possible. But I’ll vote for conservative Democrat over a Trump Republican every day. It’s just that there aren’t very many conservative Democrats and a whole lot of Trump Republicans.

    I will have nothing to do with the Republican party in its current concoction. No donations, no votes, not anything. As long as the Republicans embrace fraud, deceit, and yes racism, conspiring with a foreign adversary to win an election, they will never get my support.

    I am an American, in the tradition of Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Twain, Faulkner, and Frost, but then I am a literary scholar, so no one listens to me. I live comfortably, eat well, have money in the bank, carry little to zero debt, and am free. That’s all that matters to me.

    Oh, and my family owns the most successful, most respected, most profitable independent real estate corporation in South Texas, with listings and sales throughout the Rio Grande Valley, so Donald Trump and his failed businesses, casinos, bankrupt hotels and golf courses can kiss my ass. So can any Republican(?) who supports him. Talk about losers.

    What about fiscal responsibility? Individual and civil rights? Limited government? Those were once the hallmarks of the Republican party, and they were all thrown out the window when Trump descended down from his gilded elevator. The man is a total fraud and failure, and so are the Republicans who support him.

    Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1)

  104. One day they will take your guns your freedom of speech and your right to worship, there is one party who hates all three, yes they didnt like Cruz the party is more on jobs side as it was with Romney they dont want outsiders to their little club Paul singer made sure of that

    Narciso (72d34b)


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