It doesn’t matter that moderates stood out in debate
The good news was that we finally got all top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination on the stage at the same time, for a single debate. The bad news was that it was three hours long and that 10 participants vying for attention still make for a sometimes rancorous event. ABC moderators replowed familiar ground on health care but managed to conduct the most substantive debate so far. (Though once again foreign policy got short shrift.)
The opening remarks were more noteworthy than normal. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., smartly talked directly to President Donald Trump, excoriating him for divisiveness. She ended, “And now, President Trump, you can go back to watching Fox News.” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., also defined her candidacy better than she has done to date. “If you feel stuck in the middle of the extremes in our politics and you are tired of the noise and
the nonsense, you’ve got a home with me,” she said. “Because I don’t want to be the president for half of America — I want to be the president for all of America.”
What was most striking was the strength of the moderate wing of the party, and the inability or refusal of the two most progressive candidates to directly respond to questions about the cost and logistics of Medicare for all.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, still the front-runner, needed to show that his shaky debate performance in June was a fluke and that he has the stamina to go for three hours. He started strongly, ably defending the public option and indignantly insisting his plan would protect anyone with cancer.
His weakest moment ironically was on Afghanistan and Iraq, where he tried to explain his vote for the use of force in Iraq and suggested he was for a partition of Afghanistan. (His plan was to soft-partition Iraq.) But two hours into the debate, it’s not clear how many voters were watching or picked up on the point.
Biden’s strongest moment may have been at the end when asked about resilience. Waiting out hecklers, he told the story of losing his daughter and first wife and later losing his son Beau. He spoke about finding “purpose,” reminding us why so many Democrats love the guy.
One can always count on Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to deliver the same message, at the same volume, in the same emphatic way. Unfortunately, his voice was especially raspy, giving him the appearance of a man even older than his 78 years. Despite being caught in the polls this summer by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, DMass., he did not alter his routine. On foreign policy, he touted his votes against the Iraq War and every defense budget. He only reinforced the sense that he would be the foil Trump would use to call Democrats weak.
Warren had as much to lose as Biden in this one, because she has been moving up and hence became a target for the rest of the field. She also had the first opportunity to face a phalanx of moderate candidates who, among other things, defend a public option for the Affordable Care Act rather than a single-payer heath care system. Surprisingly, she chose again to filibuster rather than squarely answer the question. She rallied to throw red meat to the base, promising to get rid of the filibuster. However, given the number of people on the stage, she had long stretches in which she disappeared, while Biden held his place in the center (physically and ideologically).
Julián Castro had a jaw-droppingly awful moment, accusing Biden of not remembering what he said a few minutes earlier and then claiming he, not Barack Obama’s vice president, was Obama’s true heir. It was a callow, nasty moment in a race.
Beto O’Rourke also had a strong night, opening with an impassioned statement on gun violence and needing to remove a president who induce hatred. His biggest moment was also his most controversial — a plan for mandatory buybacks. The audience ate it up, but unlike his otherwise moderate positions, it will be problematic in a general election.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg tended to get lost in the shuffle. They weighed in to make pitches for unity, but otherwise lacked moments that set them apart from the crowd.
Andrew Yang began with a wild plan to give 10 people $1,000 per month to simulate his guaranteed income plan. It’s not even clear that would be legal, but it was clearly ridiculous, prompting an incredulous reaction and laugh from Buttigieg.
It’s worth remembering that beyond initial media reviews, we’ve seen no evidence that debates fundamentally shift the race. That’s good news for the losers and disappointing news for
those who performed well.