Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

This blog will pay for itself.

I really should read my own blog.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

In my day, never was longer.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / Bernie Sanders 2016 / Pre-Debate Open Thread

Pre-Debate Open Thread

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Official start time is 8:30pm EDT, on CNN. It’s supposed to be broadcast live online, but the CNN-Go app keeps crashing for me. The CNN Facebook link should start at 8pm…

The Guardian is already liveblogging here:

… The contrast between Clinton and Sanders, side-by-side, will be one of the night’s main attractions at the Wynn on the Vegas Strip. But any of the three other candidates onstage – former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley (CV), former Virginia senator Jim Webb (CV) and former Rhode Island governor and senator Lincoln Chafee (CV) – has the potential to seize the conversation and define the evening.

Is Clinton in trouble? Can Sanders expand his appeal? Will O’Malley or Webb have a breakout moment? Will Chafee repeat his calls to pardon Edward Snowden and encourage the US to adopt the metric system? We’ll be answering all those questions and some even more outlandish ones throughout the evening right here, with a cast of characters from Washington and way, way beyond…

Kevin Drum will be liveblogging at Mother Jones here. His pre-debate take:

* Hillary Clinton will of course get a question or 10 about her email server. She’ll give a standard scripted reply, and the others will all shuffle around nervously when asked to respond. They’d love to take a shot at Hillary, but they’ll be reluctant to look like they’re stooges for Republican conspiracy theories.

* Bernie Sanders will be asked if he’s really a socialist. Sigh.

* Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee will both be asked some version of “Why are you here?” This is actually a fair question since neither seems to be running a serious campaign and neither has even the slightest chance of winning.

* There will be some kind of question about Joe Biden. Everyone will insist that they love Joe and have nothing but the highest regard for him.

* There will probably be some kind of question that dutifully inventories all the conservative complaints about Obamacare and asks what the candidates are going to do about them…

Reader Interactions

154Comments

  2. 2.

    JPL

    I read on the NYTimes that the actual debate starts at 9:00. I am having the same problem connecting to CNN and if it continues, I’ll just go to bed early.

  5. 5.

    David Koch

    So Drum is saying there will be very little substance.

    Well, at least someone remembers the 2007 debates.

  11. 11.

    Patricia Kayden

    Go Hilary!! Go Bernie!! Go Democrats!! Looking forward to a very civilized, information-laden discussion between two great candidates.

  12. 12.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    I can’t watch the debate because I’m in Toronto for a few days and I don’t think it’s on the TV. They have their own election thing happening, bless their hearts. And I need to be asleep. I’ll get up early and see the highlights. Though if Mr. C. F. Pierce was liveblogging it I might have to stay up for that.

  13. 13.

    burnspbesq

    Currently engaged in the true National Pastime: being on hold with the IRS. Fuck the Republicans in Congress who keep cutting the IRS budget.

  14. 14.

    Peale

    My guess is that 1/2 the questions will be “how will you restore our tattered image around the world”

  15. 15.

    Elie

    I dunno — I expect the unexpected. First time these candidates on same stage. Great opportunity to sense who they are and how they play off of each other. Good time to see if Martin O’Malley has any sauce for possible VP use or if the others have anything at all to say. Challenge for Hillary will be to be less stiff or defensive. For Bernie, he cannot come off as “get off my lawn”, gramps– No Scolding, Bernie – he also needs to seem that he is comfortable as a leader… both have to — that is what this interview is for… we are interviewing them for a big job.

  17. 17.

    piratedan

    well the media is going to be pissed because this debate should actually talk about issues and policy unless the questioners go all Tiger Beat on the Potomac on us. I don’t expect Faux to cover it at all until they can edit and parse it into blatant lies out of context for later use in the general.

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    Not smokey at Neighbors Restaurant. Come on down, Pink Snapdragon! Door to beautiful night outside open too. Nice peeps. Food looks good; wine hits the spot.

    262 Cedar Lane
    Vienna VA.

  23. 23.

    burnspbesq

    @Elie:

    It’s brutal because their music-on-hold is some spacey thing at the intersection of New Age and Smooth Jazz, and it recycles every 90 seconds or so. But I have the Mets game on my iPad.

  25. 25.

    Davis X. Machina

    I don’t understand the assumption that this will be a snoozefest-cum-tea party.

    Things will heat up when Mrs. Clinton announces that if elected she’s going to do away with Social Security, and Sen. Sanders will announce that if elected he will seize the commanding heights of the economy in the name of the workers.

  26. 26.

    sparrow

    I’m going to be taking off for Doha just as the debate is getting underway. Bummer — but I booked months ago and didn’t think to check the debate schedule. :( I look forward to the cogent balloon-juice analysis tomorrow morning — er evening –er thursday morning. Whenever I get to India, anyway.

  29. 29.

    JimGod

    @Elie: He can totally be get off my lawn, that’s a big reason people like him. He doesn’t do debate prep or any of that, you’re getting what you’ve been seeing all along on that front.

  30. 30.

    beltane

    @Baud: That’s why Joe Biden isn’t going to be there. We need a backup in the event of a black hole swallowing the other candidates.

  31. 31.

    JimGod

    @sparrow: They don’t have personalized TVs on this flight? That is not the level of fancy I would be accustomed to on a long ass flight to anywhere!!

  32. 32.

    Elie

    @MomSense:

    I wonder who does Trump’s hair? It is definitely colored, so somebody does that. Can’t see him using Lady Clairol, wrapping his head in a plastic bonnet then washing it out in the shower. He could lose close to two inches with a good layered cut and it would take a couple of years of his appearance. Shit, alls he is missing right now is a white belt and checkered bell bottoms to fit right into the 70s. Lord, he could lose about 40 lbs also, but the stress is gonna make that hard right now..

  35. 35.

    JimGod

    Pro tip: CNN International is simulcasting CNN domestic for those of you outside the country or like me is a poor grad student and is using a CNN International stream on the Roku player….

  36. 36.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @JimGod:

    If you have CNN in Toronto, you have the debate. Happy Viewing

    Spoilsport. Canada was my excuse for sitting this one out. It’ll happen whether I watch or not. I’ll catch up tomorrow.
    The one real draw for me is another chance to see Bernie debate. He can be devastating when he gets his back up.

  37. 37.

    Pogonip

    I hope they are asked about the Department of Middle-class Welfare, aka the Department of Defense, and about the near non-existence of real defense.

  38. 38.

    Elie

    @JimGod:

    Ok. Well, I don’t like that, but I am sure it appeals to some. Again, he is going to be the President of the US. Scolding people is not part of that job, for the most part. Yes, he should be strong, confident but not a fuss budget. That will age him ten years.

  40. 40.

    MomSense

    @Elie:

    We will never know because no one wants to take the credit. You never see Trump’s celebrity hair stylist selling product on an infomercial for good reason.

  41. 41.

    Kathleen

    @piratedan: The NPR millennial -near News Bot sneered that the Democratic debate would be “wonky – lots of talk about white papers. Ick” Then she proceeded to make an egregious grammatical error. And I do not hate millennials in the least, but she annoyed the hell out of me, as do 100% of NPR’s political “reporters”.

  45. 45.

    patroclus

    @Elie: They are now in the NLCS against either the Mets or the Dodgers. And if they win that (7-game series), they’ll be in the World Series against the AL champ. Go Cubs Go! Go Cubs Go! Hey Chicago, what do you say? The Cubbies are gonna win today!

  46. 46.

    Steeplejack

    Early consensus here is that drinking game should be (1) any time someone calls Bernie a socialist (or asks him if he is one) and (2) any mention of the word Benghazi. Discussion ground to a halt at that point, because just those two could probably have us blind drunk by halftime.

    ETA: Obnoxious Bernie supporter just added: “Any time Hillary says she supports women.”

  49. 49.

    jl

    cup of grain alcohol every time they work in Biden, with a weak tea chaser.

    Man, they must be desperate to juice this thing.

  50. 50.

    Elie

    @MomSense:

    LOL — no one wants to be part of that, for sure. Maybe he does it himself or his wife.. Maybe one of his bodyguards. Then they tidy up his ear and nose hair afterwards.

  53. 53.

    Elie

    @MomSense:

    Yeah, they ought to pick a color that they can spray on from his head, hair and down his body. One big bronze (?) tone. Easy to maintain too… I wonder if he wears a hair net at night or whether he has ultimate bed head in the morning?

  54. 54.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Just went to CNN page. The headline is Dem candidates in one another’s face for first time.

    Really. “In one another’s face”? It’s probably far from the most annoying CNN locution the evening has in store, but something about the slanginess of that phrase, not to mention the media’s constant gladiatorial narrative of electoral politics, just pisses me off.

  55. 55.

    beltane

    @efgoldman: Last year there was a defunct radio station that played “Beer Barrel Polka” on an endless loop until it was finally taken over by a country music station. The worst part was that my husband would actually listen to the Beer Barrel Polka station on long car rides in an un-ironic way.

  56. 56.

    raven

    @patroclus: God that Johnny-Come-Lately-Song makes me nuts.

    Hey hey! Holy Mackerel!
    No doubt about it,
    The Cubs are on their way. (Hey hey!)
    The Cubs are gonna hit today,
    They’re gonna pitch today,
    They’re gonna field today.
    Come what may the Cubs are gonna win today.
    Hey hey! Holy Mackerel!
    No doubt about it,
    The Cubs are on their way.
    They got the hustle.
    They got the bustle.
    The Chicago Cubs have come to play.
    The Chicago Cubs are on their way.

  66. 66.

    max

    @Kathleen: I’ve been rooting for Not The Cardinals. “Go, whomever, go!”

    It is very important that what’stherenames do not win!

    max
    [‘On-topic!’]

  73. 73.

    Betty Cracker

    @Elie: He claims he does it himself; I heard him say so on some talk show way back. I don’t think he could do a layered cut until he emotionally comes to terms with the bald spot which that elaborate combover hides.

  76. 76.

    srv

    I predict Hillary will be wearing a coral pant suit.

    Drat. Blue mao maternity thingy. She’s going left tonight.

  78. 78.

    Steeplejack

    @srv:

    As a minor cog in the Bush regime, Perino’s appropriate punishment would be to get root canal surgery every week for the rest of her life.

  81. 81.

    patroclus

    @raven: Baseball time is here again! You can catch it all on WGN! So stamp your feet and clap your hands! The Chicago Cubs have the greatest fans! Go Cubs Go! Go Cubs Go! Hey Chicago, what do you say? The Cubbies are gonna win today!

  88. 88.

    raven

    @Steeplejack: Why, that’s real Cub stuff when Wrigley wasn’t full of front running yuppies and Jack Brickhouse was their voice. Oh yea, Pat Pieper with his great “Tention, Tention please, For Da Cubs. . . “!

  89. 89.

    Jeffro

    I am sorry but Sheryl Crow just saying the national anthem before what is supposed to be a serious debate ?!?

  92. 92.

    Mike J

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    The Star Spangled Banner? Sheryl Crow? Why?

    I don’t mind national anthems in international play, but they’re pretty tiresome in league play.

  94. 94.

    Elie

    @Betty Cracker:

    LOL (You and MomSense are just making me laugh).

    Well, there are hair “enhancements” . You are right though. If he unwinds that mess, it might turn out 80% of his head is bare!

    Somehow its symbolic — all of this dyed hair grown exceptionally long and elaborately wound around an essentially bald head and sealed in place with max hold hairspray. All that effort to obscure a reality while faking his followers with false vigor …

  99. 99.

    srv

    Chafee doesn’t even sound like an American.

    @Baud: We can’t have a President who needs to run to the loo every hour. You going to have a problem?

  100. 100.

    Fair Economist

    Well, I was planning on watching, but apparently not. The CNN-Go just plays the intro and stops maybe 30 seconds into Cooper’s bit. Same thing 4 time in a row.

  101. 101.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: Yes. Although my heart is with Baud! 2016.

    Young folks here; probably 40-50 peeps. Sitting with two 20-something guys, one originally from West Virginia. Told them about David Brooks’ column today. Them: who is David Brooks?

    Brandon gets his news from Salon.

    Food’s good, service is friendly, NOT SMOKEY.

  113. 113.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: Gonna find out about Alan next commercial break.

    I wish they’d serve some baklava or something …. tira misu?

  119. 119.

    Elizabelle

    @Omnes Omnibus: That’s a horrible example, kind of.

    We lived in Rhode Island when John Chafee was governor. His young teen daughter died from a horse kick, while she was grooming it.

    Do any of you remember that?

  131. 131.

    Steeplejack

    @efgoldman:

    Hey, numbnuts, aren’t you from Rhode Island? And therefore supposed to know that it’s one-F Chafee!

    ETA: My apologies. Rechanneling anger from the Berniac. I don’t have a problem with the Bernie love, but she’s one of those “I will never vote for Hillary ever!” people. I’m about to go all “Well, good luck with whichever Republican idiot we get in 2017!” on her.

  134. 134.

    Elizabelle

    @beltane: I’m pretty sure about it, but I couldn’t find it in John Chafee’s bioi. But we did live there, and it was especially awful because I was so young too.

    Gin and Tonic or EFGoldm… you remember that?

  136. 136.

    Emerald

    Already seeing a major difference between Hillary and Bernie. Bernie coming across as angry, negative. Hillary looks positive.

    My immediate first impression, anyway.

  137. 137.

    Elizabelle

    Anderson looks kind of smart Brit with his glasses.

    Vibe is so diff on this one from the clown car.

  139. 139.

    Zinsky

    Is anyone more qualified than Hillary Clinton to be President of the United States? I mean, really? Who would it be?

  140. 140.

    Elizabelle

    Don’t put on the gloves, Anderson.

    But a good question, and I don’t mind if minds change with circumstances. Ask Kasich if he’s down with everything Goldman or Lehman did?

    But tough questions.

  142. 142.

    Elie

    To me Bernie came off harsh and scolding. Jeremiah. Scolding.

    Hillary was great — her seasoning and experience so far shines

    Martin O’Malley has an unfortunate voice

    Webb came across pretty confident and chuckled at himself for muffing his kids names (lots of names)

    Lincoln Chaffee – solid but boring…

  143. 143.

    Emerald

    @magurakurin: Most of Bernies seriously “berning” supporters hate Obama, so that would explain it.

    Not a good strategy for winning the Democratic primary, or the general election, imho.

  144. 144.

    Elie

    Bernie, it can’t be all bad, man. You have to say something positive. You are following a democratic administration — the first black President. Nothing to say?

  147. 147.

    Emerald

    I’m thinking that Biden was waiting for this debate to see how Hillary does. Sure, he wants to be president, but I think he wants far more for a Democrat to win.

    If she keeps up this performance throughout the debate, I’m gonna bet that Biden doesn’t get in.

    Pure emotional speculation on my part.

  152. 152.

    Zinsky

    Anderson isn’t asking the debaters questions, he is verbally assaulting them. This is such. a. farce.

  154. 154.

    max

    @efgoldman: Tragic Landfill
    Tragic Dump Truck
    Tragic Pixels
    Tragic Camera
    Tragic Microphone
    Tragic Ship’s Wheel
    Tragic Lounge Chair

    Tragic Metafarce.

    max
    [‘Trump is HERE! Go Team Tragic Metafarce!’]

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