Election 2016

Debate Hot Takes Part Trois

Take it with a grain assault* because I’m a fan, but I think Warren won by a mile. She curb-stomped Bloomberg, especially on the NDA issue, ably providing a preview of what it would be like to watch her punt Trump into the sun (if Warren’s the nominee and the cowardly bully agrees to debate her).

Warren stood up for Klobuchar, making Buttigieg’s attack on Amy look small, then landed a zinger of her own on both of them. She elbowed everyone at one point or another, even dinging Sanders for the hand-waving about his M4A plan, his team’s attacks on anyone who has the temerity to ask for more specificity and subsequent shrugging off of Bernie’s version as a starting point.

That won’t be enough to satisfy Warren’s critics on that score. Nothing will be. Ever. But maybe she knows what she’s doing? We’ll see.

Poor Klobuchar. Things went badly for her all night, but it could have been worse. Klobuchar’s performance was like one of those days when your car won’t start and your phone bricks and you’re digging through your purse but can’t locate your card at the grocery store while a long, angry line of people grumbles behind you in the checkout line. But Bloomberg’s night was like when your Learjet crashes into a nuclear reactor, causing a meltdown that overheats the earth’s molten core and triggers the simultaneous eruption of a thousand volcanoes.

I’ve got to think Bloomberg’s terrible performance will deflate his poll numbers considerably because his rise was 100% an ad buy-fueled fear reaction. Last night he was disastrously revealed as NOT the safe Daddy Warbucks he told us he was. Perhaps Klobuchar’s sub-par performance will slow her momentum too, though her numbers weren’t great in upcoming states anyway. Where will those voters go?

Lots of pundits say Biden did well – a breakout performance even, according to some. I didn’t see it. It’s like several weeks ago, desperately casting about for a way to reinvigorate a lackadaisical campaign, some genius told Biden to emulate Sanders and yell a lot because voters read shouting as conviction. Yelling seems to work for Sanders, and maybe it works for Biden too, judging by the positive reviews.

But I just see two old men shouting on my TV. If I wanted to hear codgers declaim in outraged tones all evening, I’d drive over to The Villages Denny’s and Sharpie a “1” in front of every price on the early bird special menu insert.

I thought Buttigieg had a good moment when he took on Sanders over the Bernie Bro thing, linking the snowballing problem to leadership at the top. But he (and all of them) missed an opportunity to underscore that it’s not just the internet randos: Sanders hires toxic people.

Just yesterday, Sanders’ godawful press flack falsely claimed Bloomberg had a heart attack, then made a breathtakingly dumb comparison between the press clamor for detailed medical records from Sanders and birthers hounding Obama for his birth certificate. If the latter was mentioned at all, I missed it. But the by-turns venomous and amateurish nature of Sanders’ team and surrogate crew are a legit issue.

I feel like I’m forgetting someone. Oh well. If so, that’s a take in its own right. Open thread.

*Years ago, someone wrote “grain assault” when she meant “grain of salt” on a message board I used to read, and I’ve been trying to popularize the malapropism ever since. Sorry.