https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/dnc-names-20-candidates-who-will-appear-stage-first-democratic-n1017316
The DNC revealed the 20 candidates that will participate in the first debates.

Well O'Rourke has utterly collapsed in the polls, and good riddance, he's just a younger, less creepy, and more charismatic Biden. That might be a little harsh as he doesn't have quite the conservative history of Biden, but in terms of where each stands now, it's pretty fair. Buttigieg certainly maintains his strength in the Iowa polls, but he was pretty huge in national polls too until recently when he's begun to fade. I suspect Iowa will follow, they're just taking more of an early look, as they're known to do. I do agree with you that Iowa does a lot to shape the conversation in the primaries, but they're not everything. California will play an outsized roll this time, as they're much earlier this time around and of course have tons of delegates. Speaking of which, here's an interesting poll I just found:https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/13/warren-california-poll-2020-election-1363619 Warren is just barely ahead of Sanders and well ahead of Harris! If Harris gets 4th in her own state, I guarantee you she'll drop out. I'd love that, as she does attract a fair amount of progressive attention, however warranted it is, and her dropping out early would go a long way to coalesce the progressive vote into a stronger candidate to defeat Biden. If Biden doesn't get first, it'll do a lot to shake up the narrative of him as a front runner if he loses a big state like California that early. Of course, if we're lucky, he'll be exposed for the pathetic candidate he is and faded away long before California.

Warren has always been like that, surprised you didn't notice it sooner than this presidential race. That said, even I as a long time fan of hers was blown away by the rapid fire rolling out of detailed, awesome plans. She's super smart and capable, and she's clearly not going down without a fight. She doesn't rate as high against Trump as some candidates, but I know I and just about any progressive I know would be excited to fight for her, so she wouldn't have Hillary's energy problem where people were maybe willing to vote for her but not knock on doors.

Kirsten isn't very high on my list, but she's climbed a lot as I've gotten to know her a bit. On paper she's a good candidate, and she's used some pretty strong words to distance herself from things I don't like about her past. I wish she'd take more public stands on things.

This article makes it seem like only the first debate is decided. The other four may try to qualify for the second debate before the qualifying conditions get tougher for the third.

No, I understand that, but aren't there two debate nights in June (26/27) referred to as the "1st debate" and two debate nights in July (30/31) referred to as the "2nd debate"?

My point is that the article sounds like the June 26/27 debate is set in stone, but doesn't seem to refer to the July 30/31 debate, which one would presume would come with an extra month to qualify for. The remaining 4 candidates might hang on to try to qualify for that one before dropping out.

Night 1 and night 2 debate participants revealed. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/us/politics/democratic-debates-2020.html
Night One: June 26
Cory Booker, senator from New Jersey

Julián Castro, former housing secretary

Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York

John Delaney, former representative from Maryland

Tulsi Gabbard, representative from Hawaii

Jay Inslee, governor of Washington

Amy Klobuchar, senator from Minnesota

Beto O’Rourke, former representative from Texas

Tim Ryan, representative from Ohio

Elizabeth Warren, senator from Massachusetts

Night Two: June 27
Michael Bennet, senator from Colorado

Joseph R. Biden Jr., former vice president

Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Ind.

Kirsten Gillibrand, senator from New York

Kamala Harris, senator from California

John Hickenlooper, former governor of Colorado

Bernie Sanders, senator from Vermont

Eric Swalwell, representative from California

Marianne Williamson, self-help author

Andrew Yang, former tech executive
Night 2 is the night to watch imo. Pretty stacked with big names.

Huh. That is a lopsided distribution of names. Night one only has Warren from the better polling persons. Night two has Biden, Sanders, Harris and Buttigieg.

I wish americans give a chance to a libertarian, anti-war, pro small government candidate. This bi-partisan concoction of warmongers in DC for decades just made the US debt soar to the current 22+ trillion dollars, anual deficts of 1 billion+ a year.

But as it will never happen, I pray that in next presidential election a crazy MMTer democrat wins(MMT is very popular among dems today). It will sure be the end of the dollar as reserve currency, with hyperinflated dollars, US will no longer be able to sustain its hundreds of overseas military bases, and will have to finally live by their means.

Beto is in night one with Warren.

I don't see Beto as a strong polling candidate anymore. RCP has him currently at 3.5%, Harris nearly doubles that.

Gabbard is in night one.