The "dark psychic forces" are sweeping the nation and tearing it apart. (That's right, I'm back! Anyway...)
I have to agree with those who've been saying that this was a better debate overall than either one that was hosted by MSNBC. I'm also glad that, despite this being hyped by CNN as a great battle between the two main progressive candidates, Warren and Sanders, neither of them took the bait and went after each other. Instead, this was functionally a debate between the two of them (and Marianne Williamson actually) on the one side and a bunch of forgettable wannabe-Bidens on the other who uniformly came off as phony on the other, and the progressives won the day. Easily. It was a landslide.
As people here may suspect, I was personally the most impressed with Elizabeth Warren. There was little to substantively differentiate her from Bernie Sanders in terms of policy positions, but I feel that she does a slightly better job of articulating policy details, while Bernie is more about general inspiration and to which end is just a tad more rhetorical and less specific about the details sometimes. They both did excellent though.
Marianne Williamson was the surprise of the evening (or actually night by the time it was finally over, jeez). I think she managed to rebound from the general aura of having no clue what the hell she was talking about in the last debate. She might, MIGHT even wind up qualifying for the September debate as a result of her performance last night, maybe. Maybe. But I thought she helped herself by clearly tying herself to the progressives on the stage and questioning exactly why the rest of them are Democrats (which is exactly how I often feel about the neoliberals, personally). But I thought she did the best when she raised the point that Flint, Michigan is actually just one community that lives with a poisoned water supply and that there are, in fact, lots and lots of communities with poisoned water supplies scattered all across the nation, despite the fact that Flint is the only one that makes the news. It was an excellent point! I have an aunt and cousin who currently live in one such community as a matter of fact, here in Texas, and, like she suggested, it's a predominantly non-white community (majority-Latino). The fact that issues like this are widespread is something I don't think many (particularly more middle class) Americans are aware of and I'm really glad she made that clear.
Anyway, tonight's debate will certainly be interesting as, in view of how Kamala Harris's now-famous takedown of Biden on the question of busing proved the biggest ratings-grabbing moment of the last debate round, just by pure coincidence ( 
) it happens that all five of the candidates of color have been scheduled to debate Biden this time around, and furthermore have all been just accidentally located as close to him as possible on the stage for emphasis. I love how coincidental accidents like these just keep happening!
The candidates I'll be rooting for tonight will be Kirsten Gillibrand (please do well and break out!) and I suppose Kamala Harris. If the sense of authenticity that Biden conveys has been his strength that others in his lane of the party (the neoliberals) lack, then I think it's Harris who can give him the best run for his money in that same regard, as she did come off as quite passionate often in the last debate. She's also the only of the neoliberal candidates who is left enough for real consideration on my part anyway. Gillibrand, meanwhile, will be the lone true progressive on the stage, which I think might help her stand out more than having to compete for the limelight with Bernie Sanders did in the last debate round. Although I suspect she'll have to fight for air time.
Last edited by Jaicee - on 31 July 2019
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