Watchin’ done and then some. Readin’ up done too.
The most hope-inducing thing I heard all night was on the Young Turks post-game show. The Cenk man pointed out that Biden had taken a beating tonight, from Harris and others, and that he was looking bruised. All well and good, but … Warren and Sanders are sitting there in second and third in the polls. Which is really good. So yay.
Here are my rough rankings for all 20 and then some.
Laugh all you want, you cynical bastards. I KNOW she has no chance in hell. I know she’s tainted with new-age and that most people think that rhymes with sewage.
But her talking points are all in the right place. Plus she used her closing statement to school Donny Tinyhands on the Politics of Love, and how it shall triumph over fear. I know that this is magical thinking, a statement about how the world should work, instead of how it does work. And even so, in a perfect world or even a good one, I’d vote for her in preference to anything else on offer.
Honorable mention to Mike Gravel, who didn’t make the debate cut and seems to be just in the race at all to have an anti-war voice.
2) Sanders
3) Warren
Group Two
Castro, Buttigieg, Inslee, Gabbard, and oh what the hell, Yang, sorta.
Group Three
Gillibrand, Harris, DeBlasio, Booker
By this point we’re getting to mainstream Obama-style Dems that might or might not get serious about actual structural change. Harris, in particular, will probably be the pick of the Party Machine if Biden implodes. This probably explains her strong and effective attacks on him during tonight’s event.
Just Say No
Swalwell
Hickenlooper
Bennet
Klobuchar
Ryan
Delaney
The Beto
The Biden
All more or less fatally flawed, many in the pocket of Big Energy and on the record as against the Green New Deal, etc.
Non-debaters
Moulton
Sestak
Bullock
Messam
… and even Justin Amash, the best of the Repubs, who is said to be considering running as a Libertarian.
Alright then. Mission accomplished, and comments open.