The Democratic Debate

The most recent Democratic debate had the participants down to seven, and it was the best one yet.

There were several memorable exchanges.  Elizabeth Warren chastised Pete Buttigieg was holding a fund-raiser in a "wine cave", which promptly became the most looked-up term on the Internet.  But Mayor Pete had a great response, saying "This is the problem with issuing purity tests which you yourself cannot pass."  The audience gasped in appreciation (he and Amy Klobuchar got the most positive audience responses at this debate).  Pete went on to point out that Warren herself had used traditional fund-raising techniques for her Senate race, and then transferred her huge stockpile of funds over to her presidential campaign.  He rightly asserted that fund-raising is a necessary part of running for president, and a candidate should not turn away supporters based on any artificial purity test.  Point here to Mayor Pete.

Another memorable exchange was when Pete criticized Klobuchar for relying on committee meetings instead of real-life experience. Amy shot back, when she got the chance, with an articulate defense of her work in committees, dealing with the problems of U.S. citizens. Point to Amy.

Klobuchar's performance was the highlight of the debate, as she has consistently performed well, stressing her accomplishments and her constituency of an area many semi-contemptuously refer to as "flyover country." She looks better and better to me with each debate. She would be the type of calming influence needed after the turmoil of the Trump years, just as Ford was after the Nixon scandals.

In many debates it seems the candidates fail to actually answer the questions, instead using the opportunity to spout their basic talking points. In this one, however, there were three questions which I felt were so stupid and inane that the only sensible response was to not take it literally.  The first such question was one which asked "why do you think more people are not in favor of impeachment?".  This question is bogus on several levels.  First, it calls for mere speculation on the part of the person answering. Second, it assumes there is one reason why sixty million or so people oppose impeachment, which is absurd.

Another question asked whether the candidate would favor federal funding for wholesale relocation of cities impacted by climate change.  This assumes we don't solve the problem first; it looks way ahead to a different time period, totally irrelevant to the issues facing us in 2020.

The last question was particularly inane. It asked "who on the stage do you want to ask for forgiveness, or give something to?".  Huh?? What kind of ridiculous question is this?  There is absolutely no point to this question, no news value here.