who had a good night: Booker, Klobuchar, Yang, Harris, Mayor Pete
who had an OK night: Bernie, Warren
who had a bad night: Biden, Gabbard, Steyer
Overall this was one of the better debates. Very little embarrassing moments or desperate attempts at zingers. I appreciated moments like Harris declining the opportunity to hit Pete for the stock photo scandal. Overall the quality of debate seemed higher and they also didn’t get too bogged down in back and forths on issues like healthcare that we’ve seen in past debates. It’s a testament to the debate moderation, candidate behavior, and much of the riff raff being removed from the stage.
One interesting thing I noticed is that there seems to be a mutual respect developing between the serious candidates, and likewise a mutual aspect of annoyance toward candidates like Steyer and Gabbard who are wasting everyone’s time. Yang to a slightly less extent. The candidates also seemed less afraid to go after Gabbard, which is great. She’s become an increasingly less appealing candidate in recent weeks, at this point an even worse choice than Biden IMO. Harris and Mayor Pete both thrashed her pretty badly. Let’s all hope this is the last we hear from Tulsi.
Mayor Pete was one to watch this time. He’s had some really good polls and shows echos of the Obama campaign. Will be interesting to see where he goes from here, he had a good night.