The candidates all raising their hands when asked if they would provide health care for illegal aliens. NBC News.
As you may know, I watched the Democrats debate last night and I have a lot to say. I had watched the 1st part of the debate and if anything this debate was even worse in quality than the last one. It was an absolute mess and even in terms of behavior it was worse. The only thing that was better was the fact that the NBC crew had fewer technical issues.
The absolute worst moment was when every candidate on stage said they would give illegal aliens free health care. There wasn't one person on the stage that would say that the idea was crazy. Nobody said how expensive it would be. And nobody said how it would create incentives for every sick person across the globe to enter the country illegally. Everyone just raised their hands.
The rest of the night wasn't much better. There was very little talk about how these candidates would help Americans but there was a lot about how the Democrats would help illegal aliens, ban firearms and generally go after Republicans including President Trump.
As far as peformance goes I have a lot to say. The biggest news is how terrible Joe Biden did. He was on the defensive all night and didn't have good answers for the attacks launched at him. Even Eric "nuke them" Swalwell was able to get his goat by saying that the Democratic Party needs to pass the torch to younger people.
But it was Kamala Harris that blew Biden away. She essentially called him a racist and a friend of segregationists. I'm not fan of Joe Biden but even I admit that argument is pretty stupid. Why would Barack Obama, the first black president, have an anti-black racist as his VP? However, instead of pointing that out, Biden totally fumbled the question and couldn't fight back. It put him on the defensive and hurt him in the polling already.
Other than that exchange which I have to admit was effective, Kamala Harris wasn't very impressive. She only seems to have one tactic, tell some heartstring pulling story or hypothetical and then get super outraged about something that probably didn't even happen. She also played the race card several times which will probably play well in the Democratic Primaries but will destroy any chance she has of being elected.
Bernie Sanders didn't have a great night either. In the last debates he stood out because his platform was new and exciting. But now the Democrats have basically stole the economic parts of it and he doesn't really stand out anymore. The fact that he is extremely loud and belligerent didn't help things.
To his eternal shame Sanders also surrendered to the anti-gun extremist Eric Swalwell. Swalwell, famous for saying he would nuke gun owners if they tried to resist a gun confiscation scheme on Twitter, backed Sanders into a corner and forced him to agree that he would support a gun "buyback" confiscation scheme. I have said from the start that Swalwell's main goal appeared to be to push the Democrats left on the issue and it looks like he succeeded.
The most annoying person was Kristen Gillibrand by far. Her policy wasn't that different than anyone else but she was the most shrill person there. Worst of all, she never shut up, constantly interrupting people. It was hugely annoying and made me think she was a joke.
The only person I thought had a good night was Peter Buttgieg. I hated his policy but his behavior was a lot better than everyone else. He didn't interrupt people and he spoke well. He got attacked hard for the police shooting in his town but I think he handled the question a lot better than the other candidates when they got attacked.
A lot of eyes were on Andrew Yang. Yang and his universal basic income scheme has made waves for months now and even gained a probably astro-turfed following on 4chan's /pol/ board. Yang, however, spoke hardly at all and did very little with the words he was allowed. He even botched his 1st question, a gimme about his UBI plan and he totally botched it. I don't see him surviving to the next debate
The most surprising person was Marianne Williamson. How she got on that stage is anyone's guess but she made the most of it by saying just crazy things. Hilariously New York Magazine has a quiz that has her quotes matched up with Metal Gear Solid ones and it's crazy how much she sounds like she's from a Kojima game (I got 10 out 15). Some of her whoppers from last night included saying the first thing she would do after being inaugurated would be to call the Prime Minster of New Zealand and saying she would harness love for political purposes. She's nuts but I hope she sticks around just for the meme value.
I wasn't sure how to react to the debates to be perfectly honest. On the one hand I was horrified at the possibility of one of the twenty candidates winning the presidency. The only point I agreed with for the entire two nights was Elizabeth Warren breaking up the big tech companies. The rest of it was all stuff I disagreed with. This is such a huge departure from 2016 when even candidates I hated, like Hillary Clinton, occasionally said something I agreed with. Not so now. If any of these candidates are elected this country will head to very dark place.
On the other hand, these candidates were so over the top awful that I can't honestly see any of them beating Donald Trump. That was always going to be a longshot in the first place as Trump has the economy working for him and the natural advantage of incumbency. But these people? They have nothing to offer normal Americans who they desperately need to try and defeat President Trump.
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