Quick reaction to the latest Democrat Debate

The night's big loser, Michael Bloomberg. Public domain via Wikipedia. 

As you may know the Democratic Debate was last night in Las Vegas and you also may know that I watched the whole thing. I haven't been writing reactions to these debates as they have both been fairly boring and not all that interesting to write about other than via twitter. But I think last night was way different and given the major effect on the race it could have I think it's worth a post. 

Unlike past debates, where the candidates mostly focused on their plans and focused on policy, this debate was essentially personal attack after personal attack. I don't think any of the candidates came out unscathed and a couple of times I thought it might even come to blows. It really was that crazy.

Michael Bloomberg is probably done. He was totally unprepared for this debate and came under withering attack on his racial problems, such as stop and frisk and redlining, his wealth and how he used to be a Republican. He didn't even have a very good excuse for not releasing his taxes, which is something the Democrats have been demanding from Donald Trump for years now. Everyone hit him very hard on these issues and there wasn't a candidate on stage last night that didn't attack him. 

But it was Elizabeth Warren's attack on him that landed the most damage. She pointed out that Bloomberg had several non-disclosure agreements regarding sexual harassment and called on him to release those people from those agreements so they could say their side of it. Bloomberg was pretty speechless at this point and had no real answer for her, saying that the agreements were entered into "consensually" and that some women might have had problems with his "jokes". 

This should have been an easy question to handle for Bloomberg as he knew or should have known that it was coming but he couldn't figure out what to say. At best he's looking like he has something to hide and I am sure that his history will now be looked into further. At worst he looks like a sexual harasser or even worse. I mean, Bloomberg is a nasty guy who has a long history of saying stupid things that get him into trouble but he should have been able to either brush this off, call Warren's bluff or attack her back on one of her many issues. He wasn't able to so not only did Warren's attacks land, he also looked weak. And remember, this is the party of #metoo, and they aren't going to be happy with a possible abuser as a candidate. 

I think it goes to show that you might be able to buy your way onto a debate stage but you can't buy yourself the skill and knowledge to actually know how to debate. The other candidates wiped the floor with him, Warren's attacks were far from the only ones that landed, which is shocking for someone who had a major career in politics. 

But it's important to note that the other candidates had a bad night as well. Amy Klobucher and Pete Buttgieg pretty much destroyed each other with Buttgieg making Klobucher look stupid while at the same time looking like a bully for attacking her on not being able to remember the President of Mexico's name. Neither of them did well and it might have been enough to knock Klobucher out of the race. 

Bernie Sanders too did not do that great. Though he won most of his fights, he still came off like someone who had something to hide with him refusing to release his health records, which is extremely relevant for a 78 year old man who recently had a heart attack. 

Most of all though, in Bloomberg's only good moment, he called out Sanders in a way that nobody outside of President Trump has been able to do. Bloomberg called Sanders a communist to his face and I think the attack landed. The far left audience in Las Vegas, who even protested Joe Biden, didn't like it but Independents and Republicans agree that socialism isn't the answer and isn't all that different than communism. Sanders tried to play it off but I think Pete Buttgieg had a point when he said that Democrats might not be thrilled to have to pick between the far left Sanders and the extreme center left, maybe even right, Bloomberg. 

Joe Biden was at the debate too and though he was more feisty than usual it was still the same ol' Joe Biden. Though he didn't call anyone a dog faced pony solider, he was his usual rambling and incoherent self only this time he was yelling. His only saving grace was that with everyone picking on each other, fewer attacks were launched his way.

The media is generally crowning Warren the winner of the debate but I don't know if she comes out looking so good here either. Though Warren was very effective in hitting her opponents, to the point she may have landed a kill shot on Bloomberg, she did come off as unlikable, which is always her biggest flaw. She did have a more human moment where she defended Amy Klobucher from Pete Buttgieg's rather silly attack on her forgetting the President of Mexcio's name (I actually give her a lot of credit here because she said exactly what I was thinking), but otherwise she came off as shrill and irritating. Still, nobody touched her all night and she certainly harmed Bloomberg so if there is a winner of this debate not named Donald Trump, it's probably her. 

The most revealing question was the one at the end where the candidate were asked if a candidate who won a plurality of delegates, but not a majority, should automatically win the candidacy. Sanders, who will likely win the plurality but not the majority said that they should while the rest of the candidates said that the process should be followed. 

That process involves a 2nd round of voting where the much hated super-delegates will vote, likely robbing Bernie Sanders of a 2nd nomination. One of the other candidates will likely be the benefactor there and if that happens the Milwaukee convention should be a disaster of epic proportions. I'm kind of upset that any unrest and violence that could result from this will happen in my home state but it really looks like there will be a contested convention this time around...