The Debate 1/14/20

I can't sit still when the debates are on...the media types drive me nuts and the candidates never have enough time to answer the questions. So I was happy to find in my in-box the following from a close friend who managed to sit through the whole thing plus the commentariat.

[Friend]: watched the debate, watched all the post-debate CNN coverage until 1:30 a.m., read most of the stuff in WaPo today and NYT -- and, my God, are observers all over the place! 

My crucial issue, like most people's, is "electibility," who can beat Trump, as Bernie says "the most dangerous president in our history."  I think a lot of the commentators are subordinating that to who can win in Iowa, even though the evidence indicates that who can beat Trump is exactly what's on the minds of Iowa Democrats as well.  I have become a big Klobuchar fan.  I think she could beat Trump and also be a good president. Several post-debate commentators thought K did poorly last night.  I don't see it at all, but I've lost a lot of my confidence about judging these things. 

Since becoming a daily reader of the WaPo online, especially the Opinion pieces, I have also become a fan of Rubin and share her negative views of Warren and Sanders. But I can't share her evaluation of Biden.  He was okay and had a few good moments and certainly overshadows the others on foreign policy, as she stresses.  But he continues to be less than articulate and forceful.  He stumbles on phrases and corrects himself, quickly enough I grant -- and maybe this is all due not to age but to his early history of stuttering, as some people have suggested -- but it doesn't make for a good adversary to Trump.  There's still some fudging about his Iraq war stances (see WaPo Fact-Checker), which Bernie keeps harping on; but Pete B (and also Karen Tumulty) is right, the international issues have changed, and I would certainly prefer Biden or Mayor Pete or Sen. K to handle issues like cyber warfare, China, nuclear proliferation and destabilizing weaponry, and climate change over Sanders and Warren.  However, the first order of business is how a nominee can successfully confront President Bluster and Bullshit about all these matters.  I also disagree with Rubin, or half disagree with her, about Steyer.  Yes, billionaires shouldn't be able to buy a place on the debate stage (what about Bloomberg?); but he was actually pretty convincing about his own bona fides and his ability to take on the Trump on the president's one success, the economy.

At the moment, I'm feeling the best we can do is Biden with Klobuchar as VP.  But a lot of pundits are still looking at Warren, maybe with Cory Booker.  If I were an Iowan, I'd caucus for Klobuchar and, if necessary, move over to Biden.

One odd thing: Although the pundits were occupationally disappointed in the lack of fireworks, except for the Sanders-Warren flap (and the related question of Abbey Phillips's professionalism), and similarly disappointed in the failure of the debate to "change the numbers" or "move the dial," I actually thought it was a good show for Democrats in general.  Everyone's rhetoric has improved, and we shouldn't sneeze at two hours of sharp eloquence mainly not directed at one another but at the failures of Trump and the GOP and the state of the nation.