Democratic debate 2019: Winners, losers and who needs to drop out: Today's talker
Ten Democratic presidential candidates took the stage in Detroit on Tuesday for the first night in the second set of primary debates. The candidates included Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Gov. Steve Bullock, former Rep. John Delaney, former Gov. John Hickenlooper, Rep. Tim Ryan and author Marianne Williamson. Another 10 candidates will debate Wednesday night.
Round two, night one: Ding-ding-ding!
By Brian Dickerson, Nancy Kaffer and Kim Trent
Tuesday's debate in single headline:
NANCY: "Eh."
KIM: "Moderates take aim at progressives’ big ideas"
BRIAN: "Moderates take on 'Medicare for all' front-runners"
Candidate who did most to help him/herself with Michigan voters (and how):
NANCY: Candidates willing to engage with questions about racial injustice — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke. Turning out voters in majority African-American, majority Democratic Detroit will be key to winning Michigan.
KIM: Rep. Tim Ryan had the most specific plans to address the loss of manufacturing jobs with progressive ideas like building a green economy infrastructure.
BRIAN: Buttigieg could win a Michigan gubernatorial race with the presidential platform he's articulated.
Authenticity is key for Dems: Democrats don't need the perfect candidate, just an authentic one: Today's talker
Most improved, compared with round one in Miami (and why):
NANCY: Former Rep. John Delaney. He got to talk! And he articulated the misgivings a lot of folks have about how "Medicare for All" — even people who believe health care is a human right — would be implemented, and how private insurance could or would be made illegal. I don't know that it gives him a serious shot, but I think it extends his candidacy.
KIM: Delaney broke through with pithy statements like warning against Dems becoming the party of subtraction on health care. He did the best job of framing skepticism about Warren and Sanders’ big ideas.
BRIAN: I'm a third for Delaney.
Best response of evening:
NANCY: It's a toss up: "I wrote the damn bill!" — Sen. Bernie Sanders, in response to a critique of the particulars of Medicare for All, or Warren to Delaney: "I don’t understand why anybody goes to the trouble of running for president of the United States just to say all the things we can’t do and shouldn’t fight for."
KIM: Warren's, same quote.
BRIAN: Buttigieg on Republicans: "It's time to stop worrying about what the Republicans will say. It's true that if we embrace a far left agenda, they're going to say we're a bunch of crazy socialists. If we embrace a conservative agenda, you know what they're going to do? They're going to say we're a bunch of crazy socialists. Let's stand up for the right policy, go up there and defend it."
Weirdest moment:
NANCY: Listening to Marianne Williamson is like listening to Bernadette Peters.
KIM: The vocal track was off by about a second in the last half of the debate. I felt like I was watching a spaghetti western.
BRIAN: Sanders doing a caricature of Bernie in response to former Gov. John Hickenlooper's caricature of Bernie waving his arms.
Let midterms guide presidential election: Democrats had a winning 2018 playbook. They should use it to beat Donald Trump in 2020.
Who should drop out Wednesday morning (and why)?
NANCY: Hickenlooper. He should run for the U.S. Senate. Probably O'Rourke, ditto.
KIM: Sanders, although I know he won't. I just don't think he's connecting.
BRIAN: Hickenlooper, O'Rourke, Ryan. Others are representing their constituencies more effectively.
Which five candidates should go on to the next round?
NANCY: Warren, Buttigieg, Delaney ... do I have to pick five? Those three most thoughtfully articulated policy perspectives, and engaged in something like a real debate.
KIM: Buttigieg is earnest and smart. A great counterpoint to Trump’s impulsiveness. Bullock, too. I’d like to hear more from a self-described progressive who has won in red country. Warren has the best articulated and most specific progressive plans. Ryan has the most specific plans to boost manufacturing. O’Rourke supports bold ideas like reparations.
BRIAN: Warren, Sanders, Buttigieg, because they've earned it. Klobuchar, because her record and experience deserve a more serious format. Williamson, because she makes it more interesting.
Brian Dickerson is editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press. Follow him on Twitter @BRIANDDICKERSON. Nancy Kaffer is a Detroit Free Press columnist. Follow her on Twitter @nancykaffer. Kim Trent was elected to an eight-year term on the Wayne State University Board of Governors in 2012. She previously served as the director of former Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm's southeast Michigan office. Follow her on Twitter @KimTrentDetroit. This column originally appeared in the Detroit Free Press.
What others are saying
Van Jones, CNN: “I am proud because this was a clean fight. There were no stunts. There were no cheap shots. Nobody came in there with something they were going just to get attention for themselves. There was a clean fight between people with different points of view. That’s good for the country; that’s good for the party. Bernie Sanders reestablished himself as trying to lead the revolution, Elizabeth Warren is trying to lead the country. She is trying to be president of the United States. … I thought that Pete (Buttigieg) did very well. ... But he still is not yet connecting on the race questions, and that is going to continue to dog him until he figures that out."
E.J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post: "In the end, it was a substantive discussion, very unlike anything (President Donald) Trump would engage in. But it was also an evening during which Democrats watching in their living rooms confronted the possibility that the long fight between now and next summer could be irritable, difficult and fractious."
Scott Jennings, USA TODAY: "Some Democrats have begun explicitly saying that anyone who votes for Trump is racist, most notably former Clinton White House press secretary Joe Lockhart. (Sen. Amy) Klobuchar wisely said that not all Trump voters are racist. If Democrats follow Lockhart’s plan ('Don’t hide it like a coward. Wear that racist badge proudly and see how it feels,' he tweeted), they are going to have a devil of a time recovering white working-class voters in the upper Midwest who abandoned the Democratic Party in 2016. Warren probably won on the economy, but honestly nobody stood out to me."
Douglas E. Schoen, Fox News: "While Buttigieg’s performance was strong and his call for unity was meaningful, the civil war within the Democratic Party — the center-left and moderate candidates versus the progressive, far-left candidates — rages on. It continues to damage the party’s chances of beating Trump in 2020. We can expect that this divide will only become more apparent in Wednesday night’s debate, during what will surely be a contentious battle between Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey going after front-runner (Joe) Biden."
What our readers are saying
Williamson is regurgitating lines fed to her without an ounce of credibility or policy behind them in her Madeline Kahn voice from "Blazing Saddles" and Hickenlooper is so forgettable you can't even picture him now that I mentioned his name.
— Daniel Farr
Democrats often say health care is a right because it sounds better. It's about talking points, not actual policy. No way the Democrats are prepared for the backlash of everyone losing their private insurance.
— Andrew Leonard
I don’t know how anyone can support any current candidate running from either side.
— Raymond Smith
You can’t educate your way to winning national, congressional, state or local offices. You have to convince voters where they are, not where you would like them to be.
— Dannie Leroy Porath
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 2019 Democratic debate: Winners and losers in Detroit: Today's Talker
