It is journalistic malpractice to not have any questions or discussion about climate change, or immigration for that matter. Disgraceful!

Yang is proposing an unprecedented rich-to-poor wealth transfer. I opposed UBI when I first heard about it. Yang has convinced me that it is worth trying and now it astonishes me to listen to my fellow progressives trash UBI by defending the punitive, grossly inadequate welfare systems that we inherited from the 1800s. Some people oppose UBI because they personally don't need a $1,000/month. That argument misses the transformative potential of UBI. Yang's UBI would effectively empower everyone to decide where our tax revenues will go. Appalled that Flint still doesn't have clean water? Pool your $1000 with your friends and invest in Flint directly. Do it again the next month, and the month after that until Flint has clean water. Then tackle the next issue. We all know there is a ton of work to be done in every city and county in the U.S. UBI would secure us the funds we need to do the work.

Yang caught my eye back in September - right after I started to pay attention to the candidates and was feeling somewhat saddened that I was committing to "voting blue no matter who" while watching this pool of candidates I was not very excited about. As with many eventual Yang supporters, I went down the Yang rabbit hole of posted interviews (YouTube; we didn't need to rely on traditional media outlets to get to know him) He crystallized something for me -- I want someone who is a smart, systems-level thinker. Someone who sees the interconnectedness of the many things that are treated as independent, siloed problems and in turn funded and managed as such (when in fact they are not independent). I want someone who is truly compassionate, grounded, data-informed, and humble. Someone who appears to have good judgment, is open, and respects others - esp those who may think differently, have different value priorities. I want someone I trust. These are qualities that are not gained from government experience. Possibly, government experience undercuts these qualities for many individuals over time. And he would beat Trump and carry through the ultimate intent of the "vote blue no matter who" mantra. Data suggest most eventual voters remain undecided; most who cite a #1 candidate are not fully committed to that #1 at this time. Many "disaffected voters" are being activated by him. He's grabbing the attention of younger voters who typically don't show up.

I work in education public policy at the Chilean Ministry of Education. The interviewers' suggestion that we should fund education rather than UBI is naive or disingenuous, symptomatic of why we need more proposals like UBI. You can't just instantly improve education through one gigantic program. There's no "fix education" button just waiting for a budget. Educational inequality is often not due to funding - there are loads of Title I funds going to waste on bureaucracy and projects with unclear impact. Even if you're successful, any effect will take decades to spread. At best, you could launch something like America's early 20th century's high school movement, a truly national, visionary effort to revamp education. But no other candidate has anything remotely like that on their platforms, so why give Yang a hard time for not proposing it? UBI, on the other hand, has immediate impact and much less overhead. And low income parents can use part of their new checks on extracurricular educational opportunities that now only the well-off can offer their kids.

I sorely missed Andrew last night, at the debate! He's a futurist and we need that. I know this is heresy, but I think Trump would be open to Andrew's ideas. So if Trump is re-elected, I hope he offers Andrew a position and I really hope it's accepted.

Andrew Yang is clear and understands the needs of the American people, with clear solutions. We need someone who can unite the country in a way that includes everyone. His slogan is very telling "Not left, not right, forward!" His UBI "Freedom Dividend" would increase the buying power of the bottom 94% of Americans and lift millions out of poverty. That alone is SUPER POSITIVE for a society and would give everyone a huge boost in today's harsh economic climate. Check out Joe Rogan, Andrew Yang interview video on Youtube for more substance. The PBS interviews are good too! Good NY Times interview. Enjoyed the read.

I am sure Mr. Yang is smart and thoughtful. It appears he is a devoted family man and has met with some success in business. But. Let's stop kidding ourselves. Experience and expertise is important. Particularly for what may be the most difficult and important job in the entire country. If you want to run the government you should have some experience working in government. It is frankly ludicrous to take a candidacy like this seriously. I would include the candidacy of Mr. Steyer in this group as well. There is ample evidence demonstrating the folly of electing an outsider. We see it every day. Let's not do that again.

According to this article, Vfor A's goal was to create 100,000 jobs; the count is 3,500, which is...96,500 short of the goal. Talk is easy. Ideas can be dreamed up sitting on the couch. I'd be more impressed if he'd gotten actual results.

At the very least, Andrew Yang should get Cabinet position with the next administration. He has a lot of interesting ideas.

Wow! This guy is terrific. I'm completely impressed by his analysis of issues. The interviewers seemed to be too, mostly because Yang appeared better informed than the questioners. In addition, he has a most winning personality, not taking himself too seriously. I'm aboard.

""And it’s very hard to Monday morning quarterback a team when they literally felt like the economy itself was at stake, but we should have done much more to recapitalize homeowners as opposed to the banks."" Bingo and exactly on target. While it is unlikely that Mr. Yang will be President, my gut tells me that institution of his economic policies would concretely help people afford the cost of living on a daily basis. The UBI experiment in Stockton California has initial promising results, and the wealth tax just isn't going to work just like it didn't work in Europe, as stated in the article. He is also correct on the value and importance of trade and technical skill as a focus for the majority of US students who are not going to college, and that college is no longer any holy grail. " Free College" for everyone is clearly the wrong direction, if we understand what Mr. Yang is saying. Finally, as an opinion, due to technology, AI, and automation, work as we know it is going to change and largely disappear. Making sure that large successful companies like Amazon actually pay various value added taxes will indeed benefit the rest of us. Mr. Yang is a smart guy and seemingly nice too. Hope he can be a major influencer regardless of who "wins." I think this person can help us all win.

Wow!, is what I thought while reading about Andrew Yang. An articulate, sensitive, thinking person, caring deeply about people and his country. Speaks so I can easily understand him. Does not sound like a politician, not even close, with rehearsed responses, slogans. Defends his ideas easily, sensibly. Yet Democrats are fascinated by an inarticulate Joe Biden, stumbling over words and thoughts and sounding like a man from the past, not prepared for the future. Looks like Yang is out of the debates. That is a loss for us.

We don't need UBI anymore than we need a wealth tax. We need, as Yang said, to fix our formerly progressive income tax rates perhaps adding a "negative income tax" that Republican Richard Nixon advocated and actually conducted a social experiment to test it. Sadly, Jimmy Carter cancelled it because it led to a higher divorce rate! Poverty often locks women into bad marriages, but Carter didn't get it. Yang is a one-trick pony, but he does indicate the failures of the trickle-down tax cut policies of the Reagan-Bush-and now-Trump administrations. They need to be rolled back rather than be replaced as if we're dealing with some ancient, unwieldy Ptolemaic epicycles or Rube Goldberg set of fixes and patches. And while we're at it we need to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour adjusted for inflation. Yang is right that the American worker needs a raise, but let's reward work. Meanwhile, what about the environmental catastrophe that we're entering? California is burning, Australia is on fire, the Midwest is flooding, sea levels are rising and already threatening Miami with other coastal cities soon to be impacted, and Trump is only exacerbating the situation.

Andrew Yang is by far the best choice. The more that I head and read his thoughts, ideas, and solutions the more I like him. He is smart and practical. I believe a lot of his ideas will work. If he says an idea will not work, I tend to believe him on that point as well. He wants to fix things to make this a better country for everyone. The other candidates are politicians. It is about ego and party to them.

His advocacy of UBI and his plan to fund it with a value-added tax displays his complete lack of understanding of tax, economics, business and what makes society work. UBI, like blockchain and 'AI' is often namedropped by people that really have no clue how it works, but are use the terms amongst laymen to be perceived as 'intelligent, foreseeing and in-synch with technological developments'. Check, check, check. He could just raise the minimum wage and tax more progressively, but no. I'm sorry Yang is a terrible and intellectually hollow candidate.

I work in Silicon Valley, built my career there. The Yang platform is basically recycled software developer water cooler talk. His boundless hubris is common in the Valley, folks less familiar with this personality type often mistake it for courage. This place is a charlatan factory, I don't blame Andrew Yang for being one, it's just the way you thrive in this industry, but I do find it completely disqualifying in my next president.

is there anyone else in the field who has a better understanding of the current economic environment than Yang? is there anyone else who makes as much sense as Yang? is there another candidate who would be less polarizing nation-wide? is there another candidate who's better equipped to diffuse the interpersonal tensions across the country? a better candidate to lead the US in this age of rapidly increasing technological innovation? answer: obviously not

There's always a quirky candidate who somehow pushes the right buttons to get a devoted following when running for a party nomination. Remember Herman Cain? Ben Carson? Some breathlessly predict that the person is going to shoot up to the top and claim the nomination. They never do. Andrew Yang seems like a nice guy. Some think he is a math whiz with a strong background in tech and connections to Silicon Valley. Not true. He's a former high school debater who then did an economics/political science major followed by law school. His business experience has been modest, with nothing to show that he's qualified to be president. Indeed, his experience and career show that he talks a good talk but can't get things done. All hat. No cattle. I'm glad that Andrew Yang is enjoying his run for the presidency, and that his fervid fans in the Yang Gang send him so much money. He'll just be a footnote in history, but that's better than most of us get. Good for him.

"My faith is still very much a journey, but I’m unreservedly thrilled about the impact it has on my wife, my boys, my family, my community." - This is a secular, "MATH" man who appreciates religion with humility and objectiveness. This hits home. I myself grew up in a secular households. My parents were non-religious. Their family, their work and their community were their own form of religion. They championed reasoning, but they also believed in karma, in honoring their ancestors, in being good and giving generously. Believe it or not, I went to church voluntarily, to mosques and synagogues, often with friends who are religious. I have always enjoyed the communities that I encountered, the different customs, the architecture of their place of worship, how their prayers vibrate through the incense. If you may spend some time listening to Mr. Yang talk in-depth, you'll notice that his thinking has always risen above the political, the religious and racial divisions that are plaguing us right now. Not because he is above those discourse, but because he acknowledges that the solutions do not squarely belong to one camp of ideology. At the end of the day, regardless of who your Gods are, we just want to be better humans. Indeed, it's not Left, not Right. It's Forward.

I’ve been following politics for 20 years. No political figure has ever activated me more than Andrew Yang. His 160 policy proposals demonstrate outside-the-box thinking that America desperately needs right now.

So far out of everyone AY has my support. He's well reasoned, moderate, analytical and charismatic, lacking the sort of privilege by wealth and/or background that would predispose him imo to fall into the entrapment of entitlement thinking evinced by traditional politicians on both sides. He understands that ultimately the economy needs constant consumption for our way of life to continue, and is addressing the biggest threat to that process in the most direct and fundamental way possible.

The very first question is "were you wearing a helmet?" and there is embedded commentary about how many cycling deaths in NYC there are. Why lead with such an odd question and dire facts, particularly while everyone else out there is driving a huge SUV with a coffee in one hand and a cell phone in the other. If he did the "normal" thing and drove, would your very first question have been, "did you wear your seat belt and refrain from texting? hmm? let me see your phone". How about "we see you biked here. Do you bike everywhere? Have you always done this? Is this part of your energy or infrastructure plan?" or something more positive and meaningful... or human. I wear a helmet when I bike but roll my eyes when people are so overly concerned about those who don't. Leave them alone or how about lead with "thanks for saving the planet" and if it comes up and you truly care about their safety (you don't, really) perhaps discuss the helmet issue and whether they eat enough vegetables. Seems trivial, but constantly nagging and judging people about what they should be doing and saying without listening first, especially when there are much much bigger issues at hand, is why people turn to the GOP. Failing to realize this is why we will never get to vote for people like Andrew Yang in the primary.

A child with special needs will make it real clear what is important in life, family and country. What a great leader he will be. Future looks bright with thinkers like Yang. I'd vote for him in a heartbeat.

Yang is hands down one of the most brilliant, empathetic, and genuine presidential candidates in our nation's history. It's a shame he is not getting nearly as much attention as the other front runners. He is not a politician, but seems to have a far better grasp of root cause issues that plague this country than any politician out there. On top of that, his proposal for a Universal Basic Income, as well as "Democracy Dollars," are probably two of the best and most important policies to be put on the table by any presidential candidate in many years. I truly think Yang is the best candidate to beat Trump as he is likely the only one who can garner significant support from both sides of the political aisle. We can only hope the DNC does not try to shut him out or they will alienate many voters once again.

Yang is a breath of fresh air. I sent him money to encourage him but the DNC has other ideas for us. He, along with Mike Bloomberg, are the only hope we have for the future. I am now focusing on helping Mike in his effort to oust Trump and retake the Democratic party back from the dead wood and wacked out far left. Like Yang, he thinks outside the box. I love it that he is doing an end run around the DNC and focusing on where the real votes to decide the nomination and election are. Hint, not in Iowa or NH which bear little resemblance to the reality of current America. He has long courted the superdelegates who, during what will likely be a brokered convention, will decide the nominee. He would be wise to have Andrew Yang in his administration. He will be our next and best president.

The bottom line with Yang is that he I believe he'd beat Trump. His UBI is gimmicky and his lack of political experience gives him the look of a showman. However, he plays really well in red and purple states. He comes across as young and smart, empathetic, non-ideological and outside the box, and a "uniter"-- in some ways like Clinton and Obama once did. To much of the nation Biden comes off like an old retread, and Sanders and Warren present as out of touch socialists or classic "tax and spend types". Yang is the dark horse that can win it all and shouldn't be dismissed because he is a Democrat that comes in a package that doesn't resonate. The main goal here is to win in 2020.

Andrew Yang truly understands the problems of this Country. We need a president that with unite the Country. We cannot continue to divide the people. This country need Andrew Yang as our next President.

If it was all about intelligence and merit, Mr. Yang would be at the top of the list. But this - for good or bad - isn't. Not sure anymore what it takes after a Trump victory; objective analysis of Trump's candidacy six months prior to the election would have placed him in the 'unlikely' list. The gravitational pull of the darker forces in our collective character explains Trump; it also precludes the very bright Mr. Yang.

Just got through this and, if it wasn't clear last night, it's clear now that Yang's absence was a big loss at last night's debate. He's got a good sense of the facts on the ground but, even better, he does a nice job absorbing new facts and adjusting his thinking based on information. None of the other candidates do this. You have people like Sanders who will never change their minds about anything. And you have people like Biden and Warren who would change their mind about any issue at a moments notice if the polls indicated it would help them. Yang is looking for real solutions to real problems. His personality is different from what we're used to but it's also very relatable.

This man gets it and has the courage to speak honestly of the problems we face and will face. Not only that, but he has tangible solutions, while others only pay lip service because they don't understand the root of the problems.

Andrew Yang could be the answer to a candidate who is able to win because he articulates the issues that put Trump in office. I know first hand from Trump voters that the structural changes in our economy that he addresses are the issues for these voters and they didn't have the tools to analyze the causes so they went along with Trumps simplistic slogans and scapegoating of immigration. But they are still struggling so they will hear Yang as an option. His calm and cool demeanor also balances what is an unbearable political atmosphere- who wouldn't welcome leaving that behind us? I don't know how he is going to get out in front, but I hope he does.

Yang or Bloomberg are the only Dems I’d choose over Trump. The others aren’t even close. I would have chosen Biden 4 years ago, but he’s obviously lost a few steps.

I love that Yang brings innovative and evidence-based policy perspectives focused on helping everyday Americans. UBI powered by progressive VAT and data regulation would direct unprecedented economic resources into marginalized communities. Yang's health care proposal is centered on addressing some of the key root causes of unaffordability: fee-for-service payment models, price gouging by drug companies, monopolies of healthcare providers, administrative waste. Democracy Dollars is rarely mentioned by interviewers, but it's one of the most compelling proposals I've seen to curb the impact of lobbying on our government. I also think Yang has a certain frankness, generosity of spirit, and unabashed nerdiness about him that is resonating with voters from all walks of life. He is my dark horse pick for the primaries.

I have watched him at the CNN one on one program addressing climate change and he was brilliant. Without doubt a man committed to this country to uplift everyone. As a parent of a special needs child he has shown an understanding of the artificial barriers that our society puts up to keep people from achieving their full potential in the American world of "young, white, good looking people" that are promoted as Americans. If he doesn't get the nomination he needs to be in the cabinet of Warren/Bernie in the Treasury Department, education. I am so delighted that he wants to help, rebuild America and he is not a selfish tycoon in the manner of the CEO's of Google, Facebook, and the rest of them. Takers, vultures against American democracy. Mr. Yang has the expertise and he is a winner for America and the American people. Thank you for this extensive write up that was fair and balanced. Mr. Yang will make people love math and the country' will be better off because of his love for math and the American people

After listening to one of his speeches and to his audiobook, I am a big fan, but not for President. That job requires someone with experience in running a large part of the national bureaucracy, someone who America has seen day in and day out make political deals. I want to have him immersed in a progressive Executive Branch, doing the math and giving the speeches to keep Americans alert to the need for help for those displaced permanently by robots and AI. I don't think I have ever heard someone run for high political office speak so clearly and with such guileless intelligence. I trust him and hope he is one prominent member of the Sanders or Warren administration. Hugh

"Mr. Yang’s argument that he is pulling 10 percent or more of Trump supporters was not rated favorably on PolitiFact — the 10 percent figure comes from a July YouGov poll, and subsequent polls found the number to be lower." More recent polls than the PolitiFact article have corroborated this statistic. For example, an Emerson poll in New Mexico conducted from January 3-6th shows that 38.6% of 2016 Trump voters polled who plan to vote in the Democratic primary are planning to do so for Yang, far and away the highest conversion rate of the field. (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EOSgtzlU0AADAcw?format=jpg&name=medium)

When I first heard about Andrew Yang and his UBI proposed, I scoffed. My core value system is based on the premise that one should endeavor to work hard; handouts should not be encouraged. The penny dropped for me when I listened to a podcast with Andrew Yang taking about UBI. In actual fact, it perfectly combines capitalism and humanism. UBI isn't enough to quit your day job, but it does provide a safety net to explore passion projects and is an incentive for small business ideas. I'm a creator myself (earning an average wage in a commercial design firm), if you gave me $12k a year I would love to rent a small workshop space and restore mid century furniture. Who knows, maybe it could become a business one day, and I would be saving beautiful pieces from being needlessly trashed. There is so much untapped creative potential in this country and Andrew Yang sees it. Let's take the risk America!