When you say “Climate Change” you mean “Negative Effect Climate Change” correct? Certainly you don’t just mean the changes of climate, because that’s like saying “the long and winding road.” It doesn’t mean anything!
President Trump is not the poster child of effective climate changes: political, social, economic, habitat (land) for all animals, right to normal life for animals, organic farming, over-fishing the oceans, removing plastic the size of Texas floating in our oceans, over-use of chemicals in farming, SMOG creation (CO2 is not SMOG), pollution caused by combustion engines not using catalytic converters (CO2 is not pollution), the inability of humans to consistently use the garbage can while at the beach, smokers flicking their cigarette butts into the street, the healthcare industry hemming cures for cancer with governmental assistance (the Dr. Brysinski case in Texas), environmentalists who alter data in order to maintain flow, environmentalists praising Norway on going electric but ignoring that Norway produces 2% of the world’s crude oil (and gladly sells it to others for profit!—that’s 28 people happily using oil for every single Norwegian!); Hollywood using guns in almost every single movie but then condemning them at the Oskars; Hollywood actors telling us to stop using cars with catalytic converters who then go fly their own vintage air planes without them! Ramming through the new 5G network technology with minimal study on its bad effects on humans, etc.
1
This is no divide over the Obama legacy. It’s simply an attempt to weaken Biden in the battle for the nomination. Come the General Election, Obama will be universally venerated by the Democrats.
3
You've got to hand it to Kamala Harris. She's the only candidate who had the guts to show up under what seemed to be the influence of some high quality weed...or other drug. She seemed giddy and capable of only repeating clever campaign-operative-written punchlines. And I'm not the only one who thinks this...half an hour after the debate closed someone posted a similar idea in Yahoo comments under an article about this debate, and it already had about 250 thumbs up and only about 20 thumbs down. I thought Corey Booker overall came across better than the rest. I'd like to see a ticket of him Tulsi Gabbard, who may not have qualified to get this far as a presidential candidate but earned a lot of positive reaction to her prior appearance.
4
In my opinion, the media is to blame for all the brouhaha concerning Castro and Biden. Castro's accusation that Biden was forgetting what he just said could easily have been directed at any younger candidate. But the media chose to make a connection to Biden's age and turn it into a looping news item. Biden can end the debate by simply issuing a statement that he did not believe Castro was targeting his old age.
4
@Merlin. First thing Castro was wrong. Biden was not inconsistent. And Castro was absolutely swinging for the bleachers in accusing Biden of a senior moment. Really classless.
8
You want to know what the "most expensive healthcare insurance will be"? Medicare-for-all. You might not notice it when ALL Americans would have to pay for it. It will be even worse once people don't have "skin in the game". UGH! The government is incredibly inefficient and the bureaucracy is massive. Look at all the problems and debt we have now due to Social Security. We need to stop increasing debt or our kids will never retire.
2
The more I hear from Amy Klobuchar, the more I like her practical realistic policies. It's too bad that so many people in our country are looking for a loud personality to counteract Trump rather than a sensible intelligent person.
6
Tulsi Gabbard clearly won the debate.
She polled better than Castro or Klobochar on every major poll and yet she wasn’t there which speaks volumes about the DNC and their phony debate criteria and how much the same defense contractors who donate to the GOP are behind this. And there was Jorge Ramos comparing Bernie to Maduro on a subject Tulsi would have burned Ramos on for even attempting to make war mongering false comparisons.
1
I watched this third debate with somewhat high expectations, but after three hours of spectacle I didn’t hear or see anything new and exciting.
While Warren maintained her upbeat tone, Biden saved himself by avoiding a big gaffe, but sounded incoherent and look old. So did Sander that also looked beat up. I still believe that this trio is clearly too old for our times and I know what I’m talking about because I too, am a septuagenarian.
I thought O’Rourke did a good job and so did Castro; both might have advanced a notch. Klobuchar was a tiny bit better than usual while Buttigieg and Booker didn’t do much to advance their cases. Yang made me yawn and Harris shot herself in the foot when she laughed at her questionable jokes.
It seems to me that when the top three leaders meld into two viable candidates, Biden is likely to implode as those supporting Harris, O’Rourke, Castro and Buttigieg will go Warren (I don’t think Sanders will be capable of holding up), while Booker and Klobuchar’s supporters might still go for Biden.
That will make Warren the likely victor, but she will have to do some serious work explaining how she’ll implement her plan after she gets the nomination and hopes to beat Trump.
2
I got more comfortable with Biden. He held his own, and deftly pointed out the weaknesses in Warren’s health plan. But of course I will vote for whoever the nominee is.
5
I see comments about how Medicare For All will take away consumers choice. In reality it will give people, don’t call them consumers, more choice. You will be able to chose any doctor you want, not just those on your private insurance plan, as all doctors will all be taking Medicare payments. Like wise with hospitals, dentists, and other providers. And there certainly has to be a way to capture in taxes the fraction of what we, employers and individuals, currently pay for our current over priced hodgepodge. Tell me, As an individual would you rather pay say $8,000 in taxes or $11,000 out of pocket as I currently do? Who cares about choosing an insurance company. I just want effective treatments.
7
A thousand likes. Dems need to highlight the numbers as you did. And I don't care about my insurance company's profits, lol.
2
I pay nothing out of pocket for my employer provided "Cadillac", so called, and health coverage except nominal co-oays. Hip replacement plus one week in a major hospital plus physical therapy for about $300 out of pocket. Convince us to change.
2
Kamala was empty and useless. Out.
Castro, he’s Out.
Bouncing Beto was fun, but he couldn’t even take Texas. Out.
I love Pete, for 2028 He never disappoints.
Klobuchar could a been a contender but she’s boring. Out.
Bernie is the most authentic and honest politician in America.
Booker is a stand up guy, but there are better choices. Out.
Yang. He shows well. Let him sit in the dugout. For now, Out.
Biden. I just can’t figure how polls so well. Boring. Out
Warren. I like her, and so do my millennial kids. Sure.
7
@New World Finally, someone makes a decision.
1
@New World
Bernie/Tulsi 2020
2
Biden has the experience and international contacts to repair the damage art mo has caused. Other countries governments trust Biden. America can’ go forward until the Trump “legacy/damage” is repaired. Biden for one term...his VP is important!
6
A strong progressive ticket can be Warren/Sanders, which would raise Warren to front runner.
Bernie in 2016 inspired millions of non-voters like young people and disaffected middle-class and lower-class people to support him. Those are the numbers added to mainstream Democrats that would have won him the Presidency. If he enthusiastically supports Warren as her VP, Trump will be history.
Their goals should be defined in more aspirational terms, so they don’t get tripped up in the details. Affordable, high quality, and comprehensive health care for all Americans. They can then sketch out a basic strategy, but allow for negotiations and compromise to work out the details when in office.
3
@Joel H
I'm curious if Warren was honest with the voters in her second senate race that she was intending on vacating it?
2
@carl bumba Mass types expect their senator to run for President. They are that entitled.
4
They are not their ideas . They are ideas that are in practice and successful in many countries since decades.
Health care for everybody and free in France since 1949.
Public education mandatory from age 3 and free up to doctorate in France.
Taxation was up to 80 % in the 70 's in the USA with a growth that was double what it is today.
3
I often find myself questioning the purpose of these DNC debates. There are times when the coverage reminds me of a sporting event. The word “fight” is continuously employed by the candidates, the DNC and the media. The key words should be “represent” and “listen to” the American public. While the focus is on Vice President Biden, Senators Warren and Sanders others such Senators Klobuchar and Booker are often regulated to the role of bystander searching for their breakout moment. I can only wish that more attention was given to foreign policy, substantive immigration reform, gun control that is based on the Constitution (would candidates call for a Constitutional Convention to address this and other relevant issues?). If a candidate indents to expand the number of judges on the Supreme Court, what is their criteria for a judiciary appointments? Yes, one can go to the candidates’ websites, but in a “debate” setting the public would be better served if presidential historians such as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michael Beschloss, Richard Norton Smith and Jon Meacham served on the panel to inquire into what differentiates a candidate’s views on these and other critical issues. Instead, we are too often left with questions that attempt to draw the candidates into empty verbal exchanges. Too often the questions go unanswered. If this “staging” of debates is to continue along these lines may I suggest the following sportscasters.
1
It's starting to be obvious that several of the Dem candidates would probably beat Trump, including Biden. If that's true, the secondary decision factor has to be, which one of that beating-Trump group would be a better POTUS.
While a little leery of far left intransigence, I don't mind the ideas themselves if the candidate is someone practical enough to recognize when the majority of Americans are opposed and compromise appropriately. For example, will someone for no-private-insurance healthcare settle for either a public option Obamacare Plus or a Sanders Lite with a private option? Seems like Sanders might not settle, but Warren might. Not sure about the others, but I think they'd settle, too. I think "socialist" healthcare (term is being used incorrectly, but whatever) works out better for everyone, but it won't happen all in one fell swoop. Piecemeal it in, and the holdouts will soon realize the truth. The rich don't care; they don't need health insurance.
Another factor: if someone too far left got the Presidential nomination, moderate voters might not let the Senate go blue, just as part of the reason why they "blued" the House was to check Trumpublicans. And I think the whole federal government needs to go blue; I no longer trust the majority of the Republicans in Congress, especially in the Senate, after seeing them run like curs with their tails between their legs in support of Trump, actively or via silence. The ones with a spine seem to have died or left.
2
Mr Castro -- drop out of politics now.
Or fire the adviser that persuaded you to play the "age" card.
That's about as acceptable as playing the gender card or the race card.
You cooked your chances for a meaningful future in politics.
I'm so disappointed. I had a lot of hope for you.
And for those who say we can't afford Medicare for all -- find out how much the CEO of your private or work insurance makes.
Mine makes 30+ million/year. When you take that obscene amount of salary/benefit out of the equation for all the healthcare CEO's, it's amazing how much more we can afford towards better healthcare for all of us.
9
The poor get theirs. The rich get theirs. What do the working and middle classes get? The bill. At a time when wages have failed to keep up with the cost of everything we have to buy and when the 1% gets most of the gains of our hard work, I am not at all ashamed to say, "I want mine now, thank you very much." Not just for me (I'm aging out) but for those children I sacrificed to raise well and for their children they will sacrifice to raise well. The people who make this country work are the last to get any benefits that make their lives easier and more financially secure. It's time they did. Raise your heads. Declare your worth. And claim your earned rewards, working people of America.
6
It's difficult to comment on the Dem's third debate. If I say a nominee did a great job I run the risk of helping that person get ahead in the race even though I'm for another candidate (at this time I'm for Joe Biden). So I'll talk about who I didn't like in the debate. Number one, Castro's attacking the front runner. Shortly after the debate the newscasters said he was wrong on his attack on Biden. He came off as rude and only hurt himself in the running. Number two is Beto O'Rourke's assertion that "yes we'll take your assault weapons away from you". For many years Republicans have said the Dems will take your guns away. While this is untrue but Beto gave the GOP tons of ammunition against us. Not smart.
4
The “crimes” we should pay attention to are absurdly high tuition, outrageous student debt, and college/graduate programs that don’t lead to actual jobs.
4
A big hitch in the Dems' wasted effort to select a candidate who can defeat our President next year is that each of them has a multitude of ideas so bizarre and unpopular with the voting public, and not a single plan showing how they'd implement any of their wild-eyed hysterics.
2
Biden's bizarre rambling throughout the evening but especially in the third hour should have finished his campaign. We need to teach black parents how to parent and when to turn on - or off, not sure which - the record player?! I'm wasn't dreaming, right? Both he and Sanders looked and sounded their age last night. Bernie's anger will keep him alive another ten years, but Joe just needs to rest. Trump would destroy Biden. C'mon DNC!
3
Look, I'm tired of being blamed for all the problems in America's biggest cities.
I'm white and I live in the suburbs. I got my high school degree, then my college degree, then got into my career before marrying and having children.
It's not rocket science folks. 75% of kids born in our inner cities are born into single parent households. It took all 4 of our eyes during the teen years to keep our kids focused, maturing, respectful and on the straight and narrow.
Word?
I'll pay for every abortion in the inner city myself if it means single mothers stop having kids. Call it racist if you want, but we cannot continue to watch idly by while 50% of the kids who enter 9th grade in our inner city high schools fail to get a high school diploma.
You do the math. That's 100,000 kids a year leaving school before they graduate just in the Twin Cities metro (urban schools only)...who'll quickly be dependent on people like Andrew Yang who want to give them $1000 a month just for being the cool hip Democratic voters they were born to be.
Love without discipline isn't.
Time for a culture change.
Start slow. Mandate that any child being born in a public hospital with subsidized insurance provide both the mother and father's name on the birth certificate. Let the 'father' appeal if he wants, but it's going to require donating some DNA for the test.
If you can't take responsibility for where you dip your hoo-hoo into someone's voo-voo...then perhaps you shouldn't have those rights.
3
I watched this debate with 10 other millennials (and real millennials, not these fakers born in the mid to late 90s) and nobody thought warren, sanders or biden did that well... idk how people are saying any of them did a good job, the consensus among is “young folk” was Booker was the clear winner with decent amount of support for Castro given his limited speaking time.
Take it for what you will!
5
I'm one of those "fake millennials" you referred to and watched the debate with a large group of people in their 20s and 30s. Everyone there was either a Sanders or Warren supporter. Booker got some applause, but the loudest reactions of the night went to Sanders and Warren.
7
@Nathan Smith
Interesting. I actually thought Klobachar and Buttigieg came across really well too. Agree with you about the elders: Biden (at least no gaffes), Warren (at least no, "I have a Plan!") and Bernie (UGH! He's a one-topic candidate.) I didn't like how Castro couldn't give up talking about the point he made. ("Don't you remember that?" He's still saying that.)
4
@Nathan Smith
Castro? Really?
4
The headline is disingenuous. Those running for office last night took healthcare and gun laws, in particular, to a more fervent pace because these issues have accelerated to the point of a national emergency.
Shootings are a weekly tragedy. People unable to afford healthcare are occupying the news on almost a daily basis. They were not opposing Obama - he could not get “Medicare for all” through the Senate! And Obama tried with the weight of the White House to get gun laws passed after Sandy Hook but could not because of Mitch McConnell.
Please do not underestimate the power of “The Headline” when you use it. In this case, you voted for sensationalism over the truth.
4
Winners, losers, "breakout moments": All this talking head yibber yabber leaves my head twirling around and lurching back and forth. The only really significant event in the whole debate was O'Rourke's ill thought out rant about assault rifles. What on earth other than immature, self-centered egotism made him do something so clearly helpful to the GOP and gun lobby! As for Joe Biden, I love the guy and will support him because he is the best of the top tier candidates, but to say he won anything last night requires some real imagination. As for Castro's pathetic, embarrassing insults, didn't he see what happened to Harris after her crude, condescending comments in the first debate?
4
I loved that debate, & loved every candidate except Castro, who was just nasty. I can't wait to vote!!
5
@Meredith
Castro lied about Biden; blatantly lied. He did not say what Castro accused him of, period. Go to youTube and look up the transcript.
6
Just vote for Bernie and let the Revolution begin.
4
“On health care, immigration, foreign wars and more, Mr. Biden’s central theme was his tenure serving under Mr. Obama.”
Which tells me he has precious little of his own in ideas on these topics.
I’m sorry (not much) but he’s a doddering old guy with no ideas that weren’t President Obama’s first.
2
Isn't "clash" just another word for "debate"?
Shame on the NYT! Intimating that among the Democrats there are opposite feelings about Obama. WRONG! We all love Obama. Stop trying to drum up conflict when there is none!
1
I'm a registered Democrat and I don't love Obama because he was, at best, a massive disappointment and, at worse, a total fraud.
The argument is twofold -- first off, any of the Democratic nominees is far better than Trump. However, with that in mind, the second part of the argument is this: ANYTHING the Democrats espouse will be attacked relentlessly by the GOP -- so, rather than timidly tiptoeing forward on a mawkishly "moderate" agenda that'll still allow the GOP to attack it as Hitler 2.0, the Democrats should be boldly liberal and even progressive with an agenda that helps everyday Americans.
They'll be pilloried by the GOP whatever they do (see Obama's two terms as a perfect example -- Obama squandered his actual electoral mandate by trying to work with the GOP, and they fought him tooth and nail).
Ergo, the Democrats need to "go big or go home" -- the rabid reactionaries of the GOP offer nothing but bluster, and any Democrat who allows themselves to be cornered by the GOP is foolhardy at best, complicit in their own defeat.
Voters want and need more from their government. The Democrats need to channel that with vision, ambition, and aggression.
1
I may be in a minority here, but I like the simplicity of a single care system (although I have a lot of questions I need answered first before I sign on), but I don't think it should be a priority right now. Patching the gaps so everyone has access - definitely, but not overhauling the whole system.
We have at least three large issues that are end game:
- Climate change - if we don't get it under control, the world won't survive it.
- Rapid changes tech is changing in society and jobs - if we don't have a nimble government that can respond to worker displacement, our society won't survive it.
- Government reform - If our government doesn't start working for the people again, or government won't survive it.
There are a lot of other very important issues as well. Some, like gun control, could be easily addressed if the government becomes responsive again. But these other issues are secondary to me because they won't end life as we know it.
I just think overhauling the whole health care system should be carefully looked at at a time when this can be the primary focus. Another thing - knock on wood - but the next president is also probably going to have a recession, and possibly international terrorism or war (we're overdue), to deal with. It doesn't seem like the best time to dump an entire industry out of work and mess with people's health care.
5
We don’t need to overhaul the entire system, just expand Medicare for all.
1
Show a video of the debate to a totally uninformed person. At the end of the video, ask the subject to describe the job of the President of the United States using the content presented in the video. Expect to get a mishmash for a response. I personally have a hard time tryng to figure out the real job of the President from the kind of information that was bantered about in the CBS telecast of the Debate. You would think that the job of President should go to the most glib person who is eligible to run for that office. And it helps the candidate to coat his/her face and hair with cosmetics. Is this really how democracy is suppose to work? That telecast created an illusion of what the leadership role is all about. My gut reaction was to unplug the TV and with no intent of ever turning it on again.
3
“Mr. Biden was steadier in what was his third debate of the primary contest, rattling off statistics and parrying attacks with good cheer, though he still rambled at other moments. And despite their criticism, none of the nine other candidates onstage appeared to significantly damage his candidacy.”
Simply not true...Biden looks and sounds old, out of touch, the embodiment of the status quo.
5
Yes true but Warren might be too far left in a general election. If she hews more to the center, aah but there’s the rub.
1
Being President is considerably different than being on a debate stage. Biden brings sensibility and experience to a job that should not require training wheels. If he is elected I think the world, country and children will be better off.
6
@Joe Barnett
What he brings is a failure to communicate.
No, please, just no.
3
There is no divide over Obama's legacy. There is a divide over the level of obstruction Obama faced -- and the one Joe Biden will face if elected.
4
That's the reality of what Obama faced. Mitch McConnell vowed to make Obama a one-term president and block each and every initiative of Obama no matter what! No need for discussion, much less debate. And, he was fully backed by fellow Republicans. It was absolutely disgusting! Democrats must do everything in their power to fight Trump's initiatives tooth and nail, even on illegal immigration to ensure that immigration laws are properly enforced with complete fairness and legality. We cannot trust Trump or Republicans to do that properly without injecting other pet goals into the enforcement of immigration law.
2
I'm still waiting for that candidate who does not want to raise my taxes, take my guns and redistribute my hard earned money. Still waiting.
8
@Mystery Lits you already have a president that satisfy your needs. It seams a right fitted candidate if those are your priorities. no need to wait...
1
@Mystery Lits I don't blame you. I am also sick of my hard earned money being redistributed to large corporations and the politically connected.
3
Can we all just agree to have the record player on at night?
3
People should, if they can, watch the debates for themselves and not rely on pieces like this or any other to tell them what happened.
6
The debates are really just going to end up being fodder for the Trump campaign to cherry pick for their political smear ads in the general election.
All this attacking each other is going to come back to haunt democrats in the general election. Now.. that did not affect Trump when he went through this cycle.. so maybe in the end it won't matter... but I DO expect Democrats to behave more congenially and maturely with each other.
2
The overriding goal is to defeat Trump; this election is not about ideas, Democratic vs. Republican, but of ridding the country of its most dangerous president in history. If that means that progressives abandon for now their soaring - often unrealistic -plans for the future, so be it. The person who will most likely beat Trump is the person to go with. That isn’t Bernie Sanders; he won't not inspire a large enough number of African Americans to vote; his numbers vs. Hillary Clinton made that clear. Neither will Warren, who I suspect won’t particularly excite blue collar whites in the Rust Belt. Neither will anyone else except Biden. The ABC/Post poll had his numbers well above the rest of the pack among black voters, the best chance of beating Trump.
This is an emergency election. Pull the lever for the person who has the best chance of putting out the fire. That’s Biden. Then proceed from there.
1
Silly stuff. I favor Medicare for All and Medicare for All Who Want it. Just get it done. How to brand it is a matter of tactics -- there is nothing wrong with shooting for the moon if that's the only way to get into orbit. It's not about substance or party loyalty,
3
I thought my party was going to lose moving far left. Now they are talking about exiting the 9/11 war no matter the cost.
Is that any way to win an election?
Here’s the thing, Biden’s a good wing-man. However, he’s not good on his own. He was robin to obama’s Batman. Robin needs Batman but Batman does not need robin. He has so many weaknesses. He is a really really lame version of Batman who instead of fighting bane, Chauffers children over the bridge while Batman saves the day. There’s a reason why there was no robin sequel to the Christopher Nolan batmans- and Biden is proof to the wisdom of that decision. There’s a new superhero in town- and that superhero is Elizabeth Warren. No one is excited about robin
2
“I trust the American people to make the right choice for them,” Mr. Buttigieg said. “Why don’t you?”
>>
This is the friendly Mayor Pete showing the McKinsey consultant that he'll always be, cynically using what's basically a Republican talking point to try to dial down his rhetorical support for ambitious programs that help actual humans at the expense of major big-money players like the utterly nonredeemable health insurance industry. It's who he is, y'all. I'm sure he "cares" about average people in a theoretical sense, but his heart is with capital and always will be.
5
Julian Castro is a good guy, but he is running an increasingly ugly campaign and still has nothing to show for it. It's past time for him to leave this race.
4
If anyone has a chance to beat angry old man (Donald Trump) is another angry old man and that is Bernie. He is the only one who can stand on debate stage and attack Trump for his all inhumane policies. I hope people see the passion in Bernie to uplift middle class and poor people. He’s for the people. He is always been for the people.
Let’s be honest, America isn’t ready to elect a female president even though Warren and Harris are smart ones. That leaves Biden and Sanders on the top, and I think Trump will trash Biden really bad on debate stage. The anger and passion in Bernie will drive Trump nuts on Debate Stage.
5
Your coverage of Yang is barely a footnote, even though, as you say, he left his competitors "all but speechless."
1
Warren still has my vote. But Beto emphatically endorsing gov. buy backs on assault weapons was the most personally refreshing moment. I am convinced that Biden is ‘the’ Dem Party Boss’s plant or spoiler. Corp. media’s choice!
3
This is the New York Times. Does our highlight reel need to start with who "went after" who? The media is responsible for elevating the dialogue just as much as the candidates are.
1
At this point, it doesn't matter. Caligula's horse could be on the ballot as a Democrat, and I would vote for it as long as it GETS TRUMP OUT OF OFFICE!
1
Kamala Harris was by far the worst performer on that stage. Those who think that she could win a general election are delusional.
10
In the key of gravel....poetic!
Take a bow, Jonathan or Alexander.
3
Amazing that not one of them is able to bring a cohesive, workable platform to the table...
Sad, sad, sad!
With them, Trump has nothing to fear....
Even sadder!!!!
4
It is *good* that they clash. In the other major party, everyone follows the pied piper like a bunch of sheep.
2
Note to Harris: The first rule of comedy, don't laugh at your own jokes.
7
Harris lost my vote after the first "debate". Castro lost me after last night. Not because of his cheap shot at Biden, but because of his pointless cheap shot at Buttigieg. He appears desperate, amateur, and not ready for prime time.
10
If there's a whipping-post within 100 miles of Washington, you can bet there will be a Dermocrat strapped to it.
These are debates we're witnessing, not wars. But they're the Democrats debating, or The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight', right? Even though they recently won back the House, and quite convincingly I'd say.
So, in my estimation, words like what introduced this article, 'Attacks on Biden, are a bit much. How about 'severe challenges levied against so and so', 'pointed criticizims outlined in rebutal to so- and-so's budget plan'?
I'm not wishing for 'kum-by-yah's here. Just some clear objectivity, especially considering how our press has taken to 'normalizing' that trumped-up, apocryphal, sham of an excuse for governing our country that's been oozing out of this White House for practically three years now.
bit less stringent like challenges 'criticisms' instead. alternatives like
2
Julian Castro has just disqualified himself - for me. How can anyone compare Joe Biden's performance at the "debate," with the rambling idiocy of Donald Trump from the Oval Office yesterday? How?? Step aside Julian; Joe Biden is being embraced so that we can save ourselves. The current Republican Nightmare must end. He needs a good running mate; but you remind me of the arrogant teenager ruining Thanksgiving Dinner. We already have that in the White House.
2
We have enough money to spend on defense more than the next 7 countries COMBINED (!!!)...but we are arguing over whether we can afford to protect our families from catastrophic health care bill. This is pathetic.
6
@Manuel "No man left behind" stops at the water's edge, it seems.
It is time for an uncomfortable fact check on Mr. Biden's claims. He has become little more than a sad and embarrassing footnote.
1
Private health insurance needs to remain an option because the liberals wanted to bring in unlimited numbers of illegal aliens and give them "free" insurance. By decriminalizing illegal border crossings and eliminating ICE they will create a huge pool of people unable to pay for their own insurance or pay taxes. That's why some want to take away your private insurance.
7
It was excruciating torture watching Biden play word search.
5
It’s a fact that we need a better healthcare system and lower cost medication. Which system is better, which will be supported by Americans, which is feasible? I can not answer those questions, but I know it’s possible. I live in the UK because of healthcare, I live better here because of healthcare, it can also be done in the US once politicians stop lining their pockets with money from insurance companies. We need gun control, that can also happen once politicians stop lining their pockets with money from the gun lobby. We need the ultra-rich and corporations to pay their share in taxes, they’re not the ones that need tax cuts and those cuts are the reason our national debt is rising uncontrollably. That, again, is the politicians. Does anyone else see the elephants in the house? The elephants that are the cause of our struggles? I can see them clearly, we need to chase those elephants away, we need to shoo them out of our lives by voting blue.
6
The folks in blue are just the same. That’s the truly sad part.
I don't think these debates will have much impact on the front runner status. Biden didn't self-destruct but he didn't come across as in complete command either. None-the-less he still maintains a strong lead with southern, African American voters, a group both Sanders and Warren have a harder time reaching, and without, nobody will win. I also think there are still just too many candidates in the race, and the Times just noted Steyer has qualified for the October debates as well as everyone who was on the stage in Houston. My personal opinion is anyone who wasn't on the stage in Houston, should drop out. Yang should drop out. He's made some interesting points about big tech but he is not qualified to be president. Beto ought to set his sights on running for governor of Texas, which means he ought to think about a state legislature position and soon (since he vetoed a senate run). Buttigiege needs to prove he can win a higher office in his home state of Indiana. I don't care what the early polls say, he would never beat Trump in a national election. U.S. is not ready to put a gay man and his husband in the White House. Castro should bow out and think about a state legislative position in Texas. He didn't do himself any favors last night. I don't mind Booker and Klobuchar hanging around to keep things in perspective. Bernie is too old, 80 by the time he'd be sworn in. 84 to start a second term. Time for Bernie to throw his support to Warren.
1
The Democrats think that these debates are giving their party more publicity. No one is watching except for people that already vote Democrat. It's another failed strategy, a strategy that doesn't translate into more votes.
One of Trump's tweets gets x10000 times more public reaction than an entire night of Dems infighting.
The Dems don't realize that the entire nature of how elections are won has changed, while Trump happily Tweets away.
2
Not one word last night about the massive increase in our debt. Didn’t hear much about an infrastructure bill, creating good paying jobs and fixing healthcare - not just care for the uninsured, but what to do about the ever spiraling cost curve.
Dems, want to win in 2020? Well, talking endlessly about the rights of illegals and criminal justice reform is a sure fire way to lose. It’s not that those issues don’t matter. It’s just that they don’t matter much to middle class voters. Remember them?
7
This headline should read "Biden stumbles repeatedly again and proves himself unprepared". Let's make this clear, Biden is not Obama. Whether Castro was unfair or not, we can't afford to coddle Biden with so much at stake.
6
If you want to see a preview of what the country would look like under ‘progressive’ leadership, take a good look at San Francisco...a city dominated by progressive Democrats for decades.
It ain’t pretty.
8
@Susanna
But this is social liberalism more than true progressism, which is based on economic justice and class struggle.
1
@Susanna True, but why are people paying $2M for shacks in SF?
I live here in SF, and it's not just pretty, it's GORGEOUS. Come check us out!
1
Julian Castro's attacks on Biden was mean spirited and was based on misrepresentation of what Biden actually said. Castro's political career should be over now and he should drop out of the race.
It is self-evident that Biden has memory problems and difficulty connecting words with his thoughts. He is disqualified from being President. Sanders is also too old.
Warren, like Sanders, is fully invested in "medicare for all", which means taking away private insurance, which vast numbers of people like their employer based insurance. This is unacceptable.
The rest of them are simply too far-left, some of them (Yang and O'Rourke) don't even wear neck-ties. They are not real candidiates with real ideas. All they do is regurgitate progressive feel good talking points.
Donald Trump was the winner of this debate again.
1
@johnny
Why is Sanders too old? Since when is “raspy voice” a disqualifying factor?
Sanders’ memory on health care policy is better than anyone else on that stage, including the media who keep parroting “high taxes” after every time he shuts them up with the cost.
1
Was climate change even mentioned? As I see it, everything else won't matter if our planet becomes uninhabitable in 10 to
15 years.
2
People who claim Joe Biden should be disqualified because he makes mistakes when he speaks remind me of what is Ludwig van Beethoven once observed about performing music: “To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.”
3
@David H
Remember Sarah Palin?
Some say, don't criticize our 'front runner'-- good old Joe.
But why should the Dems show a GOP-type loyalty to their possible nominee? Plz, no. It's so early. Give our democracy time to work. Air and debate the solutions to our grave national problems. Otherwise, why have our protracted campaigns?
The Dems should criticize any candidate and hold them to high standards. Not only 'better than Trump'. We the people need representation for our taxation, above all. Otherwise our politics gets STUCK, as we see.
We're blocked from progress to reach 20th C standards of support for the citizen majority that's normal in dozens of democracies---in health care and education to name just 2. Instead of being profit centers, as the norm, these should be supported as essential public servicesi by our elected government. Too controversial in backward USA?
If in the 21st Century we label this as radical just shows how behind the modern world we are. The strong opposition to elected govt supporting our rights is labeled 'pragmatic'. Sure, under our big money directed political system, who decides what's possible, or 'pragmatic'?
The GOP is bought and paid for, putting power over country. If the Dems can't show principle and independence and be pro the public interest--- we're just a mockery of democracy.
Trump's worst damage is that he's so bad, he makes any mediocre Democrat look like our saviour-saint. This is how our standards keep declining. We deserve better. It's 2019 already.
22
@Meredith Well said. I am afraid (and a little disgusted) that hard-working Middle Americans oppose any government benefit for themselves. It is the middle class that has paid the taxes that support the poor and the low-income working class with benefits that supplement their small paychecks (food stamps, Medicaid, childcare, housing subsidies, Pell grants) and funnel money into the pockets of government contractors of all kinds, subsidize corporate farms, oil and gas companies, market the products of American business to the world, provide low-interest loans and government-backed bonds, train industry workers for free and on and on. Why the heck shouldn't working people get something for the taxes they pay?
8
A better response to “You don’t have to buy it if you can’t afford it” would have been “Yeah, that’s the point, Joe; no one can afford it.”
But then Tulsi wasn’t there even though she polled higher than Castro or Klobochar. 🤔
5
Come on Michelle O, throw you’re hat in ring and run, you’re the one that can kick trump’s behind all the way back to his gold plated tower and out of our lives.
3
Reality Check american people lost agun. Non canidates willing to call out truth to american people. Why we should have manditory voting . Un fair taxation on peoples homes.Illegal health care laws that make healthy people carry insurance never use.Whole list problems could be solved in one day. Border of mexico another usa should tell mexico an central america to hold vote by people to join with usa end of problem no more border all way to panama canel. Alot people who want to keep way it is for own person agenda an other peoples misery.
You can't have what you want and what you need. Don't even think about. And furthermore, you don't deserve what you want or need. Just work harder, take what "trickles down" and be grateful. That is basically the message of the Democratic "moderates" to ordinary working people. Of course, they will tinker here and there to help a disadvantaged group but the broad middle will just have to suck it up, pay their taxes and get nothing that makes their lives easier or more financially secure. Pay that high college tuition, out of your retirement savings if necessary or take out a loan. Pay that childcare that enables to work to support your family and buy a home. Pay for that assisted living for your parents so you can keep working for a paycheck. And you'd better earn enough and save enough for your own retirement and a Medicare supplement and nursing home insurance policy too. The middle class, especially the lower-middle, is stressed and stretched to the max and the Democratic "moderates" are OK with that.
3
I watched until the commercial break, and thought that a couple of the questioners' tone was unnecessarily antagonistic.
We need a Katty Kay (BBC America; guest MSNBC "Morning Joe" to moderate. She's tough, smart and direct, not letting anyone forget the past and the facts, but she is not strident and trying to make her own point.
5
As long as Americans continue to treat their bodies like garbage dumps, our healthcare system will be unsustainably expensive. Far too many people absolutely refuse to acknowledge that we only get one body and one life to live and that it is no ones responsibility but one's own to take care of it. The consequences of long-term abuse of our complex, yet miraculously logical, physiology are enormous.
I view a hardline on Medicare for All and abolition of private insurance as a non-starter and a sure-fire election loser.
Allowing the gov't to eliminate an entire industry, on which 100's of thousands of jobs and 100's of $billions of economic activity depend is absurd and un-American. How many votes were repelled by the promise to "put a lot of coal miners out of business"? Despite the fact that alternatives to fossil fuel are necessary to our survival, wielding the gov't to eliminate entire sectors of the economy is not a winning strategy. Similarly, our healthcare system requires significant gov't intervention, but not at the exclusion of private industry. While talking points and soundbites try to portray healthcare executives as money-grubbing villains, the reality is that the upper echelon of healthcare is populated by some of the most determined and brightest minds in the world. Which candidate is going to articulate an approach to take advantage of all the hindsight lessons learned by Obamacare and propose thoughtful collaboration for solutions/improvement?
12
@Ltron I have Medicare...still buy supplemental insurance, as well as prescription drug coverage...
@Ltron Carriers administer Medicare under contract with the US. Medicare for ll would not eliminate this "industry"(what does it make); rather it would it put it to work doing what it does best -- not what it does poorly.
For some reason, none of the candidates ever seem to mention supplemental coverage for medicare and the additional costs involved.
Its as if they are telling everyone that with straight medicare, every bill will be covered and nobody will pay a cent for anything. They are omitting the truth and deceiving people.
Unfortunately, none of the pressing problems confronting our country will be honestly addressed by either party. These include:
1) Spending far too much money on the Pentagon and war. Close foreign military bases and bring our troop’s home from Afghanistan (longest running war in US history), Iraq and Syria.
2) Develop a comprehensive transportation system, reducing air travel and uses high speed rail across the country.
3) A single payer healthcare system that guarantees health care for all Americans and eliminates private insurance companies.
4) Making sure the wealthy pay the same percentage of income tax as the average working person.
5) Regulating the amount of money large corporations can give to candidates.
6) Reduce consumption of fossil fuels and generation of greenhouse gasses.
7
Okay. If you’ll promise to send each and every one of the eighteen million women in Afghanistan a nice note explaining why they get to live the Handmaid’s Tale dream.
1
Without number one, we are in America would not enjoy the freedom to do much of the rest of the things that you mention.
It’s not our fault or our responsibility. It’s their problem.
Not sure how many people even watched the circus. But for the Dem voters who did, it must have been disheartening: too many clowns and no Ringmaster. As pundits and commenters here have said, the candidates are all flawed in ways that make them very vulnerable in the general election. Two of the front runners—Bernie and Ms Warren, are old, white people who the health insurance industry they want to destroy will attack relentlessly in 2020. Not to mention their socialist views are even distasteful to many social leftist who are fiscally more moderate (or selfish). And Mr Biden, another old, white guy is being attacked from almost every side and will be a wounded candidate should he go up against another old, white guy—Trump. And Trump’s energy and exuberance will make mincemeat of Biden. And none of the others are ready for prime time. Some like Mayor Pete are smart but immature. And most are too quirky for the American people.
8
You’re mistaking narcissistic tantrums for “energy and exuberance,” of course. Guy’s nuts, and anybody who isn’t suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome knows it.
The Trump campaign must be pleased with the current roster of Democratic candidates. They seem to be confident and energized in their prospects of his reelection. And they are ahead of the game holding more and more rallies in strategic must-win states. I went to a Trump rally in Florida posing as a devoted fan with my red cap to keep away the sun. I wanted to take a snapshot of his current campaign. His rabid supporters came in the tens of thousands, some waiting in line for more than an hour in the hot sun. It depressed me to think if supporters of the current candidates would be energized enough to do the same. Trump is larger than life no matter how despicable he is and his devoted loyalists will most assuredly get out the vote for him. I left the rally early depressed and wishing that the Democrats could get behind one candidate as soon as possible and organize his or her own rallies in the short time until the election.
1
How many American citizens — who, like me, have worked their entire adult lives, saved money to help put their kids through college, and have paid taxes, obey the law, and in general comport themselves so that we here in this country might have a well regulated and civilized way of life — will willingly give up their assets so that millions of other Americans who have done none of the aforementioned might receive what the progressives call “fair treatment”? I do not know of any myself.
23
@David H
Well said! Never voted Republican in my life....but we’re at retirement age and worked hard for over 4 decades to achieve some economic stability. There’s NO WAY we’re going to vote for a socialist revolution and de facto open borders at this stage of our lives.
Boomers had better think twice before signing up for the so-called ‘progressive’ agenda.
7
@David H
You must be doing well financially, since tax cuts for the rich don't bother you, while cutting the benefits you received all your life is also fine. Roads, bridges, police, firemen, non-gig jobs with benefits, etc.
I too am doing well. But I lived through an era where even a relatively low-status job had excellent benefits and saw me through until now. College costs were reasonable. Transportation and rent was affordable. We didn't need fancy phones and TVs that had to be upgraded frequently, with subsequent toxic waste.
And we didn't even know that materialism would bring the planet to the brink of unliveability in our lifetimes.
Reagan, Bush II, and Trump have destroyed all that, with a little help from Democrats who were to eager to go along to get along. (Like Biden ...)
Minimum wage doesn't even pay rent any more.
Nobody is asking anyone below multimillionaire status to "give up assets"!
1
Well, if you ask for a full loaf, you are likely to get half in a negotiation process.
O'Rorke promoted mandatory buy-back of military style weapons, which makes it more likely we could end up with abolishing new sales and voluntary buy-back program.
4
Nobody should be asking for Medicare for all, thinking that it will be like a European style system. Medicare has also been taking hits from Republicans, who have been shifting costs back onto seniors for several years now. Any new healthcare delivery plan that replaces the garbage we have now cannot include premiums, deductibles or co-pays of any kind.
3
"Ideological divisions"? If Obama could have run for a third term, he could have handily beaten Trump.
Biden's problem isn't his fealty to the Obama legacy, which is actually a political strength. It's his shambling, slipshod presentation.
3
Bernie was intelligent and clear as always. Such a pleasure to hear him speak. I couldn't reach out to the enemy as he does, trying to get them to stop voting against themselves. 'Doc...it hurts when I do this'. I hope beautiful Wisconsin veers away from its suicidal Republican nosedive/Moscow Mitch love-fest and doesn't score another direct hit on American democracy in 2020.
5
Biden clearly had difficulty completing sentences and with word finding. He has a mild language disability.
6
@turbot
Sounds like he needs to have the record player on at night.
“My campaign will now give a freedom dividend of $1,000 a month for an entire year to 10 American families, someone watching this at home right now,” he said."
Got it, that's called a bribe.
McGovern tried that and his bid fell as flat as the tire on Michael Dukakis's tire during his run for the Presidency.
3
Amazing how many Democrats seem not to be want to be part of the Biden administration. First Ms. Harris with her foolish busing attack in July on the former Vice-President, and then Mr. Castro last night with his foolish cognitive decline attack on Biden. I hope Ms. Harris enjoys her long tenure in the Senate as a member of the minority party, and Mr. Castro a limited career that could have been quite something.
7
"And when [Harris] made the case for using executive action to overcome legislative gridlock, she turned to Mr. Biden, let out a laugh and borrowed Mr. Obama’s signature line. 'Hey, Joe, let’s say, ‘Yes we can,’' she said."
Saying you can when you know that the Constitution says you can't is lying.
10
They should not be attacking President Obama in ANY sense. They are all on the same side.
The thing about Barack Obama that a lot of people are missing is that he has GROWN in popularity since leaving office. Among Millennials, he’s a rockstar. Millennials are teaching their kids all about him and letting them know that once upon a time, we had a president who had dignity and honor.
There are others in my generation who didn’t vote for him but now see just how important his presidency was, and they WISH they’d voted for him — myself included. I used to be a Republican, and what woke me up was actually FLOTUS Michelle in 2015 when Trump was sowing his seeds of hate and division campaigning. I became a Democrat the minute I heard Michelle give the graduation speech at Tuskegee. It was too late to vote for him, but man, I wish I had...
Cory Booker impressed me more than anybody on stage because he truly understands the problems in the criminal justice system. The racial divide has to be bridged. Trump cannot bridge it. He has widened it in fact. And the more the Democratic candidates argue over Obama, the longer it will take to build that bridge.
Any of them on that stage would be better than what we currently have! So the attacks against Biden were painful to watch because the man is adored by everyone. He is truly a kind soul and he can beat Trump. Put Booker or Warren (or any of them really) as VP. But we’ve got to appeal to blue dog Democrats and that’s Joe’s forte.
2
Biden is seriously flawed.
Past policy missteps yet to be fully exploited:
- Anita Hill hearing
- NAFTA
- Crime Bill
- Iraq
- Bankruptcy bill rewriting hurting consumers but benefitting credit card companies and hence Senator MasterCard
- His video of "I'll prostitute myself" to donors
- Nothing will change messaging to donors
- I don't have empathy for millennials
The list is long and gets longer with every gaffe in style but more importantly in substance. Beyond the incoherence of his response to racism, which somehow referenced Maduro and record players, his basic statement was "black families need social workers".
Disaster who will be eviscerated by Trump who will not have a kids glove approach....
10
I wouldn't call Beto O'Rourke's proposed mandatory buyback of AR-15s "confiscation," as so many gun enthusiasts are this morning.
The Republicans are happy to confiscate your health care, abortion rights, and clean environment and not give you a thing in return.
6
Of all the headlines that might have worked for capturing the nitty gritty of last night's debate (at least the one I saw) "Attacks on Biden Highlight ..." is one of the least of them. Ditto the first words of the story itself "Former Vice President Joseph R Biden Jr. ..."
The Times is evidently following the rest of the mainstream media, not to mention the staging chart, in making Biden (whatever his virtues, gaffes, talents, flaws, etc) the headliner, the main story, the centerpiece, around which all other things flow. In so doing, the reporting is simply mirroring the media fixation with "electability," polling, and personality, building upon the assumptions already built into these things, rather than resisting them.
A far better headline, if I may say so, might have emphasized all the issues that were up for discussion last night, starting with "Health Care, Guns, Immigration, Racism, and Corruption in US Politics ..." -- but I suppose the thinking is that headlines like this aren't "hot" enough to get readers' attention. So, Biden it is.
5
We are the absurd culmination of our TV politics culture, with Donald J. Trump as president, who knows how to make himself a household word and brand by following the manipulative principles of commercial advertising. Sure he exaggerates, lies, oversells himself, trashes the competition, but he keeps audiences entertained. And if you loath him, that is okay too, because he controls the buzz.
The media love him. They don't have to do a thing intellectually but report what awful things Trump says and does. He has captured the media's and the public's attention.
So now we are all exercised, because which Democratic candidate can play Trump's media game and beat him. Trump is pure trash and tabloid politics and it sells or disgusts, but he gets all the attention and has set the standard for judging who is dynamic, sufficiently good at soundbites and gotcha zingers, and who is entertaining enough to knock Trump off his media pedestal?
Look at all these earnest Democratic presidential candidates trying to do their best and talk about issues and policies and be a likable person who can stand out from the crowd of contenders. It's no better than a not very entertaining game show.
Trump may be a horrible person and terrible president, so which Democrat can beat him at his very own TV game?
1
as much as I want Joe in order to swing all of the Trump flippers from GOP to DEM (he is the ONLY one they will vote for, not a woman, not Bernie and not one of the too-progressives), I have to say Liz Warren with Pete as here VP running mate would be / could be a very strong, winnable ticket ....the problem: the Trump flippers will flip for only one DEM nominee: Joe .....thoughts? ....
1
Maybe Biden is an abstract speaker. I’m an abstract speaker. I often have extremely well thought out passionate opinions but when I speak them the words come out in an impressionistic way and because I’m racing ahead in my mind I expect the listener to know how to fill in the blanks.
2
@Ozma
No, Biden is not an "abstract speaker", and Impressionists are painters.
1
The Democratic candidates actually fall into two basic groups: those who are infatuated with the sound of their own voices and those who actually listen to others.
Not surprisingly, the former tend to be louder, shriller and completely obsessed with pushing programs that they've devised (seemingly without consulting any voters anywhere) and for which the constituencies are their own little echo chambers. However energetic and forceful, this group of candidates tends to hail from safe Democratic states or districts and fears no competition in their home areas.
The latter group is more modest, less forceful and more prone to pay attention to what voters have said that they want.
And what is it that voters want? Stability. Civility. Attention paid to gun control, climate change, health coverage and public safety. And, oh yes, a measure of financial and physical security for themselves and their families. Maybe, a breather from all the heated rhetoric and the extravagant claims of the loudest candidates.
What don't they want? Lots of pie-in-the-sky concoctions that claim to solve many problems but have never been shown to work (e.g., mandatory single payor health insurance), or that have (e.g., forced bussing) that have been shown not to work.
Hopefully, someday Democrats will understand that running for president isn't about ideas, but about service.
2
Regardless of what type of healthcare system we end up with in the future, it should ALWAYS keep individual choice in the mix. Medicare For All may be where we end up some day, but we need to get there VOLUNTARILY. Some people ARE happy with their health care, and some who may not think the insurance they have is ideal, are mistrustful and afraid that they might end up with WORSE care. Those fears and mistrust are not unfounded. A Medicare buy in for those who WANT it is the only winner in terms of voting Trump out of office.
2
Does Biden understand that his vice presidency ended three years ago and is rapidly fading farther into the past? I can't imagine voting for a man whose claim is based on his having held office three years ago.
Clearly you have not considered the alternatives.
1
I wish these candidates would listen to David Alexrod. He had an op-ed two days ago where he said, "Let Trump beat Trump."
One of the candidates has to drive the narrative that divisive and angry tweets aren't a substitute for leadership, they don't set policy, they haven't made our lives any better. Then when Trump tweets again, he proves the point.
1
I’m thinking more the old routines that Belushi used to do in “Weekend Update,” in which the loony editorial would always end with him shrieking and going over backwards in his chair.
Beto, Castro, Harris, Yang are done. None will likely be a veep choice, either.
Biden can't do the job and Bernie still isn't a Democrat. Neither of them will be a veep choice but both can be spoilers.
So, we're talking Warren and Klobuchar, with Buttigieg or Booker as veep unless Warren or Klobuchar seek a veep from outside those currently running - which is likely.
3
@Maggie All good points, maybe Stacey Abrams as VP?
I'd enjoy an all female ticket - to really motivate the base.
Warren-Abrams. Though Buttigieg is really smart and looks
better and better as times goes on.
In Canada to pick a party leader delegates are picked throughout the country to represent the party in question...then they go to the city hosting the convention and then over a weekend...yes a weekend they pick the new leader...I am at a loss for words how long and complicated the process is in the United States.
2
@doug mac Donald Don't even get us started on the Electoral College.
1
Americans are using insulin meant for their pets for personal use.
A human shouldn’t have to forge a prescription for their pug named Snickers in order to avoid going into a diabetic coma.
Go far do we need to push our ideas? Well, we push our ideas as far as required until Americans can receive healthcare without going broke and they stop going to the vet for medicine. THAT’S how far, and not an inch before.
1
Source?
Our annual deficit is a trillion Dollars , our infrastructure needs additional trillion Dollars to bring it up to global standards, our population is aging putting cost pressure on Medicare etc.
Our economy is going into a period of stagnation , revenues will decrease particularly Corporate tax revenues. In short our deficit and debt is going to soar.
Universal Health Care based on today’s cost base , twice that of other Nations given the above is a non starter economically and politically.
We need to act now on cost, introduce legislation I call the Anti Gouging act. This ensures Pharma cannot price prescription drug prices above that of other countries, we are subsidizing our International competitors .
This will save Billions part of which can be used to reduce premiums for low income Americans who join the much needed Public option.
This will help reduce cost and provide coverage for All Americans
It’s not the ultimate solution but it is a positive evolutionary path way.
Recognizing Politicians do not have the capacity or ability to improve our Health Care to the best in the a world in all respects, value, universal coverage, outcomes I would form an expert commission to do just that , this Panel will exclude all lobbyist and will benchmark other Nations systems
@Carsafrica Why is it that these countries with better cost controls all have single payer or a universal ACA type system? It's not coincidence.
Every one else is running on their own record.
Maybe Biden should as well?
He is ridding some one else's coat tails, but no one is voting for that other guy.
He should say 'this is what I accomplished', Then invite Anita Reed as a commentator, see how he does.
These debates, and the way the press reports them, do more harm to the Democratic Party than they do good. Democrats agree we need better health care than Republicans are ever going to figure out how to make possible. Democrats agree the climate is changing, that the immigration system is a mess, that college is too expensive, that social security is good, and our income inequalities are too extreme... Instead of hearing about their agreements, we are subjected to soundbite wrestling matches, and the press reporting on "attacks," "divides," "rivalries," personal insults, gaffs, etc. I guess Democratic unity doesn't fit the narrative - what a nice gift for the Republican Party. The debates should be about the best way to accomplish the things that the Republican Party has failed to accomplish, not about who is the most senile, likable, or aggressive.
I can't get over a comment made by Biden that the income tax for someone making $60,000 a year would go up by $5,000 if Medicare for All were implemented.
I currently pay $5,200 to Blue-Cross/Blue Shield of Georgia through Obamacare, and I barely make HALF of $60,000.
Just how out of touch is he?
5
@AACNY Way I see it, we're already getting gouged by the private insurance industry. It's like there are a hundred different pots out there that people are paying into and half of them are leaking. Some are too small to cover anything serious, others are getting skimmed.
What we need is one, big pot that EVERYONE pays into and which everyone draws from. One pot is easier to oversee and regulate, so that everyone gets the same level of care and no one gets hoodwinked on the price.
1
Biden did indeed "ïnvoke" Obama like some god.
He forgot that Obama's original proposal was more like Medicare for All than what we have. What we got was a version watered down so much by Republicans, that it was actually a Republican plan.
Obama ran as a liberal, but caved to corporations (the bailout); hawks (his Republican Secy of Defense, Gates, and Hillary), so we got the surge in Afghanistan, drone killings, support for Saudi wars, etc.;Republicans (the Affordable Care Act); and anti-immigrationists.
Biden was careful to distinguish himself from Obama by saying that he didn't support the surge, which was true, and makes him better than Hillary, who did. Otherwise, he came across as more for Obama's policies than Obama himself.
I, too, want to go back (as well as forward)--back to FDR whose policies included ADC, food stamps, and Social Security. But he wasn't perfect.
Meanwhile, Trump would eat Biden alive, while Warren and Sanders can stand up to him. You can't defeat a monster with politeness.
3
I work with several African American women, after each debate we discuss and get a feel for each candidates' ever changing views and opinions. The consensus among these women is that the talk of reparations is nonsense. As one of my co-workers said you can't judge what happened 200 years ago to todays standards and those that talk of reparations need to get on with their lives.
4
I think Yang is a bolt of Fresh Thought lighting.
He’s not really left, right or center, but straight-up SMART.
I can see this guy working with anybody, because there is nothing to dislike. Forget electable, let’s start with likable.
1
Invoking former President Obama isn't going to help Biden. History will show Barack Obama left a mixed legacy. For example, in weakening FERPA (the law that is supposed to protect children's privacy) and launching Digital Promise instead of squelching it, Obama supported an ongoing attack on children's privacy. Now our children labor online for free in public schools as research subjects while wealthy folks can send their children to private schools and avoid being tracked.
On another note, I'd like to see the media cover all remaining candidates equally so all voices can get heard. I'd also like any pictures of the debate to include every candidate. Thanks.
Castro should just bow out! He is on TV this morning spinning his horrendous behavior. Where was his voice against the immigration policy and health care when he served on the Cabinet? Where was his resignation letter over these concerns? Not one interviewer asked him that question! When did the press get all fuzzy when it comes to the hard questions. I miss Tim Russet on MTP because he wasn't afraid to do that!
These debates leave a lot to be desired when the questions are get into minutia of healthcare instead of how Dem's plans are so much better than Trump's.
Not one thing about Trump and his Sharpie, or exiling people who are here for medical treatment, or the little girl from the Bahamas locked away because she came with her godmother. Yet when her aunt tried to pick her up, that was denied, and now that her mother is here, they are making her go through red tape. What about the Bolton firing? What about an administration that wings it and refuses to listen to better ideas or any ideas?
Everyone didn't get equal time which is unfair.
And as much as I agree with Beto on getting automatic weapons off the street, he just became a poster boy for the NRA and Republicans.
I'm not going to let these debates where people have to raise their hands, or questions to cause fights, etc. get in the way of my further researching the candidates. Others will unfortunately.
38
This was not a debate; rather it was a question and answer show run by corporate media as if the candidates were a bunch of high schoolers who had to raise their hands to get called upon. Unfortunately a couple of them (Castro Booker and Harris) acted that way. I didn’t appreciate the ageism attack on Biden by Castro given the age discrimination prevalent in this country already. Everyone forgets from time to time, so what anyway?
13
@Linda, I didn't appreciate Castro's ageism, but it's fair to point out that Biden likes to name-drop Obama when it works for him, but immediately runs from any accountability when there is even a whiff of criticism for an Obama policy. As for Castro, it's fair to say he should also shoulder some of that responsibility, but Castro also doesn't constantly name-drop Obama.
For Biden, it sometimes seems like his campaign slogan is "I'm Obama's Friend." So what?
5
@ChrisH
This works both ways though. When the candidates were lining up to praise Obama and his work on the ACA, not a single one said “Obama and Biden”, even though Biden was part of that effort. Some were gracious in praising Sanders for his Medicaid for All policy. But some, like Castro, will criticize Biden for Obama-era immigration policies.
4
There were moments in last night’s debate where every candidate had a moment where they shined, where they truly impressed. They need to get stronger, as a platform, in articulating clearer, coherent, economic policy, but that’s the task of a year-long campaign. For now, it was not lost on me that The majority of these individuals can return to the White House the level of critical thinking and analysis, decorum and articulation commensurate to the Office.
64
@Rich R
Sadly, yours is a world shared by young teenagers and beings who just moved here from another world.
@Rich R I agree 100%. I am committed to voting for whoever gets the nomination - None of them are crooks or indecent characters- unlike who is in the White House now. These so-called debates are just a chance for me to get to know these active Democrats, all of whom should be in a high office of this country, if they are not already.
The fundamental agreements on all issues were there, and they were clear. Of course, every issue has sideboards, and they are explored in debates like these. However -- and please listen, however, every single issue will get hammered out not just among members of the Democratic party, but also via considerable Republican input. Everything! And that's how it should be.
The focus on 'differences' by the pundits, esp. as shown in this article, is lamentable (if not worse). That notwithstanding, I give all ten candidates five stars for their positions.
3
All other developed nations have universal medical coverage, in many cases funded (but not necessarily run) by the government. And they all pay a fraction of what Americans pay. And they get just as good health care overall. In terms of outcomes, the US has the worst results of any developed nation, although that may not be wholly due to its terrible health care delivery system. No system is perfect. In Canada, we have excessive wait times for elective surgery and some other non-critical treatments. But in the US, the wait time for a very large number of people is infinite - they will never be able to afford it, even if they have some insurance.
3
@Sceptic99
'All other developed nations have universal medical coverage, in many cases funded (but not necessarily run) by the government.'
Yes but each one runs in a different funding model.
Europe and Canada can offer this, but they also take 60% of the paycheck on taxes.
Are you willing to pay 60% of pay on taxes?
Is any Democrat contender willing to raise every one's taxes to 60% to pay for this?
1
@Sceptic99:"But in the US, the wait time for a very large number of people is infinite - they will never be able to afford it, even if they have some insurance."
Here's where the issue arises: As more people demand access to services the wait times will increase. And in some cases that wait time will still be effectively infinite (they'll die or become disabled before they receive their treatment).
Unfortunately there's either a denial this will occur or when these cases arise, somehow the victims will be told they really don't need those services and besides folks in Europe do without them.
No matter how you slice it not everyone in the US will receive the same level of care they currently receive at the same cost to them. Someone is going to take a haircut. The question is how far that will reach into the top 10% to 20% of income earners in this country. In some cases it may also include certain union members.
Consider the case of United Health Care where there are generally numerous hurdles to jump in terms of requiring their approval for certain surgeries or seeing specialists. Then look at top of the line Blue Cross - Blue Shield of Michigan (for example). You want to see a specialist? No problem, just schedule an appointment.
Which situation do you think will be the norm under Medicare for All?
@AutumnLeaf
Most of us can't afford to have 60% in taxes taken out. Especially those of us living in NY where we pay some of the highest taxes that inevitably get sent to the red states.
1
I’d vote Biden over Trump any day, but I’m not seeing him bring much in the way of new actual policy ideas. I don’t think name recognition and positive association from being Obama’s veep will carry the day. Sure, donors love him because they know he won’t rock the boat, but I think 2016 and 2018 show rank-and-file voters want more than that.
9
Last night we saw one of the best parts of our democracy in action. We saw qualified candidates and voters exercising their rights as citizens — to run for, and choose, a leader.
We saw people who love their country and want to work hard to better it.
We saw individuals who are basically honest, compassionate and intelligent using their limited time to explain platforms and policies that are cogent, considered and real.
We saw adults speaking in full sentences.
12
@Dunn Arceneaux
'We saw adults speaking in full sentences.'
We saw Castro making fun of a man with early Alzheimer.
3
@Dunn Arceneaux
Yeah but we didn’t see Tulsi Gabbard. And she’s polling higher than Castro or Koblochar on any poll that matters...🤔
...Wonder if it had to do with Jorge’s Maduro smear on Bernie? How would Tulsi have handled that?
1
@AutumnLeaf
Your medical diagnostic abilities are amazing. That you can determine an illness or condition through video streaming from Texas to New York, without actually speaking a word to the person in question, defies belief.
It is also potentially slanderous and without merit.
As much as many Dems may want to accelerate change, history tells us that the primaries allow candidates to run to the left (Medicare for All, Free College, etc.) and then win the nomination and navigate back towards the center. I really like Elizabeth Warren and truly believe she has forgotten more about public policy than most others will ever know, but supporting a health plan that would move 150 million Americans off their current healthcare coverage over a shortened period isn't the way to attract independents or centrist Republicans. If she can make that plan aspirational and build on the ACA to get there, she could win the nomination and beat the incompetent occupant of the Oval Office. Otherwise the party would be wise to nominate a more centrist candidate (Biden, Klobuchar, Harris, etc.) to head the ticket. Eight years of the current administration would indeed qualify as an existential threat to our democracy.
3
@Dennis W
Warren lost me on that subject alone. I k now I am not alone in that.
1
I do agree that Medicare for all does not appeal to centrist republicans, however, I don’t think those types of voters are necessary to win.
Energizing the liberal base, and getting them to the polls, is much more important than being a “conservative Democrat”. Obama energized the base, Hilary did not, and Bernie pulled off multiple “upsets” over Hilary in the primary because he attracted so many additional people to the polls.
4
@Dennis W Pretty sure that's the idea. Stay tuned.
I will vote for any of them.To the commenters about healthcare...my husband just retired and has medicare. I will be paying $650 a month,his supplemental plan is $200 a month.I am on no prescriptions, and have no medical issues.The greed from the insurance industry has to be stopped.Yes we had a great plan from his employer.My husband delayed his retirement because of health insurance.We had a savings account set up just to pay for health insurance when he retired.Enough!
15
Mr. Castro did the country a disservice last night. He intentionally misstated what Joe Biden had said and then pretended Joe had memory loss. Look at the transcripts Biden had said there could be a "buy in" and then added if you couldn't afford it, it would be automatic. Mr. Castro had come gunning for Vice-President Biden from the begining with his opening statement being an insult to all members of the boomer generation. His intentional use of words like old as bad and young as good indicated he would be attacking Biden for his age.
Castro attack on Biden was wrong, Biden had said, "BIDEN: OK, number one, my health care plan does significantly cut the costs of -- the largest out-of-pocket payment you'll pay is $1,000. You'll be able to get into a -- anyone who can't afford it gets automatically enrolled in the Medicare-type option we have, et cetera."
"CASTRO: You just said that. You just said that two minutes ago. You just two minutes ago that they would have to buy in.
BIDEN: Do not have to buy in if you can't afford it.
CASTRO: You said they would have to buy in.
BIDEN: Your grandmother would not have to buy in. If she qualifies for Medicaid, she would automatically be enrolled.
CASTRO: Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago? Are you forgetting already what you said just two minutes ago? I mean, I can't believe that you said two minutes ago that they had to buy in and now you're saying they don't have to buy in. You're forgetting that."
10
@Joe Barnett
Castro's attempt to break out likely cost him the nomination. Senior citizens vote.
It is fair to debate policy, attacking someone personally is what Trump does.
4
@Joe Barnett
Huge turnoff for me, he came off as rude and arrogant AND a proven liar. Three qualities that won't win him any votes.
2
If you have a front runner that primary voters have to talk themselves into getting excited about, then you have Mitt Romney. Or worse, you have Hillary Clinton.
Electability is a false debate. Go with your gut, and vote for Warren.
2
Sorry, but I'm going with my gut and voting for the only candidate with an actual grassroots movement behind them: Bernie Sanders
3
I wouldn't get too excited about policy ideas at this point. We are at the 'Chicken In Every Pot' stage. Candidates are competing on how much they can promise to give away. Once the primaries are over and the election campaign begins, 90% of these ideas are going to disappear. Reality will set in and the nominee will realize that they are going to be dealing with a divided congress when they become President.
4
@Bruce1253 It was "two chickens in every pot" and that was in 1896.
I find the headline somewhat objectionable. "How far to push their ideas"? Really? What is the implication, that somehow the ideas of universal health care, college debt forgiveness, and affordable early child care, are somehow radically far left and unacceptable to American voters? I think you underestimate the wide appeal of these programs to help rebuild the middle class and make wealth distribution more equitable. We notice how well these programs work in other developed nations, no matter what label you try to attach to them (oh no, socialism!). And no one seemed to question whether Trump's crazy ideas were catching on with his constituency, why are the Democrats any different?
1
@JS
"somehow the ideas of universal health care, college debt forgiveness, and affordable early child care, are somehow radically far left and unacceptable to American voters? "
YES - they are "far left" .
YES - they are "unacceptable."
1
@99percent Only because Middle America thinks it doesn't deserve any benefits from the taxes they pay. It's time we all did. Right now all the benefits of our taxes flow to the top and the bottom.
2
Here's a question for all candidates in the next Democratic debate:
"Please describe your current healthcare coverage. Are you satisfied with it? And if you're over 65 and aren't on Medicare, why not? " I'm just curious if the candidates practice what they preach, whichever healthcare model they espouse.
3
@Cathy
Most of the over-65 folks I know don't have Medicare and never had Obamacare, wouldn't touch either with a 10-foot pole.
A lot of male seniors have coverage through the VA or along with still-employed female seniors are still working and have group coverage, esp. if they are professional or own a small business.
@Maggie I'm 65 and have Medicare. While some get insurance through a spouse or business, you will need and/or want it at some point
Bottom line up front -Democratic candidates need to stop demonizing Donald Trump, his defeat will not solve our problems We, the American people, need actionable ideas on how to solve the problems many Americans face. Our allies need to see a future in being allied with the United States today and in the foreseeable future.
Who I will choose to support for President is still up in the air. Regretfully Thursday nights debate leaves me still undecided.
2
@ek perrow: I happen to disagree with you, in full-bodied style on Trump.
Just as he agitates his base by continuing to make "socialism" as dirty a word, as Reagan did with "liberal," the Democratic base needs just as much agitation over Trump himself, and all he has done to deconstruct both Barack Obama's legacy, as well as the office of POTUS (and, why not throw in the GOP,for that matter?)
Make no mistske; while issues like health care, the environment, foreign policy, immigration, etc., should not be thrown in the back seat, all Democrats (and even disgruntled Republicans) need that bonfire they're sitting on, to be kept on a high flame.
Once a candidate is nominated, then he/she can better balance their platform, with continual reminders of Trump and his sham presidency.
Bernie Sanders voted against the Brady Bill six times. He is pro-gun and no one raised this point. And with 63% of the country on private healthcare, his Medicare for All with no safeguards to retain a choice, like Switzerland for example, seems extreme.
ABC failed to research the back stories to questions. Next time, let some competent journalists ask the questions, otherwise the debates just drown in sensationalism.
4
Canadians by a huge majority; like the rest of the world; want Trump gone yesterday. So needless to say we will be pulling for whoever the Democratic nominee will eventually nominate. So it is with great interest we watch who that man or woman will eventually be. It seems as if Joe Biden has the hearts and minds of many; despite his "gaffes." I was generally impressed with the over all intelligence displayed by the candidates; even if Castro made a tactical error in attacking Biden last night. When Beto O`Rourke actually said he would take away the military assault rifles that have been used to murder so many innocent men, women, and children; I actually had tears in my eyes that someone had the guts to FINALLY say what sanity demands. Any one of these candidates would be light years better than Trump. GOD SPEED to all of them. Bring on 2020.
6
@Greg Hodges
Democrats want to give illegal immigrants a vote in our election - might as well give Canadians a vote too!
1
As far as I can tell, there is only one way to do this.
If the nominee is a "progressive" they should select a "moderate" as their running mate. If the nominee is moderate, they should take on a progressive.
If Hillary had reached out to Bernie and not Tim, none of this nonsense would ever have happened.
3
I believe Warren is the best candidate but the field felt weak to me. Old Joe soldiered on, Bernie at least didn't spray spittle during his rants, but the rest, seemed canned.
Canned hams.
3
Exactly. Canned hams for sure.
1
“Progressivism“ is nothing more really than a reflexive reaction to the presidency of Mr. Trump. It’s worst elements — nonsensical handouts and a legislated redistribution of private wealth — are nothing more than age old notions dating back at least to Karl Marx. These notions are utopian and will simply not work in the United States for the simple reason that most Americans are conservative by nature and believe in “old fashioned” ideas like law and order, and working for a living. These sorts of ideas will never go out of style. I believe that “progressives” are in for a very rude awakening in 2020.
4
But you don’t have to buy in? Doesn’t sound like the Obamacare they forced on us by law
1
Really? Health care that is affordable and delivers for the formerly uninsurable, under-covered insured, and just uninsured was a tyrannical act? Presidents since Teddy Roosevelt tried to do so but could not. It was a bold and beneficial act. Too bad Republicans consider want a free choice.
Obamacare has racist undertones and was influenced by Andy Stern’s use of the Alinsky model.—-also used at Kent State Alinsky died in SF the next yr
Obamacare was not wanted by the majority for those reasons!
If you like your private insurance, you'll love Medicare for all. Dump your elitist, egotistical tendency to need to be separated out from "those other people" who you see as "trashy". That is the biggest threat to Americans today, that view.
3
@RCJCHC
Medicare costs most senior on average $600/quarterly ($2500 year).
BUT:
1. It is private insurance managed by the Social Security Admin;
2. It doesn't provide anywhere near full medical coverage;
3. The senior needs to supplement that with additional private insurance to fill out the Medicare gaps.
There is no free and there is no one answer. It is disingenuous for some Democrat candidates to whistle past the graveyard of the above fiscal reality and facts, hoping to reel in those who only wake from their lifelong slumber when they hear a promise of a govt. check in the mail or for non-existent free.
I want to be open to Medicare for All. But, I have some serious questions that haven't been addressed. Will Medicaid still exist? If not, how will people over 55 in low income brackets pay for long-term care? If its under Medicare, will Medicare also practice Estate Recovery Programs? If they do, what guarantees do we have that some future elected GOP house and senate when elected won't extend that to all of Medicare?
1
What guarantee the Medicare will not practice that in the future even if there will be no Medicare for all? What guarantee we will have Medicare and Medicaid at all? I guess only way to guarantee it, not to elect the people who are proposing such policies.
@yulia
I mean, ideally yes. But Donald Trump is president so these can and do happen. And I truly am concerned about this. My family had to pay a large sum to NC out of my grandmother's estate because of recovery. Its actually catastrophic for lower and middle-class inheritance. So if it's a possibility, I'm out and lots of other people will be, too.
Biden all night ... "I've previously had a job with a Democrat!"
4
@kz
WHO in the world is advising Biden that resurrecting the past is a good idea?
But even then, Biden was not prepared.
"I THINK Obamacare worked."
He "thinks"?
Why didn't Biden quote how many Americans were insured at the ACA's peak enrollment numbers. The highest in U.S. history.
After promising Hispanic/Latino Americans comprehensive immigration in his 1st term Barack Hussein Obama deported more people than any President in American history. Then Obama waited until the last two years of his 2nd term to issue a reversible Executive Order on Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals aka DACA.
After promising Americans comprehensive universal healthcare with a robust public option Barack Obama adopted the conservative Republican Party Heritage Foundation's free market capitalist alternative to the failed Clinton era healthcare initiative.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aka ACA aka Obamacare has no public option and no effective cost controls on premiums, deductibles, drugs, medical devices, hospitalizations and treatments.
While black African Americans have suffered educational, health, housing and socioeconomic degradation and depression Barack Obama talked down and dismissed their suffering by telling them to stop crying and whining by saying he is the POTUS of every American.
Blacks deserve and need help because of their educational, health, housing and socioeconomic status. Instead of their color aka race aka ethnicity aka national origin.
2
Obama was correct. Sometimes life is unfair.
God helps those who help themselves.
3
You would think we would simply pick the smartest person. But we focus on other irrelevant things. In my humble opinion Buttigieg stands out as the most intelligent leader. Because of his sexuality he probably won't make it. Too bad. You'd think we could move past that as we did with President Obama and the color of his skin.
6
He just looks too young. If you know anything about America, you should know agism is a deep part of how we see the world. It goes both ways unfortunately. Just imagining him trying to argue with Trump makes me shutter. Trump’s personality contrasted to Pete will not be a good look.
Thankfully America has noticed this and he doesn’t have a chance.
Also his swipe at Medicare for All was just unfounded. Those who support M4A trust American’s to be able to CHOOSE THE DOCTOR OR HOSPITAL THAT’S RIGHT FOR THEM.
I can’t find a doctor in-network that’s not in the neighboring city, 25 minutes away. There is an excellent hospital down the road which doesn’t take my insurance.
My parents are truck drivers, independent contractors. They cannot find health insurance that is not 600-800 dollars per month! Why? Because if they get sick they need to be able to attend ANY hospital. They could be in Ohio or Florida tomorrow.
Medicare for all will be cheaper and more convenient for everyone. Period.
1
@Seamus
Buttigieg has next to no legislative experience and qualifications. Check back in 8 years after he's run and won a stint as an Indiana senator or governor.
@Seamus - in your opinion the way to pick a president is by raw IQ/intelligence?
I doubt many great leaders in politics or business have been the most intelligent.
“Clashed”?
It’s seem to me like a very civil, informative, and intelligent debate!
3
Have you ever noticed the Democrat answer to basically every problem is socialism. To cure racism, healthcare, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, student loan debt, economy, etc. Basically it requires everyone forfeiting 1 & 2A rights as well as property or money. That’s why I walked away in 2008. I’m all for peoples rights & ending racism, but refuse to succumb to socialism. Until the Democrat Party comes back to constitutional Liberalism I’m out.
10
@Joseph No actually I have not noticed that. What I have seen is Democrats propose programs that will provide people with healthcare rather than work to take it away. I see Democrats working to promote positive change- do I always agree with their proposals? No- but I would rather support a party that wants to make life better for all people than support the party that wants to enrich the wealthy while convincing their base that “owning the libs” is winning. I want a President who behaves like a decent adult rather than a tired toddler.
2
"when you pull back the curtain, it’s a really small dude.”
Is it just me, or are comments like these and comments referencing small hands a form of socially acceptable sexual harrassment against males? Double standards abound. I dont think we need these ideas in the heads of our young boys throughout the country, it's a disgusting idea.
3
@Don Q-- you are correct. But when harrassment comes out of the mouth of a democratic its ok.
1
@Don Q
Lighten up. Female candidates are inspected and criticized for hair, clothing, body shape and imaginary nonsense.
The reason Stephanopoulos and Harris were grimace-laughing together after her comment that Trump is like the little dude behind the Oz curtain is because Stephanopoulos is a really small dude.
If males don't want blowback on size, age, looks and...size, then stop holding females hostage to that, cradle to grave. Y'all invented that pointless game.
However, the dude behind the Oz curtain still would've been phony predatory cretin even if 6 feet tall.
@Maggie Did you just say lighten up in the face of sexual harrassment? This is the double standard I'm referring to. There is no eye for an eye when it comes to sexual harrassment, I'm so sorry you believe that. Neither males nor females should be sexually harassed.
The dems have a long history of being cowardly when it comes to social change. Stop that!!
It is time for this country to turn itself around and become a place that honors decency and truth. Right now it is so corrupt that the country is actually dying...morally, spiritually, politically, and healthwise...our land and water are increasingly polluted, our politicians value money over life...we are in big trouble here. Dems...please be part of the solutions!!!
2
@Baruch "The dems have a long history of being cowardly when it comes to social change."
Thank your stars that we had FDR and LBJ. I would hate to think what state the US would be in had the country been governed by the likes of the Republicans in the 20's and since St. Ronnie.
1
@jmc
Yes...and in the last 50 years...? We've seen Clinton the neoliberal enact horrible racist policies, we've seen Obama bomb 2 million people to death...the democrats are not saints, and it is a mistake to rest on the laurels of the mid 20th century, especially in light of what's happening today.
At the debates, someone needed to step up and ask Biden:
“Do you know how many grandchildren you have? Why not?”
(Why is your son fighting a paternity suit when a simple DNA test will prove conclusive? If the grandchild is yours, won’t Hunter’s $50,000-per-month, 5-year gig on the Board of Directors of a Yanukovych-originated Ukrainian gas company provide enough support (or hush) money? And, sure, average Americans can relate to that kind of money and position for a 44-year-old drug abuser…
Hunter Biden is going to force four more years of Trump on the nation if the Press or other Dems won’t neutralize him soon. Trump and the GOP are just waiting for Biden to be the nominee before unloading on “the hypocritical Dems.” Then it will be too late.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden
Let’s get all this stuff out in the open now, before maximum damage. Please.
3
Dreams can not replace and should not replace reasonable laws and policies. Most are just in dreamland!!!
4
@Frank I rather dreamland than our current nightmare!
1
Buttigieg consistently wins my support. Good ideas, excellent demeanor, strong vision. Biggest winner. Is Pete theatrical? A grandstander? A BIG personality? No, thankfully. Could he wipe the floor with Trump in a debate? Yes, definitely. However, I doubt that Trump would debate him.
Biden consistently appears physically and mentally frail to me. Not a winner.
For my money, Castro's vehemence and attack mode did not look like passion to me, instead it felt like desperation. I also don't feel he offers a wide vision to our vast, diverse country. Biggest loser.
IMO.
12
Some people think that a candidate repeating his or her plans for presidential leadership in the "debates" is redundant & boring. The expectation is for pyrotechnics & rhetorical bomb throwing designed to reach the politically unobservant & disengaged. If any of those people happened to tune in briefly while channel surfing, their first thought would probably be, "Never saw him/her on a realty TV program, forget this"..click.
On the other hand, oh wait.
2
The Democrats can’t do any better than this train wreck?!? Think I’ll sit this next election out.
3
Julián Castro proved himself to be a classless twit, while the other candidates were professionals.
9
I like Biden but I can’t help noticing that when he is speaks extemporaneously he jumps from idea to idea without completing what he wants to say. He can’t seem to give examples and draw the logical conclusions from the examples that make the point in response to a question. His references are to past cultural and technological use, so he seems dated (and I’m 73). This is perhaps a minor issue, but on a national stage this is a major problem because it sets him squarely in the last century and not necessarily looking forward.
Mostly I found his inarticulate responses embarrassing and the assessments of the talking heads afterwards were equally puzzling - continuing to see him as the front of the pack. Did they not see that the responses to questions were handled more deftly by Booker? That Buttigieg was consistently calm and precise and to the point? That Warren continues to have focused plans about dealing with problems as well as a clear eye view of the whys and how we got to this political place? That Castro has a bit of a mean streak? That no one asked Yang whether his $1000 to each family was for one year or ten or a lifetime.
The format continues to be lousy. The questioners too often sought to elicit answers that might make for that gotcha moment rather than enlightening the audience about how the candidates approach problems. We need questions that probe how these people think as well as who they are.
115
@B. Rothman
However, this debate was better than the previous ones and light years ahead of the Republican mess that served up trump.
11
@B. Rothman
Trump speaks in sentence fragments that are disjointed and incoherent too. So, they will be a good match. Trump will keep his base that swoon at his every nasty insult and bombast. But Biden is much more liked and exudes empathy and warmth, which will appeal to enough voters who are tired of Trump's nastiness, and will not be scared off as they will by the Warren's lefty plans and the other progressives, especially independents and moderates in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, the only states that count and without which we cannot win 270 electoral votes, This will be less an election on policy and more on the persona, especially with a probably good economy.
3
@B. Rothman
I tried in vain to explain to my wife last night what I found unsettling about his performance. I'm going to send your first para to her, it says perfectly what I was feeling but couldn't articulate.
I like him as well, and am only 10 years behind you.
4
I feel depressed that I am personally not inspired by any of these candidates. Being inspirational is not something one can acquire overnight. It is an innate trait. One has it or one doesn't. I can honestly say that I do not remember many of Barack Obama's policy pitches on the campaign trail but I vividly remember his message of hope and unity and his sincere deliverance of his vision to the country. He inspired me to work on a grassroots level to put him in the White House. This election my fervent wish to end the presidency of Trump will serve to energize me again to work for one of the chosen candidates even if I am sadly not inspired by that person. May that suffice.
42
@Helen Take a look at Cory Booker's full interview on MSNBC this morning. I've been like you on this, and have been favorably aware of Booker since the doc series on his Newark mayoralty. I just didn't think he could take this next step until I saw his voice emerge even further this morning. That, and he looked a few years older than the last time I looked a thim closely.
https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/sen-booker-beating-trump-is-the-floor-not-the-ceiling-68871749897
4
@Helen--obama's pitch was hope and change.
And when all was said and done we were just hoping we would still have some change in our pockets
2
@Helen
I am inspired by candidates that see through the corporate smoke to see the corporate coup that is REPLACING humans by giving corporations the Constitutional Rights of humans.
Most of the candidates refuse to acknowledge that the reason government won't do what the majority wants is that dark money donations are corrupting our public officials.
Trump acknowledged and promised to fix it, but if course expanded it.
Bernie and Warren have been explaining the root of the problem and working to end it, for decades, while corporate hacks like Biden pretend we just need a couple of changes at the margins.
If we were really a meritocracy, Trump would not be a real estate developer, much less president.
The Right is blatantly attacking our Constitution, while centrists pretend its not happening.
It inspires me when someone actually fights for We the People.
5
I'm not sure why age is so controversial. Castro could've been more tactful but age is a critical part of a job no?
Older people "generally" lose cognitive ability compared to their younger days. "Generally." This is practiced in the private sector and while one can justifiably argue age discrimination in many cases, sometimes, age really is a hindrance to a job. Especially physically taxing jobs. I've never seen a grandpa or grandma waiting tables at a restaurant.
I don't know why age isn't a big issue in any recent campaign. McCain's age was an issue in 2008 and he was younger than candidates now. Also remember McCain and Comey's testimony. Age caught up with McCain.
It's not just about age but competence and the 2 can sometimes be tied together. I don't think Castro is wrong to point it out. Surprised no one has but he could've been more political about it.
1
Young people have more energy and quicker reflexes to save themselves from all the mistakes about which they are just oblivious. That’s why public policies that work are never the product of the young.
Biden is slower than he used to be but his judgment is still years ahead of Castro’s. But Castro needs the publicity to stay in the contest so anything that gets it will do.
1
I was proud to be a Demcrat last night. The candidates stuck to the issues and their clashes were over programs not personal. The only exception was Julián Castro whose snide ageist attack on Biden made me write him off as a viable candidate.
4
All of this infighting when the real enemy is Trump and the Republican Party.
2
There can be only one and to the most displayed in the mass media goes the victory.
Good strategy. Only one, Kamala Harris, attacking Trump and the rest laying out the Democratic policies for the country. I think Biden and Sanders should let one of the younger candidates to run against Trump. Trump is getting old and demented and we don't need to match his age. The younger the better.
Too many faults to lay out against Trump and anyone can do that not necessarily Biden or Sanders.
@Ray - your proof of trump being demented is???
@alan Can't remember his son's name?
@MKR - pretty sure that is not a sign of dementia. If so god help Biden.
This fix that is in for Biden is gets ever more ridiculous. The man was obviously barely coherent throughout. Only Julian Castro had the courage, in his own underhanded way, to point it out. Other than that the post debate coverage by and large consists of DNC types gamely extolling how Biden articulated some position or other as if he were a genuine functioning candidate. If that debate were your typical Thanksgiving gathering Biden would be the elderly relative babbling away while the young folks continue with their conversations, now and then nodding toward him politely.
My dream team, for capturing enough independents in purple states to get an electoral college majority, is Biden-Klobuchar — moderates who won't scare middle-or-the-road voters and who have enough liberal tendencies to appoint a cabinet filled with Harris, Booker, Warren, Sanders types. We want to advance a liberal agenda but first we have to get elected. And neither Biden nor Klobuchar are in the thrall of big business or big fund raising.
2
It's very annoying that the media focuses on differences of opinion among candidates in an alarmist fashion. Debates are expressions of thought, not fighting. Democrats in general are agreed on most matters, just not on how to get there. Health care for everyone, control of weapons, care for the environment, these are important subjects that need discussion and action. The fact, of course, is that we need a Congress that actually works, and I'd like to see debates among Congressional candidates, especially involving Republican members of Congress who have sat on their hands while Trump wreaks havoc.
1
I’ve been a supporter of Julián Castro, have donated to his campaign among a few others. While I respect Joe Biden, he’s not top of the ticket for me. That being said, I was really disappointed in Julián and his attack on him. With all the divisiveness and ugliness in this country now I feel as Democrats we need to stand united, not tear each other down. Stand out with bold ideas, not attacks.
3
The candidates did not appear to be concerned over how far to push their ideas. They seemed rather, concerned with having any ideas at all: monetary policy, industrial growth, science and technology, defense, fiscal management, foreign policy? Barely if any a word, and barely if any a thought. Tulsi Gabbard could have brought the most important voters together: swing, independent and moderates (of either party). All of the current candidates alienate them. Therefore, Trump will win in 2020 by an even more humiliating landslide. The Ghost of HRC is still haunting the democratic party, and until she is completely discarded and "disowned," along with former unfortunate holdouts like DNC chair and "Clintonista" Perez, it will continue to fail, and continue to move below the vision of the larger country. Voter still have a long memory and they smell the Clinton machine corruption at every turn of the party. And Obama is a net liability as well, for that same, most critical voting block. If you want to blame someone, focus on the DNC chairman, an unfortunate isolated and out-of-touch elitist academic from Brown, the Mother Ship of the radical Left, and Harvard Law, the broken extremist outpost. Americans are way too smart.
2
If Biden thinks he can retain voters by clinging to the Obama years he is wildly out of touch.
Clinton essentially ran a campaign that said 'let's have four more years of the Obama years.' And the voters said no thanks.
Yes she won the popular vote, but with Obama's great expectations of hope and change came great disappointment.
During the Obama years the top 10% did quite well. They recovered from the financial collapse, regained their losses from stocks and other investments and generally faired well in global economy.
But the 90% didn't do so well, Seven million families lost their homes. Wages remained stagnant. Over the last 30 years, rents have gone up 296%, health costs 51%, public higher education 300%, wages up 1.4% per year. This year alone there are 7 million car note delinquencies and malls closing all over the country.
The wars Obama pledged to end expanded into Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Syria. The "Asian pivot" wasn't a bold new plan to engage China in efforts to fight global warming.
It was a plan to encircle Asia with American military bases while expanding our nuclear arsenal.
Biden was a part of all this. His own independent record in congress is worse. Mass incarceration, ending AFDC, preventing students for discharging their loans in bankruptcy, favoring banks and credit card companies over consumers.
This is Biden's 'legacy.' And this is why so many voters are looking to Bernie and Warren for a fresh new vision.
3
The very first act of our new President must be removing by Executive Order all the vestiges of the Trump Presidency it is possible to remove, including restoring the pension of Andrew McCabe.
4
I find it very sad that such little time was given to Andrew Yang. It could be that the media knows that he is the most intelligent candidate in the field and with the most policy outlines. But unfortunately he is not THEIR choice for nomination. Not that I agree a 100 percent with his policy of UBI, he has so many more ideas that make such perfect sense, but will probably remain silenced during the debates unless he somehow manages to continue to make the cut. Given more speaking time, people would realize that he would run circles around the other candidates and at least get them thinking outside the box.
2
I have been sitting on the fence, but Warren is starting to look like my hero. Bernie's great and the others are good, but Joe Biden needs to move on. It's time for a new vision. That's how trump won. If Biden is the nominee, we will lose. The pundits are wrong: America is looking for a new vision, which includes Universal Health Care for starters. Joe is so out of it.
6
Why doesn’t anybody ever say that Medicare as it exists right now has a private option?
4
I know its still early but I will certainly be glad when the internal sniping is over and the democrats can then focus on the ONLY thing that matters: working together to defeat trump in the largest landslide an incumbent president has ever seen. The fate of the nation is at stake. Win in 2020, restore order and save the huge policy changes for 2024.
2
Biden just isn't as sharp as he used to be. That fact can't be ignored. He misspeaks often, which is worrisome.
I'm voting for Warren. I have great confidence in the fact she will be an excellent President. Warren is inclusive in her thoughts and she is fair minded. We need to restore dignity and honor to the White House.
To send a message to the Republican Party that Trump's way is not the American way, I hope others will join me in voting "non-Republican" on all election ballots.
4
Increasingly, Joe Biden is being "sold" to the electorate as someone who can beat Trump. That's a tough prediction to make at this point, as issues such as an expanded war or a tanked, or tanking economy, could affect Trump.
What is obvious, however, is how the media is portraying some of the actual chances for change in this economic and political system, such as funding college educations and health care. Those policy issues are generally portrayed as undoable and costly, while trillions of dollars for war are viewed as acceptable.
The elephant in the living room is the environment, which if not addressed very soon, will leave this species, and most other species. in the dustbin of history.
1
Clearly we need a sea change because the carbon cycle for the last 2 million years was doing 180-280ppm atmospheric CO2 over 10,000 years and we’ve done more change than that in 100 years.
The last time CO2 went from 180-280ppm global temperature increased by around 5 degrees C and sea level rose 130 meters.
Here’s a graph of the last 400,000 years of global temperature, CO2 and sea level http://www.ces.fau.edu/nasa/images/impacts/slr-co2-temp-400000yrs.jpg
The millennial time scale of natural exchange of CO2 in ocean and atmosphere and sea level change should not be misconstrued as the rate of ice sheet response to our unprecedentedly rapid human forced change.
We may expect 3 feet of sea level rise by 2100, and it could be 2 feet, and it could be 4 feet and it could be 15 feet.
As with many impacts from climate change things could be a little better than we think, a little worse, or a lot worse.
There’s no a lot better.
2
I'm concerned that these debates are giving Trump powerful ammunition to use against whoever is the chosen nominee. On the positive side, whoever is chosen will have nine people who will have been fully vetted for his or her administration.
1
What I continue to be disappointed in Sanders and Warren for, is their inability to cut through the "They're gonna raise your taxes and take away your private health insurance!" scare talk and focus like a laser on the massive benefits of a single-payer program. The main one is this: Peace of mind that you and your loved ones are always covered no matter where you live, how you make a living, how young or old you are, how sick or healthy you are, whether you're married or single, parent or childless, or what's in your bank account at any given moment. What a relief that would be! we're under enough stress. Jobs are no longer secure. They can be taken away on a CEO's whim. You can be downsized, outsourced, converted to temp status or contractor with no benefits. You are at the mercy of your employer not only for your livelihood but for the health insurance, which they choose for you, that will pay most, but let's remember, not all of your medical care. Those deductibles and co-pays can still force you into bankruptcy. Why do Americans want to keep living and working under this enormous stress? Even if a single-payer program did not cost less than private insurance, getting peace of mind would be a benefit of immeasurable worth.
1
Who won last night’s debate? Donald Trump won last night’s debate. The DNC should end them. They are hurting themselves putting 10 people up there and giving them 30 seconds to try and say something that the talking heads will latch on to. And, if they continue, let’s limit them to two hours. Three hours is just not fair to Joe.
It's pretty shallow to think that you have to criticize Obama if you don't support Biden.
Obama was literally one of the best presidents this country ever had, and he will also support whoever the Democratic candidate is.
Biden's enshrining of Obama isn't wrong, but it is self serving. I think people are easily duped into somehow falling for this. You literally could pick any other candidate, and find yourself with one of the strongest allies you'd ever had in Obama.
Time to talk policy. If you don't like Biden, try to notice that his whole campaign is designed to fool you into thinking somehow if you aren't voting for him, you aren't voting for Obama.
2
@D Collazo
During Obama’s watch the US became the world’s largest producer of fossil fuels and we crossed 400ppm atmospheric CO2.
Last time the planet saw such concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was at least several million years ago when temperature was several degrees warmer than today and sea level was tens of meters higher.
Clearly we have to up our game or suffer the drastic changes of our current trajectory.
6
@Erik Frederiksen Yeah, with a lashback congress. No one would have done better, sorry.
This is glass half empty damaging stuff and proves my point. You're talking as if it got better under Trump? With all the rollbacks of...Obama era guidelines? Who put the vehicle omissions regulations in?
It's a very skewed, and damaging way you are putting an administrations work into context. And when you're candidate wins, you will be seeking all the support you can get. As if Obama wouldn't want an actually better plan?
Seriously, this is falling for the trap. You link Biden with Obama which is what Biden wants. And which is why he's leading. Unless you can embrace the achievements of the Obama campaign and realize they are not a vote for Biden, you might not have Biden win, but you certainly will be promoting Trump with your inward party hating.
Get off Obama, he did as good a job as he could, and he had two terms. Now its time to argue policy, which is one thing Biden is weak on. Yes, the environment game must be upped. That doesn't come from bashing what was accomplished.
@Erik Frederiksen
Climate change is a problem for rich people. college kids, and yoga moms. The average voter does not care about this. They are concerned about jobs, paying for college, and healthcare.
After every election, political journalists lament the “horse race” coverage and focus on drama over policy. And then do it again anyway.
3
The Shallow Awards goes to Harris and Castro. She is now reduced to empty one-liners and Castro to easy pot shots. I'm betting on a Biden/Warren ticket in the future. (Although I'd love to see Warren take Trump apart.)
12
Id love to see Sanders and Warren serving as President and Vp, in which ever order. They dont agree on everything, but I think that would double their chances of winning.
6
@Guiliano Melki
At this point, whatever works getting Trump & Co. out of the WH.
1
@Guiliano Melki
Two upvotes. Sanders would have beaten Trump and the democrats were fools for annointing H Clinton because whatever one thinks of her it is undeniable that she is very unpopular and lacks charisma.
1
They all displayed one characteristic in common - that defining characteristic of today's Democratic party:
They all believe that Americans must be forced to accept the progressive worldview via regulation and legislation because the citizenryt cannot be trusted to take up that worldview on its own.
Defending the republic against such people is the reason that the Founders structured our Constitution and government the way they did.
Smug, condescenging elitists, and enemies of the Constitution.
Every one of them.
16
Notwithstanding the often overwrought analysis by the punditry - surely the election of Trump has put to rest the notion that such analysis matter or that they have any effect - what is so wrong with 'clinging' to President Obama's legacy.? It's a darn impressive list . . .
1
It heartens me to see that attacks on Biden amount to a repudiation of Obama. Thank you.
1
I’d ask where the Obama-hate comes from, but I’m pretty sure I know.
2
Mr. O’Rourke's vow to take back people's rifles was not only dumb and unworkable, but was also unconstitutional. That it got an "ovation" demonstrated the intent of the Democrats to ride herd on the American public despite even our Bill of Rights protections if given unbridled control of the government. No doubt the other candidates, as shown by what Senator Booker said, are smarter than to say something like that, but it was a troublesome moment for the whole, nevertheless.
4
Please NYT, this is not a horserace! It is an important primary debate for the people to elect/select a Presidential candidate.
These debates tell us about their knowledge ; plans ; policy direction and specifics ; personality ; their values and their vision.
The person who performed poorly was VP Joe Biden.
The person whose personality was a little too hot tempered was Julian Castro.
The person with terrific passion, but without too much plan, was Beto O'Rourke.
Great motivational speaker materials are Cory Booker and Andrew Yang. They appear like CEO material, not POTUS yet.
Harris has a great plan, perspective and a personality...But too prosecutorial in style still. She can change and improve. She needs to laugh more and cackle less.
Amy Klobuchar: smart, soft, sensible and savvy all at once. But weak on foreign policy, economics and vision. And not progressive enough for some.
Buttegieg: young, smart honest and stable. But not a standout, definitely not Presidential. At least not yet
Bernie Sanders! Salute him for what he has given and done so far. He deseves a standing ovation for two hours. But he will not win the nomination. Too tired, grumpy and not elegant.
Warren is the most ready! Give her the baton, and a great team to prepare against Trump.
(Wish Tulasi Gabbard was in the debate).
Best wishes...
@ExhaustedFightingForJusticeEveryDay There hasn't been an important debate since the League of Women Voters got out of sponsoring debates when the 2 political parties tried imposing conditions on them. What we have now is more reality TV masquerading as "debate".
Seriously, why doesn’t Yang get more talk time. By breaking up the time so unfairly, media shows its biases and influence.
2
Regarding Biden's memory: a replay of his healthcare answer showed that he did NOT say what Castro accused him of saying, namely that people would have to buy in to his plan, rather than being automatically enrolled.
3
Please NYT, this is not a horserace! It is an important primary debate for the people to elect/select a Presidential candidate.
These debates tell us about their knowledge ; plans ; policy direction and specifics ; personality ; their values and their vision.
The person who performed poorly was VP Joe Biden.
The person whose personality was a little too hot tempered was Julian Castro.
The person with terrific passion, but without too much plan, was Beto O'Rourke.
Great motivational speaker materials are Cory Booker and Andrew Yang. They appear like CEO material, not POTUS yet.
Harris has a great plan, perspective and a personality...But too prosecutorial in style still. She can change and improve. She needs to laugh more and cackle less.
Amy Klobuchar: smart, soft, sensible and savvy all at once. But weak on foreign policy, economics and vision. And not progressive enough for some.
Buttegieg: young, smart honest and stable. But not a standout, definitely not Presidential. At least not yet
Bernie Sanders! Salute him for what he has given and done so far. He deseves a standing ovation for two hours. But he will not win the nomination. Too tired, grumpy and not elegant.
Warren is the most ready! Give her the baton, and a great team to prepare against Trump.
(Wish Tulasi Gabbard was in the debate).
Am now totally convinced that Donald Trump will be re-elected in 2020. This confederacy of clowns is going nowhere, none of them. Whatever status they may have had in the national political arena is gone, they are lightweights, every one of them. Bernie, Warren, Knobloch, Booker, Harris and all the rest are where they are today as a result of the gross dumbing-down of the Democratic Party. With such a hated adversary as Trump one would think the Dems could bring forth a young, new shinning star to challenge the monster. Not so, instead a group of TV weaned nobodies.
This is also being seen in the “investigation of the investigators” being conducted by the Trump DOJ. McCabe, Comey, Clapper, et al...over confident wannabes caught up in their own egos. Ditto the news media. Goodbye Democrats.
7
How far?
Far enough to ensure a 40 state wipeout for The Donald.
(Our nation needs sane Democrats. Alas, they are far and few between...)
I didn’t watch at all because I doubted that any of them would say anything I could take seriously about the one thing I think is the most important part of the election. And until/unless they do start talking about it I wish they’d all just put a sock in it.
It won’t matter one bit who wins the White House if the Dems don’t take back the Senate from Mitch and his cronies, because without that none of their wonderful promises has any chance of ever becoming law.
1
Barack Obama is not as big a draw as Biden thinks. He barely won re-election in 2012. Coupled with the right wing standing of the leading progressive Democrats, Trump may have a chance. The progressives are as nauseating as the conservatives of the GOP. WE NEED MODERATION.
3
Uh, Obama/Biden won by 5 points, took the pop vote by almost six million, and got 332 electoral votes. That is not a squeaker.
In last night’s debate I didn’t see anyone with a big personality and a bold vision to match. Elizabeth Warren comes close but if she is nominated I hope she will jettison the part of her Medicare for all policy where she takes away the choice of private insurance.
Donald Trump won the Republican primary because he had the big personality. Voters elect presidents based on personality, vision and big ideas that may never come to fruition. And Republicans relished the idea of a Republican attack dog.
Joe Biden is the Democratic version of Jeb Bush.
I don’t know if the millennial bloc will come out for him because young voters tend to vote with their hearts. And Sanders I’m afraid does and will come off as your crazy uncle.
So I’m disappointed because I don’t see a JFK, LBJ, WJC, or Obama in this field. Any one of those candidates make Trump look like a political midget.
34
@Oliver disagree, respectfully. My generation (those of us who were raised in the heyday of reality tv starting with MTV Real World) isn’t looking for someone with a big personality. Trump appeals to Baby Boomers who don’t know how to react to this changing world of social media and reality tv. They see him as someone from their generation who has been part of reality tv and Twitter, and that makes them feel more important. But we don’t see him that way. Just watch the way Mayor Pete reacts to Trump’s dumb attacks. There’s nothing theatrical about it — that’s my generation. We know the difference between reality and reality tv. We just want a grownup with class and dignity who remains cool and calm. That’s going to be a big issue in this election.
32
@Oliver - on your point that young people vote with their heart, I disagree with the implication that older democrats don't do the same thing. I've heard more than one boomer era democrat say they'll stay home if Warren or Sanders is the nominee. I've heard some say they'd consider Trump over Sanders or Warren. I don't know why since it's not like he's fiscally conservative with solid economic policies. But people really dislike that specter of "socialism" and universal health care even if it seems to work in every other developed country on this planet.
5
@Oliver
Medicare for all only works if the pool is deep and wide enough. If Medicare for all only has the elderly and poor while private insurers have the most healthy people, government is unfairly covering the highest costs. That would be great for private insurers which is why they are against Medicare for all.
8
Mayor Pete seems comfortable serving ,under men ,such as a General. The President ,as we have noticed does never serve ,under men.Biden cites Obama ,who sequestered his Vice for the duration of his Presidency because of too many public gaffes with the media. Robert Orourke "beto" claims several times the ar 15 walked in and killed people when no weapon has actually killed anybody by itself .Without giving any ideas of enforcing gun laws we have tons of he blames the inanimate weapon itself ,effectively playing into the Republicans playbook. Of course ,none of these non candidates have a chance ,in hades,quoting beto ,of becoming candidate material ,except for maybe Warren or Kamal as a late favorite.
1
“Well, I’m for Barack — I think the Obamacare worked.”
Biden is unaware that the Consumer Price Index published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a 18.6 percent rise in insurance prices over the last year.
That means people NOT in the top quintile may have insurance but they can barely afford it (if they’re lucky) and they’re afraid to use it because of high deductibles and copays.
But to hear analysis such as this you either have to go to the comment section or the independent media, because the corporate media is written by and for the people who CAN afford insurance and AREN’T afraid to use it because of cost.
http://www.in2013dollars.com/Health-insurance/price-inflation
3
As a Republican - I watch these debates with interest.
Not because, the content is interesting but because it might give us the best lines next year to go after an eventual nominee.
At the same time - this debate was so negative about what is wrong with America and Americans in general that I gave up watching towards the end.
With a roaring economy, America largely at peace with no raging wars - Congress back at work - you would think one of them would say "wait a minute. Things are not all that bad. But we can improve on. "
From healthcare, gun control, immigration - it was all America's fault.
More than half of them serve in Congress and they have done nothing.
The NYT reported a gridlock in Democrat caucus on their signature issue - guns.
And all of them said they will go with executive action in absence of congressional action.
Yet, every day - rest of Democrats in Congress and in law assail this POTUS for executive action.
I have news for a wannabe nominee - DC is so broken and in open warfare that even a Democrat POTUS will act the same way this POTUS does.
Come to think of it the 45th is copying 44th - when it comes to Executive actions.
Except that he is undoing most of 44thactions - and not adding any new ones.
3
@Neil. I hate to point out the obvious, but here goes. Indeed, half the democratic candidates for POTUS serve in Congress. The House, now in Democratic hands is passing law after law and sending them to the Senate where the Democratic senators do not even get a chance to debate with their Republican colleagues what the house sends because Mitch McConnell refuses to bring the bills to the floor. Of course, they are not getting anything done with Mitch blocking everything.
And as for the executive actions taken by President Barack Obama: the Republican controlled House and Senate refused to consider nigh everything that he proposed action on. He had no choice but to revert to Executive actions. By contrast, Donald Trump had a Republican House and Senate ... and still got nothing done. Oh yes, the tax break for the upper crust. And criminal justice reform which everyone regardless of political stripe had long agreed required action. DT uses Executive actions because it is in his nature to avoid Democratic processes and, obviously, to undue everything that President Obama had done.
Contrary to what seems to be a common theme in many of the initial responses, I was impressed by ALL the candidates on that stage to varying degrees. I can imagine all of them in a responsible position in the next government that will have to clear up the current mess. After a Republican administration has run up the bill, Democrats have come in to clean up the mess. Let's hope for a repeat.
1
Castro's "memory" attack was not helpful, even if nominally true. There's numerous other reasons to oppose "It is over" Biden, who piled on Anita Hill and waved through the loser, that don't involve senility. Castro's incredulousness that Biden "wants to take credit for Obama’s work, but not have to answer to any questions" was better.
Beto says "we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47", and I'm all for it. Would be a vast improvement over the milquetoast Beto we've seen in government.
Perhaps Sanders and Warren can blunt the "I'm with Barack" attack by assuring that they will defend the *current* health system of Obamacare from further GOP crazy as they transform it into something (actually) terrific. But all the candidates should demand that voters for them ALSO vote for the corresponding (D)s in Congress to make sure that won't be a problem anyway. (Go McGrath!)
Before quibbling over the Democratic nominees, please address the following concerns first: that Trump is running up the deficit by over a trillion dollars yearly; he's conducting a trade war with a country that actually owns a lot of our debt and where Trump himself owns a lot of newly acquired "Trump" trademarks - he's leveraging what now? Come on. How the government web site on climate change is still down. How there can be no plan on infrastructure without considering climate change. How there are hundreds of thousands of children born in this country but whose parents weren't who are scared to death of going home from school to find their parents gone. Address how the GOP has refused to allow - to ALLOW - a sane immigration policy that doesn't treat immigrants like a subspecies. How Mitch McConnell won't even allow this congress to argue a bill, let alone pass one.
Address how our country is in shambles due to a shameless bunch of influence-peddling self-serving bigots who call themselves the "moral majority" and the "party of fiscal prudence" as if our country is a gas-lit stage set by them for the Theater of the Absurd.
Address all of that first, and THEN you can quibble about which Democratic party nominee is best suited to affect change for the better. As far as I'm concerned, they ALL are.
6
Choice is clear for minority voters. Republican if you are seeking dignity and meaningful work or Democrat if your goal is government handouts and family economic stagnation.
3
@clarity007
You certainly use a broad brush.
How do you define “meaningful work?” Is working multiple jobs for minimum wage compensation at positions beneath your skill level meaningful?
How do you define dignity? Is dignity being afraid to go to a shopping center because you’re worried you’ll be gunned down?
How are you defining handouts? Do you mean affordable, equitable healthcare is a handout?
What is family economic stagnation — living pay check to pay check and having consumer debt? Or is it not being able to cautiously invest with any success because the interest rates on your CDs, bonds and savings accounts bring little return?
1
I don’t know whether it’s because of Trump or increased cynicism about politicians or both or because of other factors but like it or not too many voters can no longer listen to politicians who they believe are phony, who feign interest, who feign sympathy or will say what the voters want to hear, i.e. mostly everyone who participated in last night’s debate. The old campaign playbook just doesn’t work anymore. IMHO these voters would like a candidate who can dish it out to Trump and Republicans and tout his/her own views in a captivating way (without Trump’s narcissism, offensiveness, lying etc.). I believe that such a thing is possible.
3
It is absolutely beyond me how the worst public speaker with the worst memory and the worst track record Is the front runner of the Democratic primary. Joe Biden is not a bad man but he is handily oushone by nearly every other candidate on that stage. America can simply not afford another president who is losing his memory, takes credit for things he didn’t do, and makes nonstop gaffes. The electorate is already fed up to the back teeth with all of this with the current president!
6
@WGM
You err in stating that Biden is “outshone” by the others, he is not outshone, he stands a notch or two above all of them. That’s the problem...Joe Biden with his dismal record in gov’t and his bucketful of flaws is the best the Dems have in 2020. Sad. The Republicans could not have choreographed a better Dem election campaign.
Meanwhile Trump is looking and acting more presidential everyday: economy soaring, stock market records, immigration dropping, China blinking and on and on.
The talk will soon will be, if not already going on, who will Trump anoint in 2024 to succeed him and carry on.
1
@Back Up
Yeah, no. Nothing Trump does looks presidential. Biden certainly does not stand "a notch or two above" any of the other primary contenders. There is no "republican choreography" involved with this democratic primary. On the subject of Trump, the economy is on a billionaire tax cut sugar high which America is about to handily crash from, and China is winning the trade war. The Trump administration just gave the go ahead to the Environmental Destruction Agency to roll back clean water protections. I could go on and on and on about just how increasingly unpresidential Trump looks every single day. Any single candidate on that state, including Joe Biden will make an exponentially better president than Donald Trump, although I personally hope it is Elizabeth Warren, followed by a Bernie Sanders in close second place.
1
The article surprisingly misses so much of the positive last night. The solid agreement on: yes, we aim for some sort of universal HC; Yes, we fund public education; yes, we deal very directly with climate; yes. we confront NRA big-time; yes, we restore environmental regulations; yes, we fix immigration.
This article and the previous NYT article appear to be written by soft GOP pack animals trying deliberately diminish these clearly strong agreements -- in favor of what they thought were journalistic light-lunches.
5
The empty promises of free everything and dictator-light executive actions guarantees President Trump another 4 years. Keep it up. We really appreciate them campaigning for Trump 2020.
@Jon Galt I don't know, a dictator has things like problems with the actual weather and has to draw sharpie lines on maps because his ego is so thin he can't admit when he's obviously wrong :)
1
@Jon Galt
Ayn Rand would be impressed with your spin. So would Trump.
Just to make it clear to you — neither of those statements is a compliment, but, like Trump, you can always lie your way into believing they are.
From the article: “some of his rivals said the party needed to move well beyond the policies of the last Democratic president”.
During Obama’s watch the US became the world’s largest producer of fossil fuels and we crossed 400ppm atmospheric CO2.
Last time the planet saw such concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was at least several million years ago when temperature was several degrees warmer than today and sea level was tens of meters higher.
Clearly we have to up our game or suffer the drastic changes of our current trajectory.
5
@Erik Frederiksen...
Here’s the CO2 parts per million number grouping: 149-411-1500-8000ppm
at...
149 ppm: plants die, then we die.
411 is now (2019).
1500 is when plants thrive 30% better than now.
8000: sailors in submarines work for extended periods of time, but it’s arguably not optimal (should be less).
What do these numbers tell you? They indicate that we’ve done a really good job placing CO2 into a sweet spot for plant growth, since volcanic activity and other natural sources have not been enough to keep the number high enough, the way plants like it.
If anything, the current political environment far left and far right show just how irrelevant plants are to these extreme groups. The one side would starve the plants of food (CO2) and the other would poison them with carbon MONOXIDE, chemicals, etc.
The best invention ever to be created with regard to automobiles is the catalytic converter, because it massively reduces the CO (carbon monoxide) coming out the tail pipe by up to 95%!...as well as other SMOG producing gases.
In essence, CO2 is not the problem at all. It’s the basis of all life on this planet! Anyone calling CO2 pollution is a moron! The real question we should be asking ourselves is why we place human needs on a pedestal instead of focusing on what plants want:
Clean air with enough CO2, clean water and clean healthy soil, free of dangerous pesticides and chemicals.
@William Perrigo
Plants care if it’s too hot or too cold, if it’s too wet or too dry, if they lose pollinators or get hit by an invasive.
All of which are increasing with climate change.
1
The Republicans cannot reelect Trump. Only the Democrats can do that. Unfortunately, their circular firing squad, the only thing they are currently adept at, is heading in that direction.
The 2020 election boils down to Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and, perhaps, one other state. It is irrelevant if another million people vote for the Democrat in California and New York or another million people vote for Trump in Indiana and Alabama.
The voters Democrats need to reach tend toward politicians who they feel can deliver on their immediate interests, not long-term abstractions. What those who want to oust Trump need to do is focus on what's actually relevant to the voters up for grabs, not a fantasy wish list, not what some Democrats think should be relevant to those people. Warren's "plans" may appeal to the (mostly white and college-educated) twitterati and punditocracy, but the people the Democrats need have heard big promises for decades, and they are looking for candidates who will deliver on a limited but realistic agenda, not a candidate who promises utopia with no indication that she or he actually knows how to accomplish anything in the Washington of 2020. That's why Biden is the large polling favorite of Blacks and Hispanics.
Amy Klobuchar would be an excellent choice for Vice-President with Joe Biden. Unlike Warren, she seems to know how to talk to, not at, people. As important, she knows how to listen. To make change, it's Biden in 2020, Klobuchar in 2024.
8
I wasn't crazy about Warren's praise of Obama regarding fundamentally changing healthcare - at the same time costs have done nothing but spiral out of control, providers have pulled out.
Sorry Senator, you can't have it both ways.
4
Biden was really uncomfortable to watch. I genuinely felt embarrassed for him every time he spoke...he will not fare well against trump I fear. not going to be electable at all. booker and Warren on the other hand absolutely commanded the stage in my opinion, and were sure footed the entire night. a warren/Booker or warren/buttigieg ticket would be unbeatable and finally give Democrats and Americans hope for the future again
16
I agree with Frank Bruni's assessment of Harris' performance:
"Something weird has happened to Harris: She has gone from smoothly generating electric moments — on the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the first Democratic presidential debate — to contriving them, so that they have no glow or sizzle at all. I want to root for her but she just won’t let me."
My husband, who continues to want to like her as much as I did six months ago, said that her affect last night was odd. It was as though she was on some medication that made her spacey.
2
@Cousy
I believe this is what happens when a candidate for high office is under fire and in order to tell people what they might want to hear, really don't believe in the policies she is espousing. All one has to to is look at both Senators Sanders and Warren who actually believe in the policies they are committed to. There is absolutely no doubt about their positions and it shows.
1
@Cousy
She was trying to be hip.
Bad idea.
2
Each candidate had relevant and important ideas that they all tended to communicate fairly well, even Biden, who seems to get a bit tongue-tied at times. However, all of us Americans should remember that the main goal of the 2020 election is to get Trump OUT of office. The entire stage of last night's debate could be the next president's cabinet. Methinks that substantive discussion (not debate at this time, geez the convention is many months away) would better serve all of these candidates. Let's discuss infrastructure, foreign policy, education and health care in depth, not the 30 second monologues that contain emotionally laden phrases. But remember, Trump just has to go.
7
Based on any reasonable analysis single payer is the way to go. The US healthcare system is so expensive in its current state the conversion to single payer would save a fortune.
A single payer system would have to deliver more healthcare services to meet the needs of of the many Americans who have inadequate care because they can't afford it. But even with the increased services the cost of the single payer system would be less than the total now paid in private insurance premiums and taxes which go to fund healthcare costs. Yes, taxes would go up, but private health insurance premiums would be eliminated, producing a net savings, and services would be increased.
The real issue here is not the cost of single payer, it is the unwillingness to disrupt the private insurance arrangements now enjoyed by 149 million Americans and the unwillingness to disrupt the role of the private sector health insurers in the US.
8
@gbc1 I have one question that I never see answered and even more rarely addressed: how is a single payer system going to satisfy surgeons who expect to earn at the minimum 500-600K/year in this country? If an MRI to rule out stroke costs 10K [and Level 1 or 1 emergency departments run these at least once or twice per day], how is that cost going to be absorbed in a single payer system? Just an example of the many, many costs...as a nurse with 40 years experience, I dread the day when the patient isn't denied care...but told that the facility can no longer bear the cost of providing it.
2
@Snidely
Canada with its single payer system certainly has many surgeons who earn $500-600K per year, and more. However, the highest physician incomes in the US are no doubt above that level and are likely not matched in Canada.
A single payer system offers two opportunities for cost reductions, namely (I) increased efficiencies/lower costs in paying for services, and (ii) cost controls over the services provided. The reimbursement for an MRI would be fixed at specified amount, which would be determined based on an analysis of the cost of providing the service, and no more, not what the hospital wanted to charge.
The switch to single payer in the US would be a massive change, it would affect everyone in healthcare very dramatically, not just healthcare insurers. It too big a change for Americans to digest, which is why Joe Biden is probably right that the way to go is to improve the ACA, not tear down the entire US healthcare system, even if the latter would likely provide a better result in the end.
1
@gbc1
Careful. The U.S. would no longer be the back stop for those canadians needing acute care or specialized treatments not readily available under the canadian system. Why not allow a private insurance option as most other nationalized heath care countries do?
Mr. O’Rourke won a booming ovation from the audience when he was asked whether he would try to confiscate some weapons. “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” he said. “We’re not going to allow it to be used against fellow Americans anymore.”
All the attorneys in the audience know this is idea is non-starter. The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution includes a provision known as the Takings Clause, which states that "private property [shall not] be taken for public use, without just compensation."
A voluntary buyback program seems more workable.
5
@Dream Weaver Maybe 0.01% of AR15 owners would agree to a voluntary buyback. It ain't going to happen.
@Dream Weaver
Yes, I agree a buyback would be a fairer way to go.
But would the assault weapons qualify as private property for public use? Yes, they are private property, but what public use would they have? Is the assumption they would be transferred to the military? Or would they become scrap metal? And if scrap metal, would that be public use? I’m not an attorney so my translation of the provision may be naive.
@Dream Weaver I believe O'Rourke has already expressed prior to this debate that it would be a buyback and therefore well within the amendment you speak of. He's just phrasing it in the way that the guns will be 'taken back'. You know, campaign slogans and stuff.
MFA doesn't cost more, it costs LESS. That's the reason so many countries switched. Don't forget, half of what Americans are currently paying is the profit margin of the healthcos. MFA is non profit for the gov. I don't believe Americans can't do what so many others have already done. And many of those countries have longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality.
Plus doctors currently accepting Medicare patients would also accept MFA patients. They'd get paid the same so there's no reason not to. It would just be the gov paying instead of the insurance companies. Those who don't, patients would have to choose between keeping that doctor or keeping 100s of dollars more a month in their pockets. Somehow I think most would choose to keep the money.
18
@JimmySerious
Medicare for all is kinda what we already have with Obamacare. It's what ACA was based on.
Btw, can someone finally address the glaring omission by most of the "leading" candidates: Medicare isn't free and the Affordable Care Act isn't affordable?
1
@JimmySerious
Do you realize that many doctors don't want to accept Medicare?
@AB
It's not that doctors don't want to accept Medicare. They want the same money per patient as they get for seeing other patients. But they accept it because they end up with more money overall than they would get from just seeing insurance patients.
In an MFA system, patients aren't reluctant to see a doctor when they need to because of deductibles or copays. So with more patients wanting to see them, doctors may have more potential to increase their income than under the current system. No system is perfect. But one of the problems with MFA is a doctor shortage because of increased patient demand.
Bernie needs to bow out so that Booker can rise up to the top 3.
And we do not need details on how to fix healthcare, just conviction that it needs to be addressed and changed for the better. Does anyone remember Tump won on just saying he had a plan, a great plan, with absolutely no details. I'm just saying if we get lost in the quagmire of minutia and fist fighting over who's plan is correct, we are going to lose many American's support, they don't really want to hear it. Not yet. Not now. Amongst all the things going on, and the ongoing political noise, it's just overload.
12
Bernie needs to bow out for Booker? On what planet does that happen? And why?
2
@Fromjersey
Huh? Why on earth someone who's in good position to win three of the first four contests bow out for the benefit of a candidate who has struggled to hit 2%, and who doesn't share some of the his important positions?
1
@Fromjersey Need I call your attention to the US map of supporters from your very own NYT which shows Bernie Sanders nation-wide support dwarfing that of any other candidate? They had to take his results out of the map for the other candidates in order for their small pockets of support to be visible.
If anyone needs to bow out it is Booker.
1
I disliked the debate format. They reasked many questions from Debate #1 and Debate #2. Let's also talk about tax policy, infrastructure, increasing voter turnout, raising the Federal minimum wage, unions, Supreme Court, etc.
10
Yes, the press is almost completely lacking in imagination.
1
Mr. Castro certainly came off as petty and small with his disrespectul swipe at Mr. Biden. If I were a democrat, I wouldn't vote for him just because of that. All of them, though, have convienently forgotten that the ACA exploded costs because of furthering governmental controls — which will happen even more so should the medicare for all ever come into reality. And while they openly parade their idea that everyone will have open access to all doctors and hospitals, they do not even mention how access to medical care itself will also come under control when costs will have to be curtailed. Doctors will not be able to pursue what they know to be the best care. If anyone thinks that insurance companies are now controlling medical care, wait until the federal government gets its self serving greedy hands on it all.
9
@Len I've been on Medicare for five years and my husband for nine. For 40 years before that , it was a long parade of private insurers as we moved from job to job, state to state as most Americans do. There is not room here to describe the problems we had with the private insurers, which is why the ACA was created. We have had ZERO problems with Medicare. I can tell no difference in the quality of care from doctors and hospitals we received under either, so don't go scaring people away from a government-run insurance program on that account. Peace of mind that you're always covered, no matter how your life changes, if the greatest benefit of Medicare for All and God knows Americans need peace of mind these days.
30
@Len
I have held several different jobs and had several different healthcare plans. I didn’t love any of them.
Currently, my insurance is through a HMO. I really don’t love that. I had a great relationship with my primary care physician but can no longer see her because I am limited to those medical professionals provided by the HMO.
Conversely, I have a 90 year old relative who’s been on Medicare for years, and has had the same doctor for longer than I can remember. She’s as healthy as people 30 or 40 years younger
2
@abigail49 Yes, I am sure you are right. I, too, know first hand about Medicare. It is much better, as you describe, than private insurance. I did not write to scare anyone. But if so many hundreds of millions more are on it, no longer will it be able to keep pace with the spending. Already, now, the Medicare program has it's financial problems, which will have to be dealt with to insure a future program that is as good as you correctly write.
2
"Mr. Biden was steadier in what was his third debate of the primary contest, rattling off statistics and parrying attacks with good cheer, though he still rambled at other moments."
That wasn't what I saw. Every time he spoke, Biden couldn't form a complete sentence, diverting before he could make a point into some vague story about his father or Obama etc.
I am quite worried that this man is the Democratic front runner. If he wins the nomination Trump will run circles around him (which I believe notwithstanding the conventional wisdom that he could beat Trump). Biden is not mentally sharp enough to participate in a fast-paced debate, and his frequent mis-statements call into question his ability to lead the country out of the dark hole it has been dumped into by the current administration. Trump gets a "pass" from his base for his bumbling statements, which they excuse as "authentic". Biden will get no such pass - people will vote for him if they trust he can do the job.
The stakes are too high. Please, Mr. Biden, drop out of the race and let someone else assume the mantle.
25
Thankfully Biden is a candidate. According to the increasingly far left, America is now a country of victims, preyed on by anyone who has become successful, operating in a rigged system. There is no personal responsibility, no path to greatness, no uncharted horizon. The only path to personal success is to dismantle capitalism, redistribute wealth, and pass laws that favor minorities. As a first generation, bi-racial, entrepreneur whose families came from two communist countries, America despite its imperfections is a place of great opportunity. I despise Trump but cannot fathom voting for Warren/Sanders and see the country I love dismantled.
11
@Chris Biden running on a platform of
Obama, Obama, Obama
Does nothing. Remember Obama is why we have Trump
Biden brings nothing new to the discussion. He needs to go spend time with his family and write his memoirs, while he still can remember, sort of...
1
@Moana
"Remember Obama is why we have Trump"
Totally wrong. Hillary is why we have Trump.
When it comes to health care coverage, or anything, even beer, many people are resistant to change something that is working for them for something unknown and untested.
On another note, I picked up on something Biden said during his reply to the final question about resiliency, he mentioned his son did not want him to run for president. Do I sense a hedge here? Is Joe starting to weigh his commitment to public service against his promise to Beau?
1
And by unknown and untested you mean a system used in dozens of countries and by seniors in USA?
What I wouldn't give to hear Biden and Warren and Sanders discuss the corporate haven Biden has created in Delaware and how progressive plans to redistribute wealth contrast would affect that corporate power. But if wishes were horses....
Thanks NYT for the coverage of this debate because I really can't stand ABC, or this insane debate format the DNC requires. CNN's town hall is still the most useful and informative event we've had. We need to hear more from Biden, Warren and Sanders and more about Biden's long history with the corporations who have registered in Delaware because of little things like making it a law that the shareholders must come first, before consumers and employees. Or making it harder for ordinary people to file bankruptcy. If there were as much coverage about that as there was about his patting a few women we'd be better informed. Biden has a lot of explaining to do and no one's asking him. Please start.
22
Please, stop the debates. This isn't a horse race, the way the media wants to portray it. This seemingly endless traveling show has done nothing but reveal snapshots of weaknesses among the candidates that the Republicans will turn into major character flaws by the time the primaries roll around, which cannot be soon enough. Let the caucuses and primaries determine who is the best candidate and not these dog and pony shows.
8
@Augustus How should the primary voters know who to elect, without debates?
1
@Carl M
The debates should be just one of the tools we use to select a candidate. They all have web pages that outline their policies in detail. There are also a myriad of articles written about them. And then, if they’re career politicians, their voting records, attendance, etc. are available to us, also.
If we chose a president with half the care we use in buying a new car, house or even clothing, we wouldn’t have who we have today.
1
Warren unfurled a very selective autobiography. She somehow failed to mention to that until she was in her mid-40s she was a libertarian Republicans. Nor did she make any mention of her claim of Native-American heritage which, more than anything else she ever did, led to her having law school faculty appointments ending up with Harvard which gave her the platform to become a nationally known figure and enter politics.
Sanders doesn't talk much about his personal autobiography but as far as I'm aware, there's nothing in it about which he would be ashamed to mention.
9
The head of the committee that selected Warren has repeatedly said that they did not know about or discuss Warren's supposed native-American background. Clearly frustrated, he said he was sick and tired of having to say the same thing over and over again.
@Steve
Trump was once a Democrat and pro-life. That didn’t/doesn’t seem to bother his acolytes.
Life is about change. If you haven’t been open to change, or experienced much of it, it doesn’t seem like there’s been a lot of personal growth. (That is not a dig a Sanders).
Moreover, making mistakes or errors in judgement is human. Acknowledging those mistakes and errors, and trying to rectify them when possible, is what makes us better — for ourselves and others.
@Steve. You should inform yourself. Sanders spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union. Spent several months living in a socialist Israeli kibbutz. Wrote an essay about a woman fantasizing about being gang raped.
There is plenty of dirt Republicans have to use against Sanders should he become the Dem nominee.
“A harshly contentious clash between Mr. Biden and Mr. Castro provided one of the most heated exchanges of the evening, at least in terms of political theatrics. Seizing on a moment in which Mr. Biden described his health care proposals imprecisely, Mr. Castro questioned Mr. Biden’s memory — a charged subject for the former vice president, who is 76.”
Check the transcript; what Castro said was as bigoted as it was factually wrong. Mr. Castro is an embarrassment to American political discourse. The Democratic Party ought to expel him from their ranks for his comments, attitude and dangerous policies.
10
Beto is too young and inexperienced to understand why forcing people to surrender their guns because he thinks that they should is only his opinion not sound public policy in a huge and diverse country. He should not be wasting our time running until he grasps what liberal democratic governance happens to be.
3
Clash? No it was healthy debate.i know it's been awhile since we have seen an exchange of ideas without insult attached but we should still be able to recognize healthy, debate. The media needs to stop sensationalizing everything.
4
Those idealistic, passionate left wing zealots of the democratic party might want to move well beyond the policies of the last Democratic president,
but when they wake up after the 2020 election to notice that their party won California and Boulder. Colorado by 98.2 %,
and Mr. Trump won,
they will feel justified in ignoring the average American struggling with healthcare, three jobs, and their children being slaughtered with assault rifles in our public schools and churches.
4
Debate was too long. For those of us on the east coast with jobs to go to in the morning, staying up until 11 pm is not likely.
2
I’m torn between Bernie and Biden, and love em both for different reasons.
Of course Bernie is right but Biden is real and of good character. And he does respect the rule of law. Governing is actually about ruling by law, not how mean, witty, and quick one appears on reality tv. Or are we fishing for another star with better and quicker twitters and no history of making the best of poor choices? Get real. That’s what it all is, this politics game.And I noticed no one asked what Bernie and Warren’s plans will do to the economy, to jobs. Not a word...i don’t think we really have a Party. If we did, these candidates would work out their differences and bring us a slate and a platform. All to eager to win, I guess. Hubris wins. We get what we deserve and there is some comfort in that. Hope it’s not that annoying preachy screech Warren with her endless answers to everything and no experience in making it happen. Age is wiser, children. Live and learn.
2
Biden won by not losing. Biden also won by defending improving Obamacare by adding a public option while forcefully challenging both Sens. Sanders and Warren to explain how they'll pay for "Medicare for All" and they couldn't. Pete Buttigieg also pointed out the pending attack on it as "socialism" since it denies consumers the choice of insurance which is the hallmark of our consumer-driven capitalist system. Even though I'm on Medicare; even though I'm progressive; I know that "Medicare for All" is THE issue that will allow Trump along with allies in the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries joined by hospital associations and physicians who know (as a former professor of public health who also has a son who's a physician), as I do, that Medicare's reimbursement rates are much too low to prevent massive bankruptcies. And, if I had a choice of keeping my former employer-provided health insurance where no physicians ever opted-out as they do with Medicare and also provided drug coverage, I'd choose it in a heartbeat. Health care is a winning issue for Democrats in 2020 as it was in 2018, but not if they push for the divisive "perfect" over the achievable reality of a politically feasible goal of universal health insurance through the market place where can consumers can choose a public option or keep their current plan.
51
You must not have been paying very close attention to the debate last night. Yes, there will be a raise in taxes to pay for M4A, but it will be offset by the fact that Americans won't have to pay for premiums, deductibles, co-pays or out of pocket expenses (i.e. private taxes). And Sanders and Warren both pointed out that Biden's plan still leaves millions uninsured (which makes the whole system just more expensive).
And once again Biden did not look good last night. He generally looked lost and gave meandering, rambling answers that ultimately went nowhere (like the "record player" comment).
30
@Neddy Seagoon. I don’t believe the problem is Mr. Workman not paying atttention, he is pointing out, I believe, the political reality that, in the general election, the Republicans will say “ higher taxes” and “ socialism” and that will scare the electorate. He is correct. If we learned anything in 2016 it is that sound bites work in this country and that issues that are complex are decided in favor of those who boil them down to easy answers. Let’s deal in political reality.
12
@Neddy Seagoon
ROFL.
Medicare is not free.
Seniors do pay quarterly premiums. They do need to also buy supplemental insurance and pay out of pocket, because Medicare covers very little.
10
Does electability matter? If so, then the current top three contenders may not be who the Democrats should nominate — they are too old. Before you reflexively accuse me of ageism, consider this: the Dems, as the forward-looking party, only seem to win in Presidential general elections when they nominate someone in their 40s or 50s. By my count, the last Dem over 60 to win in the general election was WH Harrison in 1841. (Trivia — he only lasted a month in office.). Warren, the “youngster” among the front-runners, will be almost 70, the other two will be closer to 80.
The Republicans, the party of the status quo, do win general elections with older nominees, but not the Dems.
25
@David
Yet none of the younger candidates appear to have much popularity at all. They are inauthentic.
Beto is hanging his hat on gun control.
Kamala is begging Trump to attack her on Twitter.
Yang has great ideas but not enough enthusiasm.
Klobuchar.. is from the Midwest?
Castro is pretty impressive but his social justice pandering alienates most of the electorate.
Stanford grad Booker who grew up as upper middle class pretends he's from the PJs.
Buttigieg is just another neoliberal.
I think any would be better than Trump of course, but nobody seems to have what it takes besides the big 3.
11
@David, at 70, Warren looks and sounds so much healthier than some of her counterparts in their 50s. Age is a number, being healthy is of prime importance. Not all 40 and 50 year olds health and in tip top shape.
13
@David you make a great point, but I’m not sure that this election is about age so much as it is about temperament and fitness for office. Sometimes I tend to lump all baby boomers into one pile (especially when I tire of their technology questions) but there is a distinct difference between Joe/Elizabeth/Bernie and Trump. All of them are more fit for office than he is and that’s obvious to anyone with eyes and ears.
2
To Joe Biden we must ask "If Obamacare is working why are so many Americans without health insurance and why is it so unaffordable for so many today. Obamacare was/is a timid approach to health care reform which was squashed by the insurance industry and their Republican cohorts in the U.S. Congress and state legislatures. Only Medicare for all or a system that is already proven to work, as in Canada or many European countries, today, can we actually provide health care for all at the lowest possible cost. People who like their private insurance today are actually now paying more for what they would get under a universal single payer plan by the money their employer now takes from what they would have otherwise earned in $$$$. Yes taxes would be higher, but so would salaries, and premiums and deductibles would be less because those would be paid through taxes. In the end the individual costs would be probably the same and everyone would be covered. In other words, more money would go into actual health care delivery instead of into the pockets of the Insurance industry and politicians and the ridiculously bloated bureaucracy devoted to the administration of the current hodge-podge system. We do not need to invent something new; the equivalence of Medicare for all is working very well in so many civilized countries in the world today.
162
@RLW: That is easy. The ACA has been sabotaged in every way. Parts of it has been dismantled and some republican states have refused to implement it. This is why the satisfaction is uneven.
38
@RLW
And Joe would say "Obamacare has been gutted by Republicans for the last decade, and they have replaced it with nothing. That is why it isn't working. If we couldn't get Republicans on board with the timid approach, how will half of America like medicare for all stuffed down their throats in the same way?"
Obamacare lost the Democrats the House and eventually the Senate because it was too big, too soon. And since medicare for all is even bigger, even sooner, the same thing will happen in 2022 as did in 2010 - big Republican wins, and they rip out Medicare for all just like they did Obamacare.
Democrats have to face the fact that half of this country is Republican and they can't force them to accept something because Democrats think its the best idea. That's what Republicans do.
12
@RLW
I am all for Medicare for all. But the problem is that Sanders and Warren want to take choice if voters want to keep their private insurance. Warren was wrong when she said she never met anyone who liked their private insurance, insinuating that people like their doctors but not their insurance. But you can’t separate the two because your lovable doctor comes with your insurance.
If the Democrats nominate a candidate who will take away that choice they will lose the election because of that issue.
11
We recorded the debate so we could repeat what’s said, watch carefully and listened. Last night’s debate was the best one yet! My husband and ugh these were the winners:
Beto O’Rourke
Amy Klobuchar
Mayor Pete
Cory Booker
Kamala Harris
Joe Biden
In this order. Biden is a good guy, he polls very well among Working class folks, and among African Americans. I’m still undecided about whom I will caucus for, however, even with Joe’s gaffes and Julian Castro’s rudeness to the former VP, ANYONE on the stage last night is far better, more sane, compassionate, honest, hard working and sincere than the Grifter-in-the-Oval-Office!
1
The most likely candidate to knock Biden off his pedestal is Biden himself, especially if voters pay attention to the confusion he blurts out incessantly. His sole positive moment in last night's debate had nothing to do with his own performance; it was Julian Castro's ill-judged and intemperate blindside against him.
Maybe I am slow but I barely understood a word that Biden said, as he pinballed incoherently from point to point, struggling for words to carry thoughts that sounded as though they had just come out of the tumble-dry cycle of a clothes dryer. No other candidate left me scratching my head like this.
Except for Castro, the younger candidates came across as rational and knowledgeable yet passionate. Beto hit a home run on guns with his strong, intelligent, heartfelt call for recalling our streetside glut of weapons of war. Major Pete was his usual cogent, decent and compassionate self.
Elizabeth Warren was her usual wonkish fountain of plans and ideas, but Joe showed himself no longer up to the job of presidency of the United States.
64
@John LeBaron
Yes, maybe. But his closing remarks were as coherent, authentic and compelling as everything we’re looking for in our next President. It was a reminder why Joe Biden is a forceful contender for the nomination. The whole time I was thinking “Our current President wouldn’t even know how to answer such a question.”
5
@Rich R. I agree, especially with your second point. But the debate was 2.5 hours long. The closing statement followed a well-rehearsed script. As for thinking 0n his feet during the give-and-take Joe Biden, bless his heart, was awash at sea.
12
@John LeBaron
You're not slow. A lot of what Biden says is barely coherent. He throws together a lot of points without threading them together into a focused argument or message and often he seems to get lost in the middle.
A lot of people want him to be the calm, moderate, sensible elder statesman. But he really isn't that. He's a nice guy, with mediocre and washed up ideas from the 1980s. Trump will eat him alive I'm afraid.
9
Joe Biden is as big of a flimflam man as Donald Trump: Biden tacitly shifts responsibility onto Barack Obama for failings that came of what Biden had been charged with doing, takes buddy-boy credit for the good that Obama struggled mightily to get done, and for background Biden pretends to have given Obama great advice that must ever remain for the president’s ears only. From Afghanistan to health care at home, Biden has been a dud in terms of contributing to making progress for all Americans.
That is Biden’s signature for making America great for those for whom it is, and that which is not so good will remains good enough for all others. To wit, those lucky enough to have tolerable access to health care via the private health insurance racket and keep it, and those that do not will remains left wanting. Either Biden does not get it, or he does not care---private health insurance does not provide the smallest band aid of actual healthcare, it rakes and takes huge sums out of the payment stream of the care that they let get delivered.
The people of our land spend more on health care than any other nation in the world and are not getting their money’s worth. Biden flimflams that people that supposedly like better access to care via private health insurance care will keep it, and those getting second-rate medicate via Medicare will keep it.
9
“The Democratic Party’s lively, sometimes heated internal disagreements were on vivid display throughout the night...”
This is a good thing. Contrast this with certain other parties (who shall remain nameless here), who have recently shown a tendency to value loyalty to individual personalities rather than democratic principles.
1
Obamacare is not what President Obama wanted. He wanted more progressive health coverage but because he knew he would have to work with Republican controlled legislators, that’s what he proposed. It was a fight to get what he did. I believe Obama, like me and many other Americans, would like to see something closer to a first-world health care system - and there are several that work successfully now. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just find our niche with an already proven health care system.
4
@Barbara Snider . The Democrats did not need to work with the Republicans, because they had a veto proof majority for long enough to pass health care reform. There was substantial opposition to progressive health care within the Democratic party - for example from Lieberman. Obama quickly enough abandoned his campaign pledge for single payer, and the Democrats ended up passing something that is extremely similar to an old proposal by the Heritage Foundation. The Republicans are not the ones to blame for the failures of the ACA.
9
@Barbara Snider. Work with Republican controlled legislators? Huh? Democrats controlled the house and senate ... and this is the best they could do sigh.
Some parts of Obama’s legacy are not worth protecting. Obamacare was essentially RomneyCare but on a national level, a proposal by the conservative Heritage Foundation. As for his foreign policy, the Iran deal was certainly significant, but Obama also increased the use of drones. Trump’s more isolationist rhetoric on foreign policy (though he’s not living up to it) is better received than Biden’s call for continuing to be the world’s police. They need a candidate who nullifies his foreign policy appeal while also actually advocating and fighting for left populist ideas. That candidate isn’t Biden. It’s Sanders.
16
Some candidates may be distancing themselves from Obama, but any of them would want the adulation which he still inspires.He was so human, so self deprecating, so willing to celebrate others and so eager to be responsive to the voters.Every night he read letters from ordinary people and responded to them.Abraham Lincoln , also from Illinois , was famous for telling folksy stories-Obama had this same ability to engage with people.Candidates may want to be different but they would do better by emulating his best, most endearing qualities.Some candidates are likable enough,but they are not Obama. We need a warm, honest, likable human being in the White House.
4
@JANET MICHAEL. He was an academic who wasn’t interested in governing. His foreign policy was a disaster. Remember the red line? He pulled out of Iraq too early and gave us ISIS.
2
Joe Biden's embrace of Obamacare apparently out of loyalty to Barack Obama is no better than Republicans' rejection of Obamacare due to their intense dislike of Obama. Biden's criticism of Sanders and Warren for wanting to move on to what they view as better policy was out of line. Government policy should not be determined by politicians' feelings about Obama or any other individual. It should be about what's bast for the country. And Biden hasn't explained how his healthcare plan would have any better chance of getting through Congress than so-called Medicare for All, especially since the public option didn't pass when the ACA was first enacted and both houses were led by Democrats. Sanders and Warren should be less evasive when talking about paying for their plans.
4
Looking at that set, they should just have them play a game of jeopardy to see who gets the nomination - runner up can be vp.
2
How about a healthcare approach that includes a public option but which contemplates a 10 year (or so - taking into account implementation time) trial period so that people can get a sense of what the impact of the change would be? Sounds messy - what in this area wouldn't be - but putting a sunset provision would ease some people's minds that if the plan doesn't work as advertised they can return to what existed before. This would make healthcare the central issue in some future presidential election but, honestly, that's how it should be. This is an area of existential concern for our country and the idea that you get to make the choice once - without seeing how it would actually work on the ground - seems ludicrous. People need to see how any plan actually works as implemented and then make the decision on whether they want to keep it. If you let it be known that there's a chance to go back, maybe more people will be willing to try the changes as proposed.
5
Obama never campaigned on the continuation of Clinton's policies. He brought a new perspective promising change but not a return to "the good old days". So it is ironic that Old Joe invoked Obama as an example, if not an excuse to vote for him. In fact, many of the Obama policies were flawed. Obamacare itself was a half baked compromise that needs some serious overhaul. Corporate bailouts were another series of policy blunders, as well. Clearly, reaching out "across the aisle" did not work then nor would it work now. History may be a good teacher but democrats need to look forward instead of attempting to live in the past.
10
I thought the most sensible statementt on approach to healthcare was Pete Buttigieg's. Trust that the American people can make the right choice for ourselves instead of the government mandating that all private insurance must go.
I have a Canadian friend who would cross the border regularly to the US side to get the medical appointments that he needs because the wait in the Canadian single payer system is too long. He is willing to pay. There may be people who may prefer to keep private insurance too.
No need to assume that all American people would be happier if their choice is taken away.
46
@Apsara the American people voted for Trump. With that said I think a hybrid system would be best.
1
He uses private doctor practice but not private insurance. Ask him would he liked to have US private insurance. Private practices will keep existing in M4A
3
@Apsara A great number of Americans don't know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. Most Americans don't understand that they have no insurance when terminating employment (unless they can pick up the tab for COBRA or live in a state that has Medicaid expansion). Most Americans don't understand what is a PPO, HMO, preferred provider, in-network and a host of other acronyms. If in the last 40 years Americans are still grappling with why they are paying nearly 20% of GDP on healthcare and yet have poorer outcomes and do not cover everyone, then I believe the question of "choice" is a way to say, "I've got mine, tough luck for you other people". In her final 17 years, my mother was paying more than 25% of her pension/SS on Rx co-pays, 10 of those under Bush's Medicare Part D (that doesn't allow the government to negotiate drug prices). I've been living here in France for the last 20 years. We have a hybrid single payer that looks like what is available in the US...Medicare for All + a supplemental private policy that picks up co-pays. The supplemental insurers are heavily regulated and are often mutual companies. We don't have bankruptcies linked to inability to pay for healthcare...healthcare is a fundamental right. I am fortunate to live a country that puts believes in "fraternité" and "egalité".
4
I initially thought the criticism of Joe Biden was unwarranted. Then I saw last night that he was unable to express a coherent sentence at times. He was yelling here and there, and it was unclear why. And he does not seem to have any clear policy ideas except being not-Trump and supposedly being the most broadly appealing candidate. Castro - who is a gnat compared to Trump - easily beat him up. It looks like Trump would destroy "Sleepy" Joe in debate, rallies and Twitter.
Warren was great and looks like she would be an awesome President. She can fight against Trump. I hope she makes space for Yang in her administration.
17
@TS
Yang was fine until then end - support for charter schools is unacceptable. Also, his weird comment about knowing lots of doctors because he's Asian was off-putting.
1
I thought that Bernie Sanders won the night with powerful answers, even though the whole debate was designed against him. Bernie was allowed few follow up questions and chances to highlight his strengths. It seemed the questions were steered to the low polling candidates. They also seemed to try to pump up Biden by having the last question about resilience knowing that Biden has lost many family members. Also why are these debates and questions being controlled by a large corporation such as ABC, these need to be held again by the Womans League of Voters.
Interesting that Warren has not been asked tough questions in the debates. Such as her transferring money from her senate run of corporate money to her primary run and accepting corporate money in the general, siding with DOW Chemical in the 90’s against breast implant victims and staying Republican til she was 47- even through the Civil Rights era.
28
@steve Well, Sanders screeched like an owl with one socialist bromide after another, while Warren was able to express the same dream like nonsense in a more pleasant tone. None of the others including VP Biden were impressive or unflawed but Biden is the one who everyone thinks alone can beat Trump, so in the absence of a new contender with real charm and class I guess we need to elevate Biden to the throne.
No star quality here.
1
@steve My only problem with Bernie’s answers was that they were all talking points from the 2016 primary. Have 3 years of Trump and McConnell taught him nothing?
1
With a rip-roaring economy, Donald Trump should be up by ten in the polls. He's not. Trump is down ten to 12 percentage points. If the Democratic nominee wants to lose in 2020 just keep pushing the ideas of free college tuition, open borders and amnesty for immigrants, free health care, and gun control along with a $1,000 guaranteed income for every American. Trump and the Republicans will take those ideas and scream the Democratic candidate is a socialist form the rooftops and Trump will be re-elected. Keep hammering the ideas of gun safety with extensive background checks and red flag laws, reformed Obamacare, regulated reformed immigration. That is a winning formula and we will have a Democratic president in 2020. Dump the idea of free college education reason being that means more taxation and most Americans are taxed enough already. Here's another great idea. Property tax amnesty for property owners 65 years of age and up. Now there's a winning proposition which would siphon support away from Trump.
8
@Jean W. Griffith
re: Over-65 property tax amnesty.
Many cities and counties already do that.
A lot of seniors just don't know that exemption exists and municipal governments often don't inform homeowners of that exemption, even though government full well knows when that individual has turned 65.
The catch is usually that a senior homeowner's annual income must be in the lower middle class range ($30,000 or less). That can be problematic to a 65+ homeowner who still earns an income from any source.
However, the primary determinant usually is the senior homeowner's AGI - annual income minus deductions as reported to the IRS on their 1040. Thus, even if one's annual income is over, say, $60,000, if they can muster $30,000 in deductions, then their AGI is but $30,000 and most municipalities grant the property tax exemption. It generally isn't then a $0 property tax but more like 15-20% of a frozen property valuation that includes the existing homestead exemption.
Did you watch the debate?! Open borders has never, ever been mentioned. Only just and humane immigration reform! Most candidates want You to keep you company insurance if you want it or you can sign up for Medicare! Democrats are the FOR Americans party!
Steadier does not translate to steady, sorry. Yes, lovable Joe walked and talked and chewed gum and his eyeball didn’t explode — I guess those are all good things. He also used notes for his opening, slurred words, mangled sentences and got some concepts wrong. A fragile, bare minimum performance that will not likely change too many hearts and minds.
As always, I remain impressed by solid Mayor Pete. Should he actually become our nominee, the election would become the starkest in history, sort of like the choice between a golden-winged Seraph and Satan’s dumbest, most bumbling of minions.
44
@raven55 I agree. Pete is pretty much our only chance against Trump. The others have way too much baggage and will get too easily flustered by him. Harris can probably stand up to him as well, but I'm not as excited about her plans.
5
Appearances are deceptive.American Democrats, especially those among the scribbling class, must learn that our best Presidents-of either party, were often non elected and also, lousy campaigners. TR was accidental. Many people forget that Dick Nixon served 2 terms as Vice under Eisenhower-maybe won the '60 election, but, (like Mrs CLinton in 2016), graciously made way for the apparent "favorite" Kennedy, (who had failed to win nomination in '56.)
LBJ was attached to the Kennedy family circus to pull a recalcitrant South. When JFK was killed, he stepped in and did , with great skill and Herculean ability, many things JFK could not or would not do:the Voting Rights act and numerous other acts of political derring-do which his appearance and ears, his slow drawl seemingly belied.he seemed like a man pulled off the street to play a President-in the era before slick packaging and speech reading teleprompters. We ought also recall Reagan was an expert speechmaker whose own staff ridiculed , because he was so incompetent. He was lucky Gorbachev pulled him along in his world saving wake. We were lucky in our enemies then.
GHW Bush,was considered a dolt among Democrats who'd lose badly in '88. But turned out a pretty good President if a lousy candidate. Pretty much all Dems now are Nixon retreads: Republican lite. Obama, also. But i'd trade Trump for Nixon or LBJ any day, & in a flash! We need to give Sen/Vice Pres. Biden-the benefit of the doubt.
3
Why is the media giving a pass to Biden’s racist, classist, incoherent response to the question on slavery?
He suggested that the legacy of slavery wasn’t the real problem but that black people don't know how to parent their children.
"It’s not that they don’t want to help. They don’t know quite what to do."
That comment was disqualifying and he ended up talking about how black parents need to use “record players”.
Only Biden can bring a question on the ills of racism and meander about Venezuela and record players and not be taken to task over this.
If Biden is the nominee, the media will turn on him and the electability argument next year when they compare the sanity of the so-called “steady hand” in the race versus the guy known to mix things up (Trump).
The media needs to cover the so-called gaffes of Biden with the seriousness they deserve: he’s rambling, he blames the victims, he forgets things.
I wouldn’t say that’s Biden is too old to be President. But, no one can say that Biden is mentally sharp to be President, he started strong but was disintegrating at the end of the three hours.
This is not a joke any more. His handlers need t stop protecting him and throw in the towel.
And Biden needs to apologize for blaming the African American families for the sins of slavery and racism.
111
@Patrician
Agreed. The press covers the "record player" gaffes but does not look at the underlying and consistent themes of Biden's misstatements, which are often racist and sexist. It is very discouraging.
Castro was gratuitously rude to Biden, who deserves better from his fellow candidates. But the press should do a better job of wondering less about whether Biden has "senior moments" and more about whether Biden has destructive biases that may have been acceptable 30 years ago but not now.
19
@Cousy
You’re one of my favorite commenters, Cousy. Thank you!
7
@Patrician I agree, it’s a shame that the focus is on the incoherence of the response rather than the disturbing substance.
10
Fact - the more change you try to achieve, the more chance of Trump being re-elected.
The common sense 3 step program:
1. Shut up
2. Win the election
3. Start to make changes
It's a shame, that Biden, who is the only one of the bunch who gets this, is the one who is being attacked.
13
Biden doesn't propose any changes because he doesn't want to implement any changes. He thinks that everything except Trump is OK. if he wins he will lose to another Trump copy in four years.
8
@Robert. False. Looking only at health insurance, Biden is proposing adding a public option, which is a big jump from what we have now.
Those who propose even bigger changes, like Medicare for All with no choice, will turn off the swing state voters.
I will not vote for Biden. You can shake your finger all you want.
1
MSNBC had been building this debate up for weeks and I [like the sucker I am] watched the entire show. As usual, I felt cheated and bamboozled. All the waffling and back tracking the rehearsed lines of attack. Nobody stood out and Trump probably chuckled the entire time while he stuffed himself with mashed potato and steak. It's really sad the DEMS can't get their act together.
6
Stuck between people with too many ideas and a “President” with no clue...
1
Harris and Castro: bad performance.
Tacky in every way.
57
@Pia
And get Jose Ramos out of there. He's garbled, bigoted and little more than a single issue antagonistic co-pilot for Julian Castro.
I realize this is a corporate conglomerate decision, as ABC and Univision formed a joint operating company, Fusion, for latino viewers, but the implication is that U.S. news divisions and journalists don't do their job and need him to run interference.
4
Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns must have been watching a different debate than I. There was some clashing but it was mostly held in check- at least compared to previous years. My friends and I saw no “divide” but saw a really talented group of candidates who have some differences, who mostly focused on presenting how they would address a certain issue or other. There were really only a couple seriously divisive moments, between former VP Biden and Julián Castro. But no one joined in, and in fact Pete Buttigieg’s remark was spot on. Many of us are sick of divisiveness.
I did however think that many of the questions to the candidates were fishing out negativity- asking them to “defend” something from the past, or asking them to say why their idea about something is “the best.” Better would have been to ask about a previous stand and how they evolved to a different point of view today, or to ask simply how their plan differs from the others who seek office.
It was a refreshing debate with a fair amount of content, and I was really glad to have watched it. I almost skipped it, being sick of divisiveness and cynicism. Was happy to instead find a lot of respect and a lot of common ground and a lot of good ideas.
19
@Wendy Abrahamson
Yes, Stephanopoulos at least appointed himself another candidate with his long-winded advocacy.
1
Joe, though a very good candidate, had a few misstatements and his reference to record players was a woeful reminder to how dated his mindset may be.
Warren did well, and her informed back/forth with Biden and Bernie was enlightening. But she, Bernie, Kamilla and Cory just seem too far out there on too many big issues. They're like outer electrons; one quick shake and they'll be off to never never land on any given issue of the day.
Cory did super; he deftly answered questions and threw in some excellent humor (his spontaneous line on saying no in Spanish gets kudos). Beto, unfairly, seems a one topic candidate. Castro was sharp as a tack but too much into dumping on Joe. And though Yang's one liner on Trump not getting a trade agreement with China took the cake, he doesn't appear 'Presidential'.
Buttegieg was very impressive; well informed, respectful, and efficient, and his response to the final question was off the charts.
And Amy came across as balanced, cohesive, informed, and efficient; her toughness and preparedness shone through as a seemingly effective antidote to Trump's pugilistic, in your face approach. Her statements on trade, global warming, and the economy were welcoming and positive. Her quietly stated, stunning slam of Bernie's health care plan (how he'd leave 150 million folks dangling in the wind) really hit home how ill prepared he and other far left candidates are such a key issue.
But all in all, Great Job candidates. You make America proud!
14
@Ed
Biden's handlers need to drill him on avoiding references to the good ole days.
None of this.... "I remember when..."
2
The traditional primary process is the first thing we should change. There are the makings of a formidable team on that stage (Harris as atty gen, Warren overseeing education, Yang on commerce, Booker on HUD, just a few possibilities.) Stop arguing and trying to score points and let's move forward.
11
All candidates have this vision about what they will do as president.
All that is fine and good.
But unless they actually pass a bill that includes the House and Senate, that 'presidential order' is only effective thru the end of THAT person's term.
As I listened to many of these candidates talk about what they will do on the first day, the first week and so on, the thoughts that went in my mind, 'but what if the states have passed a law within their territory's boundary that is not in lockstep with the federal branch of government.
I think of something called 'states' right as opposed to federal rights and laws.
They exist.
When POLS are speaking, it's not what they say to the audience, it's what the audience hears and different people hear different things.
I like health care, and the AHCA is a good start but the reason many people aren't covered in this country is that many states refused to opt-in and that was a decision made by their governors. And although they could have signed up for the federal option in their states during a certain period, with the present administration, the sign-up period and some vital programs have been cut.
We are not like other 'developed countries' in the world.
Our structure is so very different.
We would do well to note those differences.
3
The candidates are projecting themselves as authoritarians rather than as leaders, which is unfortunate. They will use whatever means necessary to make their policies, the nation’s policies. They are protectors and the en loco parenti of the people. Not one of them attempts to convince anyone of the benefits of their proposals only the direness of not doing as they want. The sad thing is that they don’t seem to know that they are treating the electorate as their children instead of as their equals.
29
@Casual Observer
Such is the age we live in, as Congress is too divided to do what is in the best interest of the people - which is govern effectively so they can do the greatest good for the greatest amount of people (not just the slim majority/minority that makes up their party).
If Congress looked at the people across the aisle as worthy Americans who aren't going anywhere and deserve some respect, the President wouldn't have to legislate for them.
2020 isn't just a Presidential election. Vote for Democrats or Republicans or both - but vote for rational people who put country before party. Then we won't need authoritarians for President, which includes the one we currently have in office.
2
@ Casual Observer,I agree they spoke past us.They were speaking to their base constituencies not to the working people.
3
The days of establishment candidates are over (for now). When we accept this as a party, we will win.
1
It seemed to me that the moderators spent too much time with the also-rans rather than with the possible front-runners. By the next debate the stage should be cleared of all but the top 4 or 5 highest polling candidates. Enough from those who, although excellent potential presidents, will never be able to win 50% of the general election votes.
16
@RLW ~
SO you think the moderators should chose the chosen 112 days before Iowa?
They aren't FOX News "moderators".
1
The leaders except Biden are not trying to build a wider constituency for the Party. Each is trying to capture a key core constituency of Party stalwarts, and it makes all of them sound like fanatics to all others.
I will keep repeating this over and over regarding the electability issue, remember Biden ran twice and didn't make it out of the primaries there is a reason he didn't and they haven't changed. He has a bad case of foot in mouth disease and can be fully considered a Washington insider. He does not offer any new ideas just more of the same. He will lose to Trump by boring the voters who want significant change and won't get it from him.
Second point, I am getting sick of the press afterwards or during the debate always ALWAYS making the point that medicare for all will raise taxes, without including the counter argument that it would eliminate insurance premiums, co-pays and deductibles. Why doesn't the press do a cost benefit analysis instead of parroting the line "your going to raise taxes". Trump just cut taxes for the rich. Many corporations and people like Trump and Kushner pay ZERO taxes. There is your money for medicare for all, that and reduce military spending. Start viewing insurance premiums and college debt as taxes. Property taxes on your home are a wealth tax. I and my employer pay over 30,000 per year for my health insurance, which is 25% of what would be my salary. I also pay co-pays and deductibles. Now tell how you are going to replace that with a tax which would cost me and my employer less and reduce the cost of medical care.
316
@DRTmunich...You do not understand the current Medicare system in the US. There are monthly premiums. There are co-pays. There are deductibles. There are out-of-system payments. Supplemental insurance is required to cover some of the costs not covered by Medicare. Prescriptions are not free. Plus, Medicare recipients had monthly allotments withheld from their pay checks while they were in the work force. Medicare is NOT the panacea certain politicians claim it to be. If Medicare is so great, why aren't Sanders, Warren and Biden enrolled in Medicare Part B and paying for supplemental insurance plans?
51
@DRTmunich “ I am getting sick of the press afterwards or during the debate always ALWAYS making the point that medicare for all will raise taxes, without including the counter argument that it would eliminate insurance premiums, co-pays and deductibles. Why doesn't the press do a cost benefit analysis instead of parroting the line "your going to raise taxes".
Why? Like Bernie pointed out last night, insurance advertiser ads on ABC were critical of Medicare for all. In other words, corporate controlled media will simply not do that very critical cost benefit analysis because of opposition to Medicare for all
determine what ABC analyzes
44
@Albert Edmud
Medcare is great and is better than most of the plans that Americans have. You can have great health insurance if you are wealthy or are in a large unionized company. Seeing that most Americans are not rich and unionization rate is only 11% in America( it used to be 33% of workers) most Americans don't have good insurance. The ACA only insurers you if you have a catastrophic accident. Medi-choice plans require 15% subsidies from the government. Let's make something better for all Americans which will cost much less.
27
Mr. Castro's flubbed comments about Mr. Biden's memory aside, he did make one important suggestion that seems to have been lost by the media. In addition to a fair immigration policy, Castro proposed a modified Marshall Plan to rebuild the Central American countries from which the would-be immigrants are fleeing. The other Democratic candidates would be wise as well to address the source of the Central Americans' desperation and then to commit, not just to examining fairly the requests for asylum, but also to eliminating the ugly circumstances from which those approaching our border are attempting to escape.
41
@Carol H.
Let China rebuild Central America!
2
@Carol H.
Those Central American countries - failed or not - are sovereign countries. Suggesting a Marshall Plan to "rebuild" them is gross, colonialist, and tacky.
Yang needs more media coverage and more time during these debate. Go on his website and you will see extremely comprehensive and in depth plans on every topic being discussed and even many topics that will never make the debate stage. If you are tired of oversimplified solutions and arguments grounded purely in emotion, I highly recommend you take a needed one hour to research Yang and listen to some interviews. The man was never supposed to make it this far, but his popularity keeps growing. It’s time to start examining why he has gained so much support.
86
@Roman Doyle I’m testament to what you are suggesting. I was a firm Biden supporter, but now I’m Yang Gang all the way after watching his Joe Rogan interview.
Honestly, Biden had more of a chance in 2016 than he does now. He will make Trump look young. If Obama is watching, he needs to tell his old bud to bow out gracefully.
Yes, much is broken with government. Certainly there are better ways to do some things. These should be discussed. Right now, however, what is most broken with government and what the center and leftward-leaning voters are feeling is complete and utter exhaustion. Primarily from a regime loaded with opportunists and bad actors that prioritize individual gain and the gain of their party over the well-being of our nation and it's people. This is not the time to drive a wedge between the differing beliefs of a weary majority of voters by seeing whose end game plan, likely never fully realized anyway, can build Utopia. This is the time to talk about how you will heal the wounds inflicted on us by a government elected and powered by fear and hatred that has systematically disfigured and disassembled the America we were taught to revere. Change can be a part of this process, but triage and treatment needs to be the first course.
1
It was disappointing to say the least, the lack of time that was given to Andrew Yang. His answers to questions were pretty straightforward - a big contrast to Joe Biden who would sometimes not even answer the actual question and ramble on.
24
Well that was...unimpressive. Can’t believe all 3 of the top Democratic candidates are in their 70’s. What are they thinking?
15
@Bill
Warren just turned 70, looks 50, and acts 40.
If your worried age, she's the one to go with.
Are we really going to “go” there with the age question? A critique on Biden’s allusion to a record player, really? Turntables have made a comeback and so has vinyl, so neither is obsolete.
We idolize age in the art world but Castro tried to insinuate that Biden was senile. All he managed to do is show that he would stoop as low as necessary to “have a moment.”
And this is important; why is the media steering clear of praising Kamala Harris for one of the best performances on the stage last night? MSNBC and CNN fawn over O’Rourke but have little to say about the first black woman to run for president. I suggest a second look.
9
@AnonymousShirley Chisholm was the first black woman to run for president--back in 1972.
10
@Anonymous
Performance on a reality show, which is what these”debates” are, got us Trump. A poor replacement for statecraft and the capacity to govern on our behalf. I would never vote for Harris. I’m looking for character and hard earned wisdom, not jokes.
3
@Anonymous. Not to belabor the obvious but human beings are not paintings or sculptures. There is no denying the realty that mental and physical acuity declines in later years. Just a fact.
2
It's too bad they missed an opportunity to be scene as focused, on target visionaries. Instead they yelled, accused, had to defend themselves against personal attacks. They were a side show to Trump's circus. They only one I'd vote for is Buttigieg. Democratic party needs a complete overhall.
1
Even the Dems can't agree on how to overhaul healthcare. Sweet.
5
The Democrats aren't wrong about the benefits of universal health care, or even Medicare for all, but for now this is not politically doable.
The Dems should offer something more realistic like an optional Medicare buy-in. Voluntary.
Many people would be interested, even Republicans.
47
@David Henry
Not politically doable simply means that the insurance companies and big pharma don't want Medicare For All.
63
Yeah, no. We're done offering olive branches and caving before talks while they give Russian meddling, concentration camps, obstruction, lies, and twitbabble.
The big tent's closed. The big turnout's coming.
Elections have consequences.
12
@Bill Jones. No, it doesn’t ( not that it is not also true). It means the political reality is that the Republicans have people who fall for sound bites convinced that it is socialism. That’s our political reality.
4
Sanders seemed to whisper a word of encouragement in the Vice President's ear, right after the "forgetting" quip from Castro. Doubtless, the comment which was patronizing with regards to age, didn't sit well with Bernie and many other listeners.
74
@The Buddy- I agree. Cheap shots only show a lack character and lack of integrity. Show some respect Castro.
6
Regarding a single payer system.....
Whenever a debate interviewer or more conservative debater raises what the impact will be on taxes, the answer should be
"The impact on insurance premiums, paid by individuals and employers, would be to reduce them to zero. And the impact on bills sent to the uninsured, would be to drive them to zero as well. And the impact on bills for deductibles, also zero. Any offsetting impact on taxes would be far less, for a net gain for the public"
227
@Albert Edmud ~
And who pays for the "private" policies that 130 million have?
Some costs go to the workers, some is paid for by the employer.
Which means that the salaries are decreased and some of the costs get passed to the consumers. Oh, and the corporations get a nice tax credit for providing that policy.
So all of us taxpayers are supporting the current situation, just a different line item on our personal annual reports.
36
@RM You got my vote.
9
You aren’t listening. Medicare for All is less expensive than for profit health care, the most expensive health care on earth. Why can’t Americans have what citizens of every other first world nation have had for decades?
21
I found the questions to be shallow. Where was the abortion debate? Where was women’s fight for equal pay? Women will determine the election and yet cuts in food stamps by Trump affecting working moms and children and the separation of families at the border got absolutely no time.
37
@Anonymous The whole format is deliberately designed to be shallow as is most of the media coverage of it. Corporate media should be required to donate free time to each candidate, and then cover it along with every other journalist.
3
@Anonymous
Candidates need to address bread and butter issues that affect the ENTIRE NATION first.
DACA, Family separations, tuition debt, slave reparations and programs for the poor are targeted issues.
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@Anonymous Some addressed free childcare and also education beginning at 3 yrs old.
Ms Warren last night stated that President Obama “fundamentally transformed health care,” with his signature law. Yes he did. Physicians now have the highest burnout rate of any job in the country, and a suicide rate double that of the general population. Pardon me if I’m a bit skeptical that ALL of the Democrats say they have a plan to fix healthcare.
I’m not sure doctors can take another one of their fixes.
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Still waiting for that GOP plan.
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@Ziggy Here it is...
1. Repeal Obamacare
...that's it.
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@DanielMarcMD I feel so sorry for the millionaire physicians!
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First it was Harris who brutally attacked Biden. Last night Castro took his turn. Don't these candidates realize that if Biden gets the nomination the last thing he needs is to go against Trump already wounded by his own party. Sniping against each other plays rights into Trump's hand. If Republicans are steadfastly loyal to Trump, whoever gets the Democratic nomination deserves the same loyalty.
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If Biden can’t handle the heat now and he’s going to be “wounded,” he may as well pass the torch. This is going to be a fight from start to finish, win or lose.
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@nzierler
hear, hear.
It's what President Obama referred to as a circular firing squad.
On one level I understand the motive, but is it a wise motive, NO!!
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@nzierler Agreed. We have the DNC and mainstream media to thank for this charade of democracy. Warren actually has a plan to legislate free equal television time for each candidate to explain themselves to the voters. We need to get corporate media out of our elections. These "debates" only make that more obvious.
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Hey, here is a different idea! How about proposing and carrying out an in-depth and extensive study of what the majority of US citizens would like have government do -- and then put together a platform demonstrating how a united Democratic Party is prepared to make it happen.
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Regardless of what great ideas you have, you must first win the White House, House and Senate. It will take all three, discussing, debating and analyzing any new program; then selling it to we the people. So first, give the voters someone steady, familiar and electable for them to want to come out and vote for. Someone that will recover Obamacare and begin gun safety legislation. Then try your new ideas.
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Just want to point out - NYT says record players are from a bygone era, but they are on track to outsell CDs this year for the first time since the 1980s.
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@Bate
Everyone who is embracing them as retro-chic calls them "turntables" -- certainly not "record players."
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@Bate. You can bet Biden didn't bring up "record player" because he knows they're hip at the moment.
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@Bate I must admit to being one of those people who have gone back to vinyl. In part because I have so many old vinyl records with so much good music.
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Fact Check Trump .
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