Winners and losers from the third Democratic presidential debate

[Drunken Irishman]

WINNERS
*Joe Biden: The first 30 minutes of this debate -- typically the time with the highest viewership -- were Biden's best moments in his entire campaign to date. He didn't stumble as he had in previous debates and was able to show off his righteous anger side when Bernie Sanders seemed to suggest the former vice president was responsible for people getting cancer. (Worth noting: As the debate went on, Biden stumbled more.) Biden also got a bit lucky; Julián Castro's blatant attempt to make Biden's age an issue -- he kept asking the former vice president if he was "forgetting" what had been said a few minutes before. Low blow. And sort of ugly -- and likely to boomerang back on Castro (more on that below). Biden's full embrace of Obama -- all eight years, "good and bad" -- was also smart, since Obama remains a hugely popular figure in the Democratic Party especially among black voters. Overall, Biden looked strong and presidential although it wasn't perfect -- most notably in his meandering (and Trumpian) answer on the way forward on Iraq and Afghanistan. Overall, however, a good night for the vice president.

*Beto O'Rourke: Supporters of the former Texas congressman have been waiting for months for the O'Rourke that showed up on Thursday night. "Hell yes, we are going to take your AR-15," O'Rourke pledged when the topic turned to gun control and the recent mass shootings in Texas. And the audience went wild. Yes, O'Rourke was helped by his opponents -- including Biden and Elizabeth Warren -- taking time out to praise him for his statements on gun control. And, yes, that speaks to the fact that they don't believe he poses any threat to their chances at the nomination. Still, for a candidate who has been losing altitude for months now, O'Rourke had a night to remember.

*Barack Obama: After taking a surprising amount of incoming from some of the candidates in the July debate, the former president made a major comeback Thursday. Not only did Biden fully embrace Obama's eight years as president, the former president was praised by virtually every candidate on the stage. Which makes sense, politically. After all, Obama is the single most popular Democratic politician in the country -- by a long shot.

*Kamala Harris' opening statement: I thought a bunch of the California senator's prepared one-liners -- and she had a LOT of them -- fell flat. (Case in point: "Instead of saying 'no we can't' let's say 'yes we can.'" Oomph.) BUT Harris dedicating her entire opening statement to directly addressing Trump was smart. And her closing line -- "And now, President Trump, you can go back to watching Fox News" -- was a huge applause line in the room and likely will be replayed dozens of times over the next 24 hours.

LOSERS

*Julián Castro: The former San Antonio mayor had a clear plan going into this debate: Go after Biden and paint himself as the true heir to the Obama legacy. Unfortunately for Castro, he went way too hard at Biden on the age issue with his "are you forgetting" line -- that he repeated four times. The attack wound up making Biden look sympathetic -- and the former vice president's response, measured and in control, made Castro look small.

*Andrew Yang: Look, I just wrote today about how Yang has come from absolutely nowhere to be surprisingly relevant in this race. But he stunk tonight. His promise to give a Freedom Dividend ($1,000 a month) to 10 families around the country at the start of the debate came across as gimmicky rather than a piece of provocative policy. His line about knowing a lot of doctors because he is Asian was painfully bad -- and furthered dumb stereotypes for no reason.

*Elizabeth Warren: The Massachusetts senator wasn't bad -- she just wasn't super involved in the debate, which is weird given that she is widely seen as the strongest challenger to Biden at the moment. For a chunk of the first hour of the debate, Warren sort of disappeared. Some of that is a function of not getting questions from the moderators. But Warren also needs to find ways into conversations -- especially given how centrally located she was on the stage. When she got questions, Warren was solid, particularly when talking about teachers and her own personal narrative. But she didn't get enough questions.

*The economy: This was a looooong debate. And we know that, in election after election, voters say the state of the economy (and how they feel about it personally) has a huge impact on their vote. Which makes the fact the economy wasn't the subject of a single question in that time remarkable. And bad.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/12/politics/who-won-the-debate/index.html

[Cha]

1. KR! Winners and Losers from PoliticusUSA.

https://www.politicususa.com/2019/09/12/winners-losers-democratic-debate.html

[onetexan]

12. Thanks Cha, glad both Joe & Beto did well in TX

I w watch rerun later this morning

[Cha]

13. Yes, onetexan! I had to leave right after I posted this..

so didn't have a chance to even read it..

This is a great statement on Biden being one of the Winners.. especially when some other critiques are bashing him.

2). Joe Biden – Biden appears to be hitting his groove in these debates. Castro tried to play the age card on Biden, and it blew up in his face. Biden knows who he is and he is strong on his center-left views. Biden looked like the leader of this field when he praised Beto O’Rourke for how he handled El Paso. The former vice president had an answer for his critics and made a strong argument against Medicare For All as being something that won’t help people now. Biden came in as the frontrunner, and he leaves Texas as the frontrunner.

[demmiblue]

2. I have no idea why Biden is considered a winner...

watching him was just so uncomfortable and sad.

I do agree about Castro... his attacks were so out of bounds.

[demmiblue]

5. Ah, I just looked at the author of the piece. Cillizza... of course.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

7. Isn't he the guy who had Harris and Pete in the top tier at the beginning?

I think his agenda skews his opinions

[Thekaspervote]

8. Cillizza has been far from positive in his articles and twitter feed about Biden

[lunasun]

3. For me I think more of O'Rourke after this debate but less of Castro

I think it will narrow down in the end to Sanders - Biden
But I don’t see Warren or Harris out yet either imo no gain or loss from debate for both
Primaries will tell

I enjoyed hearing from all 10

Biggest losers - those protestors
Couldn’t understand any of it

[sharedvalues]

4. This is written by Chris Cilizza

Thanks for posting, and some good stuff in here. But Cilizza is the worst of the bothsidesist, “savvy style” reporters that are harming he country.

[Mosby]

6. My winners

Beto
Yang
Booker


Losers

Castro
Warren
Harris


Held their own

Biden
Buttigieg
Amy
Bernie

[not_the_one]

9. three losers, everyone else stayed alive

Biden started ok, but by the end was uncomfortable to watch, dished out too much word salad, and was clearly having a hard time with coherency.

Yang was just..... totally out of his league, not worthy of consideration. (although 1,000 a month would help a retired person on a fixed income..... just sayin'.... )

Castro was just mean. I don't want a mean president.

I did NOT like Amy's inference that she, as a middle American (like that made her better than us "coastal elites", you know - the MAJORITY) was better to be president. Otherwise she did ok.

The rest passed muster.

[question everything]

10. I found Harris opening remarks quite positive and uplifting

especially after the down of Yang - "your country failed you."

We need more hopeful approach from the candidates. While not using the word "carnage" Sanders is basically sending a similar message.

Also, I think that Yang going after the teachers union is a no-no in the party.

[kcr]

11. Who cares what Chris Cilizza thinks.

[lindysalsagal]

14. Speculating, here, but maybe Warren's strategy was just to not get dinged.

Maybe she feels she's got the headwinds at her back, and so, she's better off just leaving the stage without leaving anything behind that might get replayed during the general? The independent vote might be hers if she doesn't become a target from the right.

Not a bad strategy, imho. I think the women are still being unfairly scored on a different scale, and maybe she was thinking about that.

But I really don't know anything. So, this morning, we'll see if she becomes a target from the right. I certainly hope not.

[Scurrilous]

15. ...