Biden Challenge to Warren, Sanders Shows Democrats' Schism

[TexasTowelie]

Joe Biden battled Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on health care in a fight emblematic of the Democratic Party’s deepest schism.

The struggle between the Democrats’ left wing and a faction of moderates over whether to promote a sweeping government-run health care plan or to build on Obamacare dominated the third Democratic debate, the first in which all 10 of the leading candidates shared the same stage.

But other differences between the former vice president and his two chief rivals were more muted during the rest of the two-and-half-hour event, which had been particularly anticipated for the potential of a Biden-Warren face-off. Lower-polling candidates made occasional efforts to break out but were largely unable to deliver on their attempts to needle the trio of septuagenarians at center stage.

Biden repeatedly claimed the mantle of President Barack Obama’s de facto successor, as he did when he attacked Warren’s embrace of Sanders’ Medicaid for All health care plan.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-13/biden-invokes-obama-legacy-drawing-contrast-to-warren-sanders

Hey Bloomberg, Beto O'Rourke was also at the debate and you failed to mention him at all in your article.

[crazytown]

1. Biden baited Warren: "I know the senator says she's for Bernie but I'm for Barack"

She didn't bite.

(BTW, Biden flubbed his lines - or at least I hope he did- He meant to say 'she’s with Bernie but I’m with Barack')

[TexasTowelie]

3. I agree that Warren remain composed in her responses to Biden.

I think that was one of the items the audience was paying attention to during the debate tonight since Warren hadn't faced any significant challenges from the other candidates in the earlier debates.

[crazytown]

4. The media we're looking for a Biden v Warren showdown.

She could have made one if she wanted, right them and there, she chose not to.

[crazytown]

5. "Warren hadn't faced any significant challenges from the other candidates" ?

One candidate did challenge her. He died. RIP John Delaney.

[rusty quoin]

2. That was early in the debate and I saw it as just a debate.

I actually do not see a wide divide between sanders Warren and Biden, because in the end, we will have to work together.

We’ve already been here with the ACA. It was hard to get passed, so we already passed that hurdle.

The part about medicare for all is just another push in this long game. It extends the ACA, so l do not see a problem. We all want to make sure everyone has healthcare.

[kennetha]

6. Medicare for all is a loser

Public option is a winner!

[Hortensis]

7. :) Schism or smoke and mirrors? Large #s of Sanders and Warren

supporters have Biden as their #2, and others choose one of the other mainstream candidates. And the same is true for Biden supporters regarding them. (!!!!! )

Polling by importance to the voter shows similar lack of passion for differences.

Strange as it might seem to those Sanders and Warren supporters who are genuinely schismatic, rejecting of mainstream liberal Democratic thinking, most Democrats don't seem to see or care about ideological differences between the three.

The conclusion is unmistakable that this party "schism" is a media chimera, dramatization of something more like a crack in a sidewalk that a large majority just walk over and many don't even notice.

Clueless? Insightful? Could the dangerous schism between them and their conservative neighbors be making this seem like nothing in comparison? All the above? Nothing like grave external threats to cause people to draw together.

[Rhiannon12866]

8. And from my perspective, what Beto said at this debate made the biggest impact!

[TexasTowelie]

9. I know and for him to receive absolutely no coverage was absurd.

I'm biased, but I think he had one of the strongest performances in the debate. If people are going to look outside of the top three, then I expect Beto will see some benefits in the polls over the next few weeks.