If the debate doesn't happen, the Republicans will use it against us

[Don1]

Debates are a part of democracy. They inform voters and allow them to measure the candidates. As the choices narrow down to just 2, there is always a debate. The debate will show Biden has the ability to articulate why his policies are better. A one on one match with polite back and forth to show a good result.

To have too many party politicians come on with endorsements preempting the debate and screaming no debate months in advance of the typical day of conceding, will feed into the Reich wing narrative that the Democratic Party is undemocratic. Come on. I know you like Biden. But think about the longer term impact of what you're doing. Yes, many people who are Biden fans agree with you, but look from the outside.

Instead, look just how great Bernie is being. He gave the debate questions ahead of time. Biden can win with answering them. His policy answers can resonate with progressives, moderates, and independents. If he wins, Bernie will endorse him and Warren by then, too, if she hasn't already by then.

You don't want to create a perception of going back on Biden's word or top-down control. Biden is already doing well with the grass roots. Why screw it up now?

Go Unity!

[Demsrule86]

1. No debate...it is stupid. BIDEN WON. GET OUT SANDERS

[ucrdem]

2. If it happens, they'll also use it against us.

Huge waste of time for everyone but Sanders and his fifteen are over

[Don1]

3. Democracy is a good thing.

[ucrdem]

6. Democracy is how Biden won Michigan.

Debating on TV at this point would be a lampoon of democracy.

[Don1]

8. Yes but Michigan isn't the Party and certainly not the country.

Think about what you're suggesting.

[ucrdem]

11. I'm suggesting that ignoring what voters have expressed is an insult to democracy.

We have a nominee, and it isn't Sanders. That 's what Michigan and 14 other states have been telling us. Sanders would do well to listen.

[hughee99]

40. And it feels like only yesterday when the DNC didn't want to count

Michigan’s primary votes at all.

[TwilightZone]

9. Debates have nothing to do with democracy.

In the current format, they're basically entertainment.

In the current context, this one is meaningless.

[Don1]

14. What??!

Of course debates are part of democracy!

[58Sunliner]

4. Uhmm who gives a fu**. There is a crisis and we should not have a gathering that might put people

at risk. And I have to wash socks.

[Hortensis]

13. This. Anyway a TV debate without audience

has to be better then those degraded political game shows with candidates expected to score hits instead of informing the voters.

Anyway, the next president is in a higher risk group, and Russia’s candidates are one elderly man in a high-risk group and a younger woman you wouldn’t trust to feed your dog while you went on vacation.

Wouldn’t it be funny ha ha if she were the only one in shape to continue her campaign into the general election?

Past time to put stupid aside. This is serious business.

[58Sunliner]

15. Who is the younger woman? Tulsi?

[Hortensis]

19. Yes, surprise, she's still on the ballot.

I’d forgotten her myself until all the serious Democrats but one dropped out. Of course that would require us to put someone else up, but still. God.

[58Sunliner]

20. Isn't she a dem though? I couldn't see her being able to get on the ballot unless she goes

independent. The convention would choose should we not have a candidate available. It would be strange, but what are the options? It's a scary thought.

[TwilightZone]

5. Nope. Outside of Sanders fans, no one cares about the debate.

I don't mean to be glib or put down Sanders fans. The reality is that the race is over, and the GOP has enough problems without trying to make a political issue out of it. If they try, it would just look transparent in light of pretty much everything else being cancelled.

The rest of the country is busy reading reports about Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson testing positive, the NBA suspending the season for the foreseeable future, schools at all levels calling off for March and beyond, and watching the maps of affected areas expanding in real time.

Seriously, it's the last thing most people care about right now.

[questionseverything]

28. it is 2 hours of free tv time for us dems!

no surprise questions so the candidates should both get some progressive ideas out to the country

[MFM008]

35. Not if all Sanders

Does is take his frustration out on Biden.
Maggot will use it against us.

[questionseverything]

44. lord if biden can handle being leader of the free world

I am sure he can handle Bernie for 2 hours

have a lil faith in joe!

[Don1]

7. Come on...really?

They can virtual debate. Everyone will be home glued to the TV anyway. Stopping democracy is not a good practice or a good look. You must see that.

[TwilightZone]

10. Calling off a debate is not "stopping democracy".

This place just makes me laugh sometimes.

[Don1]

12. Just watch how that plays out.

You can't energize the base running for cover. You can't cancel or it looks dishonorable. It will look undemocratic to independents. Republicans will use it.

On the flip side, the debate is valuable. To democratic principles. Why do you think Biden wants to debate?

[NCProgressive]

18. The only reason Bernie supporters and Bernie campaign want a debate

is that they hope Biden will make a fatal gaffe

[58Sunliner]

21. Agreed. Bernie is toxic when cornered.

[Demsrule86]

22. Yes really. No one cares. To have a red faced Sanders screaming at Biden and

hurling questions at him like he is the moderator and Sanders calls the shots at a debate? Screw that.

[Scurrilous]

34. Everyone? Really? 6.17 million viewers for the last debate. Over multiple platforms.

No one watches, no one cares. It's over. Bernie needs to go home and finish writing his book before everyone forgets who he was.

[brush]

36. The number of debates is not set in stone. The race is decided.

No need for any more. Let's get on with getting trump out.

[NCProgressive]

16. Who cares what the republicans think?

fuck them

[showblue22]

17. I think Bernie needs to be ignored

After the debate he will just move the goal post.

[BidenBacker]

23. I don't give a shit what the Republicans say

I care about what the Russians do.

The imbecile they helped install let this virus thing get a lot worse in the US than it otherwise mighta been and now there's talk they might even cancel baseball. I can take a lot of crap but if we lose baseball then it's time to lob a coupla nukes at Putin to make him back off.

Of course, I'm not serious. I don't mean we fire them at Putin himself because that would probably just piss him off. Maybe just a coupla warning shots at Siberia just to get our point across.

[relayerbob]

24. His policy answers ALREADY ARE resonating

Why do you think he is winning?

[LizBeth]

25. I don't believe it and I do not care. It is the Democratic primary and has nothing to do with Repubs

[lapfog_1]

26. Bernie's last hope

Is to somehow attack Joe in a debate, probably with the intent of making him lose his cool (attack his family or make false statements about his record) and say something or do something that disqualifies him in the eyes of the public.

That is why they want the debate.

Joe has the propensity to have a angry response to personal or false attacks.

Bernie knows it. And it is sickening to give Bernie the opportunity to make this sort of attack.

[dansolo]

37. This is exactly the reason they are pushing the debate

I expect Bernie to come out aggressively and interrupt Biden constantly, trying to trip him up. Biden's best strategy will be to ignore Bernie. He should just focus on the moderator, and he should direct his responses to the camera and the viewing public. Joe doesn't owe Bernie any answers, especially since there are far more questions raised about Bernie's proposals.

[lapfog_1]

38. I want him to pull a Reagan

smile and say "there you go again"

or

"I won't hold my opponents youth and inexperience against him"

[Vivienne235729]

27. This is a weak rationale. Want a debate? Go look at the last TEN.

We have had a million debates. If you don't know who stands for what issues, you never will. One more will not magically change anything. LET. IT. GO.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

29. Fuck the Republicans.

[HarlanPepper]

30. I don't care what the GOP thinks

However, I’m not sure about the optics of politicking during a national emergency. Could be a bad look.

[musicblind]

31. It looks like I may be one of the only Biden supporters who has no problem with the debate.

Maybe I am giving too much goodwill to Sanders, but I think he simply wants to use this as an opportunity to clear the air between the center-left and the far-left wings of the party in hopes of better uniting them. I think he realizes unity in 2016 didn't go as well as hoped and feels this approach might work better than a simple endorsement.

I think Sanders giving out the debate questions in advance was a smart tactic. It plays to his base, but it also gives Biden a chance to prepare remarks. I think Sanders wants Biden to address issues he feels his base needs to hear from Biden's own lips, and I think he wants him to address those issues successfully with persuasive remarks. Sanders will certainly test those remarks during the debate but that isn't an awful thing because Trump will test Biden far more.

I DO NOT think Sanders plans to stay in until the convention this time. I think Sanders plans to stay in through the debate and drop out on Wednesday or Thursday of next week UNLESS things turn around in a drastic and miraculous way. If he does stay in the race, I think he will change his tone entirely and go after Trump and not Biden. He could be the attack dog while Biden sets a more moderate tone.

Sanders is not our enemy. He wants us to win the White House. I truly believe this. I truly believe Sanders likes Biden and is doing what he thinks will help us secure the White House because he fears Biden can't win it without Sander's constituency.

I may regret this post. Maybe he really will stay in all the way to the convention. Maybe he really will be divisive and spiteful, but I don't think that is the case. I think he's actually trying to help us in his round-a-bout way. Sanders isn't his twitter supporters. I don't think he wants to watch the world burn if he doesn't win. I think he wants to unite the far-left and center-left and knows that a simple "endorsement" didn't do it last time. I think he wants to directly show his more stubborn supporters that Biden CARES about these issues he is going to ask him about.

Again, maybe I am naive and looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses, but we have to remember Sanders is our friend. He is likely trying to help, even if we are confused about the way he is doing it.

I think.

[BidenBacker]

33. Excellent thoughtful post

I disagree with only one or two points so let's see if I can make as much sense as you did. You wrote a long post so I hope you don't mind getting one back in return. Sometimes I get a little tired of just throwing out 1-line barbs or jokes and you can't seriously address shit like that. You don't have to read it and my feelings won't be hurt if you don't.

I think Sanders wants Biden to address issues he feels his base needs to hear from Biden's own lips, and I think he wants him to address those issues successfully with persuasive remarks.

Perhaps, but that's a double-edged sword. Not only will Bernie's base hear how Biden addresses them but so will Republicans and they will use that against him in the general election. A day or two ago there was a round-robin discussion on TV which included a fellow whose name I now forget but he was somebody in Dubya's administration. He said what the GOP will be closely listening for is how many concessions Biden will have to give in order to win over Sanders supporters. Too many and Joe will start losing the middle...losing 2 or 3 moderates to pick up 1 on the far left is a losing proposition.

Biden is a liberal...but he is also well-liked and trusted by moderate and even conservative Democrats. And he is acceptable to many Independents...about half of whom identify as moderates, ie, neither left nor right-leaning. If he is mistakenly perceived by some of these folks as being less liberal than he really is than I say great, let's not look a gift horse in the mouth and broadcast too loudly what some of the policies he would pursue while in office would be and risk scaring them off. If Bernie were to force Biden to say "sure, I'm all for AOC's Green New Deal as is...sign me up!" you can be sure the GOP will hammer him with that relentlessly during the GE campaign.

Biden wants to address climate change...he wants more people to have health insurance...he wants to rebuild the middle class. Hell, most if not all of his most ardent supporters want the exact same things. But if he were to just fall in line with BS in order to placate him and pick up a few of his voters then Goppers will just nail Joe with the exact same angle that we Biden boys been hitting Bernie with all this time...just how the hell are you gonna pay for all of this stuff you keep promising everybody? Bernie just armwaves when he gets this question...because he either doesn't know or he does know and realizes a lot of people aren't gonna like the answer so he just plays dumb or deflects. I fail to see how putting Joe into the exact same trap that Bernie's now in will help and not hurt him come the GE. They didn't need to debate in order to hammer out some kind of agreement...they coulda just as easily (and even more easily) gotten together behind closed doors and come to some kind of understanding that Biden will support as many of BS's favorite policies as are realistically doable.

The biggest problem with some (certainly not all) progressives is that they don't seem to be very good at adding up numbers...whether it's how much it's gonna cost to do everything BS is promising or just how many people actually fall into their camp (of which I include myself, BTW). Progressives make up about 40-45% of the Democratic Party which is roughly 33% of the total electorate. On top of that about 23% of Independents identify themselves as "liberal-leaning" and Indies are roughly 40% of the population. Not all of these are full-blown progressives so let's be very generous and say half of these liberal-leaning Indies are progressive which I'm sure is too high. Do the math and you get 15-20% of all voters who are progressives. That sure seems to me to be a relatively small amount of people demanding an awful lot of power. And that's why their "all or nothing" attitude often leads to them getting nothing. They would do well to learn how to compromise like Biden has over the years instead of calling that a "weakness" of Joe's. They would do well to learn a little history and read how the one progressive candidate we've nominated in the last half century got wiped out...and I mean wiped out. And while they were learning a little history they would do just as well to read how one President was able to deliver some of the most progressive advances in our nation since FDR...

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/28/lbj-great-society-josh-zeitz-book-216538

http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,841674-1,00.html

LBJ could be rude and he could be crude...but he was a prudent progressive who got a lot more than nothing. Which is what Bernie and his supporters will end up with if they don't stop grabbing for everything. Thomas Jefferson would tell them...

Once, when scolded by an unhappy supporter for not reshaping the country fast enough, Thomas Jefferson offered a well-reasoned rejoinder. "When we reflect how difficult it is to move or to infect the great machine of society," he wrote, "we see the wisdom of Solon's remark that no more good must be attempted than the nation can bear."

Apologies for the long post...back to one-liners for me!

[TwilightZone]

39. I have no problem with the debate at all.

I have a problem with the assertion that it's some altruistic gesture on Sanders' part to "help" Biden and the Democratic Party. That's simply false, as is the notion that the GOP is going to somehow hold it against us in light of everything under the sun being cancelled because of COVID-19. That's ridiculous.

In reality, his supporters are under some misguided belief that it's going to magically change the race, because more than a few of them actually believe the "dementia" nonsense that Sanders' staff has been peddling. They're putting way too much importance on this debate, when in reality, hardly anyone really cares other than them. The race is over.

The OP's assertions are disingenuous and it's rather transparent.

[kurtcagle]

32. We've had ten debates thus far

I stopped watching after a while - I think most people did. Sanders had plenty of air time (and tended to hog more than his share of it) to get his point across. He hasn't changed his stump speech from four years ago, so nothing that he will say or do will significantly affect how people perceive him at this point. If he wants closure, then he can hold another press conference or three, say what he's going to say, and then get further trounced in Florida and elsewhere.

The reality is simple. People are scared right now. They are frightened of a disease that has no apparent cure, has a high mortality rate, and a long enough incubation and susceptibility rate to kill one person in twenty of those who get it. They are tired of Trump's bluster and frightened that he will tear the country down before ceding power. They want someone who exudes calm and competence, who has been tested, and who isn't afraid to take the battle where it needs to go. Bernie could have been that person, but to be perfectly blunt, Sanders has, at no time in this campaign, acted presidentially. He has whined and complained about not getting preferential treatment, has made easy to fulfill promises that he's reneged on, and has encouraged his followers to engage in a campaign of harassment, intimidation, and abuse eerily similar to the man he's attempting to replace. I think Sanders has a few good ideas, and Sanders the prophet has indelibly put his stamp on American politics, but I think Sanders the man is not the one to make those ideas happen. This is what a lot of other people have seen in the last few weeks, and I think this is the reason his support is drying up.

[democrattotheend]

43. Then Biden should welcome this debate

If you're right about what voters want right now with everything going on, and I think you are, then Sunday's debate gives Biden the opportunity to shine. He may be less fluid than Bernie (although Bernie stumbles too sometimes), but what he says usually has more depth and is usually more responsive to the question that's actually being asked. Bernie always pivots into his talking points, which unfortunately might be a good strategy in regular times because a lot of voters don't have the patience for nuance. But right now, I think voters are looking to see that their next president understands the substantive issues and will be able to step up to the plate on this crisis and others like it.

The coronavirus outbreak might lead more people to think Medicare for All is a good idea in the long run (though it could have the opposite effect as well, given the stories about Italian doctors having to decide who lives or dies), but they are also looking for short term solutions to the immediate crisis. If all Bernie does is pivot to Medicare for All instead of discussing what he would do right now if he were president, it will make him look as out of touch as Trump talking about a payroll tax holiday. Biden's hands-on experience dealing with several contagious outbreaks as VP can only help him, and the contrast will be stark unless Bernie changes some things up. So IMO Biden's supporters should welcome this debate.

[pinkstarburst]

41. Agree. Think of how this looks

We can't cancel the debates. If we cancel them now because we don't want any more bad press for Joe (negative attacks from the left, whatever), then what's to stop Trump and the republicans from turning around in the fall and saying, "Oh, we're canceling all the debates just like the democrats did."

If we cancel the rest of the primaries and refuse to allow the other states to vote because some people are so eager to hand this to Joe when he doesn't even have half the delegates he needs to win the nomination, what is to stop Trump from calling off the elections in November, citing some equally goofy excuse? We may say it's because of the coronavirus. He'll say that, too. We may say it's because the result is already a foregone conclusion. He'll say that, too--and that he's the winner.

There is also the danger that it will make Joe Biden look weak if all of these party leaders rush in to try to cancel the debates as if he's incapable of standing up there for two hours, if they try to cancel the rest of the primaries as if he can't make it to the finish line. Biden had a rocky start. It took several people dropping out and a slew of endorsements for him to pick up steam. He needs to finish strong and WIN the primary so he will look strong going into the fall. He needs to show that he can stand on a debate stage against Sanders. If he cannot debate Sanders, will people start to get nervous and worry he is no match for Trump?

There are very real reasons that we need to allow the process to play out.

[Don1]

42. Exactly.