First Democratic Debate

[MattP]

Thoughts??

[Majiffy]

I have to wait till tomorrow to watch it, too many things recording on my DVR during the timeslot, so I have to record the 1 AM rerun.

[Drench]

HILLARY!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[T-Bone]

Ewww no.

[quadz08]

did not watch, too early to care

but twitter is exploding about Webb apparently making some comment about killing a guy?

[T-Bone]

Webb and Chafee are having really bad performances, O'Malley is having a good enough performance, Clinton is boom or bust in hers, and Sanders is having a pretty good one.

[Untrod Tripod]

Moderator: Do you regret voting for the Patriot Act?
HilDog: No

WELL THERE GOES MY VOTE

[Untrod Tripod]

Webb is doing a spot on Ron Swanson impersonation

Chafee looks like he eats other people's scabs

[Antihero]

but twitter is exploding about Webb apparently making some comment about killing a guy?

??????? fdjk;lJlk;j;lkdsjf;lksajlkf;jdlsjafdsJKF;LDJSALKF;JD;LKSAJF;LKASLD;FJA;LKDSJF
where the fuck was i?

i thought most of their answers to the questions posed were standard politician non-answers.

meh.

[Drench]

but twitter is exploding about Webb apparently making some comment about killing a guy?

??????? fdjk;lJlk;j;lkdsjf;lksajlkf;jdlsjafdsJKF;LDJSALKF;JD;LKSAJF;LKASLD;FJA;LKDSJF
where the fuck was i?

i thought most of their answers to the questions posed were standard politician non-answers.

meh.

the last question was all "which enemy are you most proud of making" and webb was like "THIS GUY WHO THREW A GRENADE AT ME IN 'NAM........BUT HE AIN'T AROUND TO TALK ABOUT IT"

I AM CRYING

[Antihero]

DAMN I SHOULD HAVE STAYED

[Antihero]

i thought the last part would be where they would all drone on about how much they loved their wives/families or some stupid, boring crap like that

[MattP]

My wrapup opinion is, from worst to best, pretty much mirrors what they said at the end:

Chafee

He made a complete fool of himself, re: "I had JUST become a senator, I voted on something I didn't know anything about, but you have to understand because I was dealing with very difficult personal matters"

It doesn't matter how difficult things are, it is going to be difficult as president. That doesn't excuse your actions.

Also his ethical critique of Hilary with Hilary's declining to respond made him look insignificant.

I don't care about any of his opinions, and he isn't a strong person

Jim Webb

Also just insignificant. I feel his talking points are super stale and conservative

<<BIG GAP>>

O'Malley

Sanders

Hilary

___

But Hilary is a seasoned debater, so it's not a surprise. I think she did a good job at dodging bullets and making herself not look like a pushover but rather as someone who smartly compromises to create political progress - in doing that I think she made Sanders look like someone who, regardless of how great his beliefs are, will not be capable of creating political change

Anyway, I'm still voting Sanders.

Overall, I think Anderson Cooper did a great job and this was a really enjoyable debate to watch

[MattP]

I do agree with the reporter at the end that this will hardly cause any dent in polling

[Rob14]

Webb is doing a spot on Ron Swanson impersonation

Chafee looks like he eats other people's scabs

This is a pretty good summary of the night. It was very clear here that everyone but Clinton and Sanders has no chance in hell (as if that wasn't clear already).

Webb was blasted on a fairly conservative voting history (pro guns, anti affirmative action, etc). He also got frustrated quickly with how little time he received compared to Clinton and Sanders. Webb and Anderson Cooper traded barbs over that issue several times. The difference between them is that Cooper isn't running for office. I left the debate thinking that the first thing President Webb would do is sign an executive order mandating equal speaking time in presidential debates; all other stances seemed secondary to that. If you can't maintain a level head during a debate, how can you be chief diplomat? Webb came closest to being the democrat version of Trump.

Chafee seemed at times to have good ideas, but he creeped me out the whole night. His mannerisms are just weird, and I can't believe he's ever been elected to anything. He's not electable as president for sure.

O'Malley gave a weird performance as well. He reminded me quite a bit of a democrat version of Marco Rubio, which is not a good thing. He's very soft spoken but his message was much more aggressive than the other candidates, going after Clinton several times. The few times he got animated on the issues, he came across very well, but these were too few and far between to help him out at all in the polls. In particular, he was very passionate about green energy, and he needs to focus on those sorts of issues that he actually cares about or learn to fake it on the other issues. He's not going to close the gap between him and the leading two candidates if he speaks without energy or passion in the other debates.

Sanders delivered his message, but the moderators did everything they could to paint that message in a poor light. To be fair, they asked hard questions of all the candidates, and this was easily the best moderated presidential debate I've seen. But there were some questions that I felt were uncalled for, such as "How can any kind of socialist be elected to the White House?" (referring to Bernie being a democratic socialist, which is different from the socialism that most people think of). Sanders got hammered early on gun control, and Clinton spun it to perfection. Their plans on what to do with guns is remarkably similar (instant background checks, close exemptions on selling requirements that make guns easier to purchase, etc), but Clinton used the moderator's question that claimed Bernie was soft on guns to her advantage. She basically attacked Bernie's record and then repeated all the points he had just said on what could be done to fix it, which earned her wild applause. It's all about phrasing; Bernie was focusing on the limits to expansion of gun control while Clinton focused on the fact that she wants more. They may have wanted the exact same thing, but the slant Clinton took to it is more popular. It shows that she's the more experienced candidate at debating.

Clinton delivered a solid performance. Very polished. But she's not going to win over many people or excite anyone doing what she did. She had solid applause all night long, but Bernie had the loudest applause because he was getting at the issues and speaking passionately, while Clinton might as well have been reading off a teleprompter. I have to give Anderson Cooper some major props for having the balls to straight-up ask her if she was willing to say anything to get elected, as well as specifically bringing up her abysmal history on LGBT rights within 5 minutes of her opening statement where she stated it was one of her major goals. Her answers there were extremely weak, and if she gets to the general election, those clips will feature in attack ads, I'd think.

[Rob14]

I disagree that this will cause no dent in the polls, by the way. I thought Clinton was the leader in this debate, with Sanders being a close second, but merely having the airtime will push Sanders closer to Clinton in the polls of states other than Iowa and New Hampshire. He still has serious name recognition issues outside of the earliest primary voting states.

[xRECKONERx]

Yeah Clinton basically admitted she'd say w/e for political points, fuck her

[MattP]

I hope that's true @rob

[Rob14]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ber ... ecbfa52276

That's a month old, but it shows there is a real name recognition issue outside the two early states. At least this time, I don't think I'm just blowing hot air. There seems to be data to back up the idea that name recognition will help Sanders. I mean, being more visible can only help him. If the percentage of people that like him after learning about him for the first time is greater than zero, then he sees at least some gains.

[Glork]

I'm just waiting for the inevitable SNL parody on Saturday.

[quadz08]

https://twitter.com/saladinahmed/status ... 6446082048

there's also this

[xRECKONERx]

hillary vs everyone in iran

[OhGodMyLife]

My friends and coworkers who are way outside Bernie's usual demographic hotspots got a good look at Sanders last night for the first time and liked what they saw. Also, the actual social media polls posted by CNN, Time et. al. showed Bernie declared the winner by 75%+ while the establishments themselves blared headlines about Clinton winning. It's almost as if Sanders was critical of the media conglomerates last night and big money is actually afraid of him. I really hope it gives him both a boost in the polls and an appreciable amount of small donor money raised again.

[ActionDan]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ber ... ecbfa52276

That's a month old, but it shows there is a real name recognition issue outside the two early states. At least this time, I don't think I'm just blowing hot air. There seems to be data to back up the idea that name recognition will help Sanders. I mean, being more visible can only help him. If the percentage of people that like him after learning about him for the first time is greater than zero, then he sees at least some gains.

I guess that's why he decided to speak in the 3rd person a handful of times.

I agree with Matt as to the ordering of the performances from the the debaters. Besides some of the more obvious weaknesses from Chaffee, Webb, and O'malley (although he was mostly solid tbh), one of the bigger reveals was that bernie had no foreign policy "chopps" (and no, being chair of the veterans committee is hardly something that counts) and Hillary refused to talk about reinstating glass-steagall or offering an explaination why whatever she is planning to regulate the financial sector would be better.

Nothing else was very notable besides Webb impressing me with a couple of answers showing him to be intelligent and practical, with O'malley having the more touching closing statement out of the 5

[ActionDan]

I also hated CNN's introduction to the debate. Like wtf "the frontrunner" "the surprise threat" "the other players" get over yourselves