POLITICO asked 15 experts to give us their thoughts on Friday’s debate. The consensus: Amy Klobuchar keeps winning debates, but can she turn those victories into votes?
“I’ll probably take a hit here,” Joe Biden said at the start of Friday night’s Democratic presidential debate. He seemed to be talking about the prospect of another fourth-place finish, as Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg are leading the polls after their dueling claims to victory in the Iowa caucuses. But if we have to wait till Tuesday to see who the voters determine wins the New Hampshire primary, at least we have pundits to tell us who won and lost the debate.
This debate was so 2019. It’s 2020 and much has happened. The jaw-dropping incompetence of the Iowa caucuses was a gift to the GOP that will keep on giving. Donald Trump just beat the rap on impeachment. He solidified his position as the alpha and omega of the Republican Party and he brooks no opposition. Solid economic reports continue to prop up Trump’s re-election chances.
I continue to enjoy Yang’s responses, which really seem to grasp where our country could be headed if we do not embrace a more “human-centered capitalism” and prepare workers for the changes to the economy that technology is bringing. Unfortunately, his policy proposals are one-dimensional and lack the imagination of his critique of the future economy.
Otherwise, Biden had another inferior debate, wavering between strident and subdued, all but conceding New Hampshire as a lost cause. Warren and Sanders also delivered mediocre performances. After all these years in the business, why can’t Bernie speak into a microphone without sounding like he’s accompanying himself on percussion?
She gently swatted Buttigieg about his lack of experience, and reminded voters that we elected a man as president in 2016 with no experience, and you see where that has gotten us. Mayor Pete is impressive, but he simply lacks the global and executive experience to run the world’s last great superpower. Klobuchar also reminded voters of her humble roots and her ability to attract voters across the political divide.
Buttigieg managed to draw out an uncomfortable back-and-forth with ABC moderator Linsey Davis, who is black, over the rise in marijuana-related arrests of the black residents of South Bend, Indiana, during his tenure as mayor at the exact moment when he needs to win black voters. Biden did not do enough to disprove the increasingly influential theory, originally advanced by the Kamala Harris and Cory Booker campaigns, that he is a paper tiger.
As for Biden, it’s not looking good at all. In fact, it’s looking really, really bad. The Obama magic seems to work only when Biden is standing literally next to Barack Obama. In Obama’s absence, substance aside, there is a certain “je ne sais quoi” about Biden that doesn’t seem to bode well for 2020.
Sanders and Biden both have an optics problem that they may not be able to fix. The optics of two 70-plus year-old men going after a 37-year-old frontrunner—arguing for generational change—won’t help either candidate win over new voters. That didn’t happen. Sure, Klobuchar and Buttigieg took jabs at each other. Biden and Sanders pointed out weaknesses in one another’s past records and future plans. Warren didn’t hold back when asked about Buttigieg and criminal justice. But even the most heated disagreements were civil.
Friday night, we saw why the current media narrative that has ignored or dismissed the women in the race for too long is just plain wrong. Klobuchar showed the receipts time and again on getting things done and appealing to voters in the middle. Warren repeatedly demonstrated an ability to define the underlying reasons for the challenges we face: the corruption in a government that too often serves wealthy and special interests.
The remaining five—Buttigieg, Biden, Warren, Klobuchar and Sanders—engaged vigorously with one another on traditional issues like gun violence, racial justice, social welfare, security and foreign policy. An undecided New Hampshire voter may not have seen a debate that will help them make up their mind about how to vote on Tuesday, but they did get to see grown-up, functional American politics again where all the actors follow the prescribed norms of the game.
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