First Impression Democratic Party Debate

Old and white...

and Beltway

 

Without watching the debate I can say that I'm not enamored with either primary candidate. With Kasich falling into the "I'm focused on results rather than insolent *******" unelectable category I'll look 3rd party.

 

That might be the weakest group of candidates I have ever seen. The person leading is a well known liar, #2 is a socialist, Webb and Chafee could not lead a homeowner's association and O'Malley's top achievement is Baltimore.

 

Love the hypocrisy of the Democratic Party fighting income inequality in one of the most expensive hotels in Las Vegas. i guess when done, they are moving off the strip to cheap property?

 

I wasn't even referring to specific candidates. It was like an answer to a Rorschach test.

 

I caught a replay. This debate was really pathetic. Webb and Chaffee shouldn't have been on the stage. The fact that they were there cheapened the debate. Webb reminded me of the red stapler guy in Office Space repeatedly saying "um...I didn't get as much time" and nobody gives a ****.

Ultimately, I don't think that debate swayed any votes for any of the candidates. Debbie Wasserman must be cringing at the quality of candidates on her side. Recognizing she's there to ensure HRC gets the nomination, clearly the debates are not going to advance the Democrat brand.

 

I watched an hour or so of the debate and came away with a similar impression. The other three Democratic candidates, at least, passed the test of sounding smart answering questions on TV.

 

THIS

 

Now we have TWO National Socialist Parties!

And Bernie thinks that Global Warming is a bigger national threat than Nuclear Terrorism! Wow, he's a bigger kook than Trump ever thought of being.

Jim Webb is a man without a Party. He certainly doesn't belong with the Democrats. He's way too conservative for that group. It was sad that nobody bothered to applaud when he mentioned his Marine Corp service. I'm sure the Demos hold that AGAINST him.

 

Webb reminded me of a much younger Stockdale.

does Sanders think he will get the VP slot?

 

Or not. I couldn't get past his "excuse me...that's my stapler" attitude about demanding more time when he's polling at less than 1%. Even when he had a chance to be articulate he wasn't. I applaud his service but would say that he and Chaffee were fish out of water on that stage.

 

But what are we going to do about all the guns!

 

I only watched the first half hour which is about all I could stomach. It is bizarre listening to Democrats complain about how horrible things are for the middle class as if they haven't owned the White House for the past 7 years (and the entire Congress for 2 of those years). Typical media bias not to ask them why they deserve to retain the White House if the country is in such bad shape after they have had it for so long.

 

Did Chafee discuss the metric system?

 

Free college education for all!
Free family health care for all, especially you "undocumenteds".
What else do you want?
We'll give it to you and make the rich white folks (like the people on the stage) pay for it.

I can practically hear Howard Dean do his infamous "and then we're gonna go on to Washington DC and take back the White House, eeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhh!" scream.

 

They're presidential candidates. Presidents don't elected by saying "things are great and I'll continue to do what we've been doing". The D's will say the economy was in the toilet when they took over thus now that we've simply migrated to the urinal should be seen as an improvement. The R's will point only to the urinal. Both have a valid argument, right?

 

After he explained a "bad" vote as "I was new to office and my dad had just died," nothing else mattered. How he even was included in a presidential debate is baffling.

 

Clearly the DNC wanted more than HRC and Bernie standing on the stage, especially in comparison to the R's. I think it made the party look foolish.

 

Anyone else think it was strange that Anderson Cooper felt it necessary to explain what Glass Steagall was to the audience in the middle of the debate? Are all people that uninformed or just democrats?

 

Probably less than 2 percent of the population know what Glass Steagall was. And probably less than .02 percent of the population know it well enough to discuss it intelligently.

 

My mom had some beautiful Glass Steagalls in a curio at our Galveston beach house back in the day. Beautiful memories, really.

 

Not necessarily true. 1984 was a while ago, but it still counts.

I can understand why the Democrats would not want to associate themselves with the current status quo. Mainly because what "we've been doing" has been a complete failure. Trends are trends regardless of the starting point. Under Obama's administration, the average income of the middle class has trended down. Participation rate has trended down. The rich have gotten richer under Obama while the middle class has gotten poorer.

I just found it weird that at no point did Anderson Cooper ask the obvious question of why after 7 years of Obama the middle class has trended in the wrong direction. Of course, we all know that Cooper pulls the lever for the Dems when he gets into the voting booth so I guess I should stop being so surprised.

In any case, I didn't see the need to continue watching that charade.

 

Webb has not had the money to run a serious campaign because he has not been whoaring for the pharmaceutical industry and the banks and the hedge fund managers for decades while enabling his spouse in bouts of nymphomaniacal excess. He has been a marine officer in Viet Nam, a lobbyist for veterans, a Navy Secretary under a Republican, a Democratic Senator and an opponent of the war that Ms. Nixon-in-a-pantsuit voted to authorize. Which was waged by a President who got elected as a result of the disgust of the populace with the acts of her POS husband.

If he had a platform Webb could and does have a series of arguments that make a lot of sense. He is too liberal for the GOP and too conservative for the Dems. Too bad.

The only thing I heard from the two champions that made sense was from Sanders when attacked for his stand on gun control. He mentioned that federalism makes meaningful gun control unlikely.

THe only way guns really get controlled is to do what Australia did, but that is not possible in the US. Aside from the Second Amendment there is the problem of the Congress. New York and California both favor serious gun control. They have two Senators each. So do Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, each of the Dakotas, etc.

What can be passed wont work and what could work can't pass.

Can you imagine what would happen in places like Leakey or New Caney or Borger if an Australian style round-up-the-firearms law was passed?

None of these people are very appetizing except to people with poor palates. THe dumbing down of the electorate has reached such a point that a TV celebrity blow hard New Yorker is a contender for one party's nomination and the other party's likely nominee recently appeared before a LGBT forum and talked about how you really don't have a superior military unless the needs of the transgenders are exaulted.

 

Wow, your definition of low information voter must be interesting.

Don't you ever watch the shows where they go out and stump John Q Public with tough questions like, "name the Vice President of the US" and other toughies?

 

Did that trend start 7 years ago? Thanks for reinforcing my point.

 

i would expect anyone able to get a ticket at the Wynn for the first televised democratic debate would have enough knowledge of Glass Steagall to not need Anderson Cooper to educate them. You do not need a deep knowledge of the law to understand it as it relates to their positions. Funny they are attacking its repeal while the wife of the man who ultimately repealed it was on stage. But maybe other congressmen were voting for the first time right after their Dad died..

And yes, I think too many people who do not understand what or who they are voting for is part of our problem.

 

It started during the end of W's administration but worsened significantly during Obama's administration. It is clear Obama's policies have failed in terms of helping the middle class. Trying to blame Bush after 7 years is comical. It may work in the Democratic primary but good luck with that strategy during the general election. The Democrats best option at this point is to try to get Trump nominated.

 

Try again. It's a trend that extends much beyond Obama or Bush II. You are reinforcing my initial point with each post though so I appreciate that. Thanks.