The second round of Democratic debates took place in Detroit last night and there were several take aways. As we look at the debates this time, we’ll break it down in winners and losers.
Winners
The first winner in our eyes would be Elizabeth Warren. Warren appeared very calm and collected during the debate and was able to thoughtfully respond to anyone who attacked her positions. She defended her position on Medicare for All, the Green New Deal and immigration touting her actual policy proposals. Warren’s performance waned after a bit in steam when she equated everything Trump does to begin a racist, but as soon as she left the topic, the excitement returned.
Another clear winner was Marianne Williamson. She received some of the most energized responses from the crowd and seemingly filled an absent gap in the debate, which Shapiro was quick to call out.
There's a reason Williamson had a big night tonight. Moderates (Delaney, Hickenlooper, Ryan, Klobuchar) shredded radicals (Warren, Bernie, Buttigieg) on policy. And the main pitch for radicalism isn't policy realism or success. It's spiritual. Williamson is filling that gap.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) July 31, 2019
The last clear winner in our eyes was Montana Governor Steve Bullock. Bullock, who seemingly came out of nowhere, appeared to be the only moderate candidate on the stage that had a clue about policy. Bullock appeared to be the most moderate on stage, hiding his move to the left well to protect himself. He probably set himself up as a potential VP pick for someone like Joe Biden.
Losers
The first loser had to be Bernie Sanders who was seemingly on defense all night against Warren and the more moderates in the crowd. Bernie crosses his own stance many times, such as when he complained about businesses going to other countries to save money, but Sanders just did that himself regarding pharmaceuticals. He also indicated that any credible poll shows he is beating Trump, suggesting if a poll shows otherwise it was not credible.
Pete Buttigieg was another loser on the night in my opinion. Buttigieg dodged many of the questions he was asked and filled his time with rhetorical statements that were meaningless. In his most pointed attack of the night, he went after Christian members of Congress again, after suggesting in previous debates that using religion shouldn’t be an option.
For the last set of losers in the debate, we’ll include everyone else. Everyone else on that stage last night should immediately drop out of the race. Beto attempted to suggest he made Texas a toss up state. Klobuchar tried to appear relevant based on her 5 supporters. Hickenlooper and Ryan were simply filling time that could have been used for some more radical policy debate. There were some interesting statements made, but it’s clear that this group has nothing the radical Democrats are interested in.
In the end, we did not learn anything new. This is the same radical group that is simply regurgitating the same policies. There were attempts to draw distinct lines between the moderates and radicals on stage, but in the end the radicals walked away the momentum.
You can contact JD through the Liberty Loft website or by Twitter.
