Who Won the Debate?

~ Clarissa

I believe that friendship won because you’ve got to agree that when Bernie jumped in to denounce the idiocy of the email scandal and Hillary shook his hand, this was the best moment ever.

Of course, Hillary made a better showing. Bernie was losing his wind while she remained evenly energetic. Bernie is phenomenal on inequality and climate change but he is frankly bored with other issues. Hillary, on the other hand, has a well-defined, specific position on many more issues.

Hillary was, without a doubt, the most presidential of all candidates on both sides.

Who do you think won?

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Published by Clarissa

38 thoughts on “Who Won the Debate?”

  3. I like Bernie but goddamn, I actually clapped when Hillary addressed Planned Parenthood and Republicans wanting big government when it serves their purposes. I supported Clinton in 2008. I’ve been supporting Bernie recently. But Clinton really struck a nerve with me tonight. I was impressed.

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    1. Yes, she did fantastic. Bernie is very outdated on gender issues. He doesn’t even conceive of a possibility of parental leave as opposed to only maternal leave.

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      1. Bernie Bernie’d. He’s an old school hippie from Vermont, so he acted like one on every single issue — except gun control because he’s from Vermont.
        Old school hippies were not always feminists or anti-racist. I think the guy is more likely to actually listen even if he jammed his foot in his mouth first though.

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  4. Lincoln Chafee should just go find an NPR show to be on because the guy was completely unprepared for the few questions he did get and was very nonaggressive and low energy.

    Webb: meh.

    Sanders alternated between angry passion when he was speaking about issues he cared about and bored irritation when he wasn’t.

    Clinton was very smooth. The people who already liked her ended up liking her more but she didn’t really change anyone’s mind.

    O’Malley did well in that he had good body language which is important for people who may not know who he is. The accent charmed half the people or turned off people.

    The overall debate felt more like a very civil panel discussion.

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  5. During the debate, Trump kept posting tweets praising Sanders, because he clearly believes that Sanders would be the easiest to defeat in a general election.

    If Trump gets the nomination, I will leave the Republican Party FOREVER. (There, I said for the record!)

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  8. Like

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  9. What do you think as Bernie as Hillary’s VP? BTW, I think Trump will get the nomination. People are paying a lot more attention to the election this year than they have in the last several and his numbers are holding. As others start dropping out, especially Carson, he will be the chief beneficiary.

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    1. The problem is that a VP is more of a decorative role. And Bernie wants to do serious work, make real change. Would he be able to achieve anything as a VP?

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        1. You are right, Cheney was very active (and that’s tragic.) But you need an incapacitated, impotent president for that. Hillary is no Bush.

          Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be overjoyed if Hillary offers Bernie the VP spot. But I don’t think he’d want it.

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      2. I don’t see Bernie Sanders being a VP to anyone on that stage. He would see the vice presidency as a muzzle. He’s not frightening enough to be a Dick Cheney, and he would just chafe endlessly.

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        1. “I don’t see Bernie Sanders being a VP to anyone on that stage. He would see the vice presidency as a muzzle. ”

          • Absolutely. He has a mission, and that mission requires a lot of freedom and not just serving somebody else’s agenda. I don’t see him agreeing with most of Hillary’s programmatic points.

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          1. If the Dems wins back the Senate (likely) and/or the House (less likely), Sanders would probably be great in a Speaker of the House/ Senate Majority Leader type role. Senate Majority leader makes more sense for him since he’s already a senator of course. He would even be good as Senate/House minority leader– though those roles aren’t as powerful.

            He has the sort of scrappy personality and sense of humor one needs for those roles. Before he was probably too polarizing to be supported by the Dem leadership but now that he’s been so popular, Dems might feel more comfortable electing him. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see him take a leadership role in Senate– whether or not Clinton gets elected.

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            1. “Before he was probably too polarizing to be supported by the Dem leadership but now that he’s been so popular, Dems might feel more comfortable electing him. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see him take a leadership role in Senate– whether or not Clinton gets elected.”

              • Absolutely. Bernie’s great achievement consists of redefining the conversation in a really major way and making the general public a lot less afraid of these ideas.

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    2. Also, at Sanders’ age (75 on election day), there would be no chance for him to use the VP slot to position himself for a future Presidential run.

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  10. I just finished watching the debate and enjoyed reading your recap. I have only read Sanders’s speeches and never seen him speak. He’s surprisingly compelling. I still think Clinton is the most electable and she did beautifully: poised, smart, and charming. I personally think that O’Malley would do great on the national level. But his campaign just isn’t taking off. I can see him being a strong VP candidate actually.

    Overall, this was a strong debate. I thought the candidates seemed serious and weren’t clownishly embarrassing. It was a striking and welcome contrast from the Republican performances.

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    1. So true! Hillary was better than ever. Nobody can say she lacks charisma now.

      And I didn’t get this sinking feeling that I had during both Republican debates that the people on the stage are aliens from another planet.

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  11. I watched the recorded debate this morning before the “Law & Order” runs came on — and Hillary won it hands down.

    She mopped up the floor with Sanders, who stupidly threw away the e-mail issue as a factor for the rest of the Democratic primary (Does he seriously believe that the FBI is “sick and tired” of conducting its in-progress investigation?) after declaring that he wasn’t a capitalist, and failing to even question Hillary’s sincerity in her flip-flopping mad dash to the left.

    The other three candidates on the stage aren’t even worth remarking on.

    Biden’s missed his chance to enter the race and have a real effect on the outcome.

    Unless Hillary gets struck by a meteor or is indicted for her mishandling for classified material (won’t happen under the Obama Justice Department), she’s got the nomination locked up. Disgusting! 😦

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    1. Bernie’s audience is not Republicans. He knows he has no chance with them. His audience are the Democrats who appreciate kindness and solidarity more than anything else. Just put yourself in a Democrat’s place (weird, I know, but it’s just for a moment) and imagine how it would look to a Democrat’s eye if a crabby old man picked up the Republicans’ talking point to attack not just anybody but a woman. He’d be crazy to do that.

      There is not a single person among Dem voters who gives a hoot about these emails. Not even Republican voters care about it. The issue is a loser, just like “Bush lied” was a huge loser for the Dems back in 2004.

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      1. I realize that everybody in that debate (all the candidates and very obviously Anderson Cooper) were playing to a Democratic audience. Why should they care what Republican viewers think of the questions or the answers? (Or at this point in the game, what independent voters might think.)

        You’re right that virtually no voters of any stripe about the e-mails, but it was still stupid of Sanders to give Hillary a big pat on the back and a total pass on the issue. You don’t win a nomination by giving your OPPONENT a free pass on a substantial nagging issue — if you don’t dare raise it as a negative, then either don’t bring it up, or if forced to comment, give a short, neutral response. Every competent politician knows that.

        There are legitimate issues that Sanders could raised about Hillary without coming across as a crabby old man, and he never laid a glove on her. (Okay, bad analogy considering Hillary’s gender — he never made any effective points against her.) Sanders gives rousing speeches, but as a debater he’s surprisingly “JV.”

        You were also right when you said the Dems don’t need more than half a dozen debates. A single one has effectively ended the contest.

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        1. Oh I think Sanders scored points when he said that people are “sick of those damn e-mails.” I think it was a savvy move on his part. Sincere I have no doubt. But savvy.

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          1. Well, I hope you’re correct — I’d love to see him get the Democratic nomination. (If Arizona had open primaries, he’d get my vote!)

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