This is the first Democratic debate that disappointed me. I understand we are getting close to the primaries but the populist sloganeering got too much for me. Nobody said anything insightful or unexpected. It was all empty slogans and silly yelling.
The debate ended early because candidates don’t seem to have much to say. The moderators were a disgrace. This was quite a fiasco. Maybe it’s just as well that nobody watched it (except me and reader Dreidel.)
Clarissa's Blog 
Bernie had a good night, while Hillary was on the defensive, forced to embrace Obama’s failed policies.
After tonight, Bernie has a good chance of winning Iowa and New Hampshire — and then the Demo primary will be a chaotic as the Republican one! 🙂
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I was very disappointed by Bernie tonight. But I’m sure the base will love him for exactly the things I hated. All of this “political rrrrrrevolution” crap and the “Wall St bought congress” melodrama. Bleh. I want a serious debate about serious issues and there were barely two minutes when anybody was serious about anything.
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With the primary voting starting in two weeks, this is the relevant point!
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And that’s why education is such an urgent priority.
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So i am curious why you are annoyed by bernie on those issues. Do you disagree with his take, or just think its impossible / unlikely to change and risk losing the election?
I suspect its mainly an age / stage of life disagreement (which polling seems to agree with). I will almost certainly be voting for the republican candidate, but would vote for bernie over hillary because the system is nearly hopelessly corrupt, and Hillary is biggest status quo candidate in the race. That said, being younger I share an idealistic view (to some degree, although I think my knowledge is extensive so I do believe I have somewhat accurate views on a potential reform of the broader system).
I agree with bernie’s diagnoses that the system is corrupt, most specifically wall street / finance, I just actually think there are true conservative solutions (not the crony capitalism of last 20 years or so).
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Yes, good question. I hate Bernie’s rhetoric because it’s so familiar. I’ve been hearing it for as long as I have lived from the Russian-speaking people. The Soviet Union fell apart 25 years ago and in all that time nobody has done anything to improve things. People rant endlessly about the corrupt Parliament and the corrupt big business (and the FSU parliaments and big business are REALLY corrupt) but the only result is that everybody feels self-righteous and nothing ever changes.
Bernie offers empty verbiage and more empty verbiage. It makes people feel good because they don’t have to do anything, just sit there, dreaming about easy solutions to complex issues. This is a good country but there are problems that can be solved and things can be made even better. That will take work, and things will have to be done one small step at a time. Bernie’s supporters don’t want to do the work, though. They want a happy pill. And that’s silly.
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I saw the debate, I just didn’t feel compelled to offer color commentary. I don’t think the candidates changed their overall perception of themselves.
Martin O’Malley, at points, came off like a well mannered student trying to get a word in edgewise.
Bernie spent half the time agreeing with other people and talking about revolution while somehow avoiding hard attacks on anyone. There’s a reason for that, as attacking Hillary over Bill or Benghazi must go over like a lead balloon with Democratic primary voters.
Hillary I think at one point tried to distract everyone from a question about Wall Street by waving her hands. There was a lot of that, I think.
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Everybody is so sick of Benghazi that even the Benghazi movie is bombing at the box office.
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