First observation? Sanders sounded his most personable yet of any debate or town hall event. Big plus there. His humorous kneecapping of Donald Trump's conspiracy theorizing was well-played.
Biggest plus beyond the congeniality? Per my second hashtag, his response on policing to an African-American person from the audience. He noted that use of force should always be a last resort, but honestly said that for some cops, it's the first. He said police officers needed to be held just as accountable to the law as anybody else. The rest of his answer was totally spot on.
And, those comments may have helped Sanders land the endorsement of former NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Jealous.
Second biggest plus? His response to a New Hampshire state legislator, explaining how he is the real can-do candidate, able to accomplish, and having already accomplished, a lot of things. I've covered this in depth, a week ago. Community housing land bank as Burlington mayor. "Senator (Successful) Amendment" as a senator. And in between.
His worst answer? The ISIS one. Like friend Brains, I think Bernie's too much of a warhawk. I've also covered this in depth, noting that the War on Terror has definite parallels to the War on Drugs. I half-cringed when I heard his "crush ISIS" answer. Indeed, it is exactly things like this that lead me to stress, on this blog, on Facebook, and elsewhere, that as of this time, and for the likely future, I support Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries only.
And, do NOT give me the "but the SCOTUS" or other comments about my looking outside the two-party duopoly.
His second-worst answer was one that was apolitical, but way wrong. It was about opiates.
In reality, fear of the feds leads many doctors to hugely UNDERprescribe properly indicated narcotics. He did people with chronic pain no favors by telling something simply not true. Politicians should be comfortable with saying "I don't know," or just not commenting beyond stereotyped answers.
The spirituality question was semi-horrible. I am not sure if there was any pandering intent on Sanders' part, but as someone not only Jewish, but someone not religiously observant in Judaism, I thought he definitely should NOT have said that we all worship god in our own ways.
Overall grade? A-, if I'm giving letter grades, and starting at the dividing point between GOP and Democrats.
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Briefly to Clinton.
First, you're no progressive. This "gatekeeping" is bullshit. Everybody who knows you (and Sen. MBNA, Joe Biden, and Tim Geithner is My Treasury Secretary Obama), knows that, without the help of Bernie Sanders. It's also why I don't use the word regularly any more.
Second, you seemed to be running against the GOP a lot, and either ignoring or running away from Sanders. (A nice try, but a "fail," on making this a one-person race, and with an "it's my turn" unspoken thought.)
Third, your non-answer on why youth aren't even close to supporting you was hilarious. But, it was probably about the best you could do without a self-inflected wound.
Fourth? The answer that you were either too dumb or too lazy to apply critical thinking to the Bush Administration's war on Iraq was like shooting yourself in the foot.
That and her essential non-answer on her $675K bankster speaking fees? She's got a Richard Nixon sized credibility gap.
That said, I'll give her a kudo for the response to the man with end-of-life issues. That said, single-payer health care, presuming it covered hospice costs, is the real answer. An even better answer would be to get beyond any Methodist scruples the likes of Clinton has (or Jewish spiritual scruples Sanders has) about assisted suicide.
I'll also give her a kudo on being personable herself at the end.
Overall grade? A scuffing C-? For a video-related, more spoofy send-up, see my previous post.
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