SocraticGadfly: Well, we know who LOST the Democratic debates

June 28, 2019

Well, we know who LOST the Democratic debates

Robert Francis O'Rourke lost the first night with his pandering Spanish. Enough said there. No, not enough said. Let's offer 50-50 odds on him being one of the first three candidates to drop out.

Marianne Williamson lost the second night by being Marianne Williamson, as I documented three months ago, based on long knowledge of her kookiness. (That includes knowing her long history of being an antivaxxer; why some people are just discovering this now, I don't know.)

A few Tweets from myself and others:

First, her close, with my comments on top of it:
The people I refer to know who they are.

My Tweet about her New Agey teh stupidz close:
Someone else's Tweet, with my intro:
My Tweet about one of her pablum Tweets from the past, via this thread of such Tweets:
A Twitter image, with a person providing even more reasons not to vote for her:


Actually, to be fair, another person lost Night 2, it seems. (Thank doorknobs, I was working late and missed the whole schmeer other than Twitter analysis, hot takes and such.)

That second person? Bernie Sanders.

Even people halfway or more fanbois of his aren't giving him more than a gentleman's C.

And, he flubbed gunz, NOT an issue to flub in a Democratic debate:
And, he got whacked over that immediately.

And, the secondary issues behind that are that Bernie appears inflexible, and that like other Just.Another.Politician.™ folks, he has trouble admitting he was wrong. It is also problematic in that this was semi-softball for being a "gotcha" question, it's a gotcha question that should have been anticipated and ...

Bernie was even dumb enough to brag about getting a D-minus rating from the Nazi Redneck Assholes. Anybody with a brain knows that if the NRA doesn't give you an F rating, there's something wrong.

And, there is something wrong. Guns, even from a Democratic POV, let alone a non-duopoly one, is Bernie's weakest domestic policy issue. He's gotten better, but still not gotten good.

So, I quote-tweeted that with some snark:
Sirota finally responded to the issue on Twitter almost a full day after the debate, retweeting this:
He's still, 48 hours after the debate, yet to direct tweet anything himself.

And, while some Berners admitted he had problems, let's see how much Bernie conspiracy theorists pop further out of, or into, the woodwork.

Or, let's let Politifact try to turd-polish Bernie, claiming that he was "mostly true" on his response to Madcow Maddow.

Oh, no he wasn't. That claim itself is at best mostly true and maybe half true.

Worse, the citation of a Seven Days in Vermont interview in support of this — the full interview, from which Madcow partially quoted — is at best half true and worst, mostly false.

Kit Norton, the Politifacter, also doesn't disclose that she works for Seven Days rival VT Digger. Nor does she note, which I and others who have been critical of Bernie on guns know, and which Seven Days mentions, that he supported giving gun makers immunity from lawsuits. That happened in key votes in 2005, in between his two best NRA ratings on that list above. No coincidence that.

Other losers? Buttigieg above all, with the "fire the chief" comment from Swalwell.

Winners? Elizabeth Warren, of course, who wins when Bernie falls. Corey Booker, by no stumbles and Biden being sure to slide. Too soon to tell otherwise.

More here, from my initial 2020 assessment, on how candidates play off each other for rising and falling.

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