I caught the second half of the Democrat Debate last night and stayed up watching the outtakes and big moments on the news (MSNBC, Fox and CNN), as well as online. The Debate was all at once exciting, confusing and annoying. Officially, the gloves are off. Clearly, Mike Bloomberg has disturbed the group’s dystopian liberal congeniality. From time to time Bloomberg seemed excited, confused and annoyed, as well. Mostly the latter two. The source of most of the excitement, confusion and annoyance was Comanche-in-Chief-wanna-be, Elizabeth Warren, who last night confirmed what we’ve all known … that she will say and do almost anything to become President. I find Liz most able of the group in the barb and grenade throwing departments. But, I’ll confess, I’m glad to see her relegated to the end of the candidate polling line. Her eco-fundamentalist talking points … among many of her other less admirable attributes … deeply trouble me.
Speaking of troubling, what was going on between Mayor Pete and Amy Klo’? They had a weirdly fissile chemistry thing going on. It was almost like watching a young man being disciplined by his mother. The only thing missing was Pete over Amy’s knee … and what was up with Mayor Pete’s formidable five o’clock shadow. Was it a Nixon misfire? Or was it an attempt to rough and age him up? I suspect that it was internal polling that prompted his being heavily powdered during one of the commercial breaks. All in all, I think Mayor Pete was the Loser Who Had Something to Lose … of the night. Amy Klo’ toyed with him like an Obrador Retriever and dispensed with him with tough as nails don’t tread on me dispatch. He looked the impertinent chastised five o’clock shadow poster man-child … which is not a good look when you’re going for “Leader of the Free World Presidential.”
Candidly, the older guys didn’t look any more Presidential to me than did Mayor Pete. Apparently, Bernie won’t be releasing his medical records, as planned. I find his patter grating and his faux arithmetic illiteracy a little insulting. But, I’ll admit my anti-socialist bias. It’s difficult for me to believe that his plan is nothing more than to simply bankrupt and collapse the government to bring about that “fundamental structural change” Democrats love to talk about. Nothing makes a populace more accepting of tyranny than paying a wheelbarrow full of money for a loaf of bread. I think Bloomberg brought Sanders and some of his comrades up short when he told all of them that what Bernie has proposed has never worked, won’t work here, and America won’t buy it. It was as if they all … but, for a moment … cold pail of water emerged from their alternate free-this-and-that-for-you-and-you universe. For me, it was the highlight of the debate.
Even without a release of Joe Buyden’s medical records, it’s clear that he has a problem. Buyden vacillated between glimmers of hope for moderates who fear progressive socialist insanity and “old guy screaming at park pigeons” in demeanor. At this point, I find him sad and disturbing. I keep waiting for someone who really loves and respects him to lead him by the hand from the stage. But, I know that it will never happen. There’s too much at stake for Joe’s peeps. They’ll ride that horse as far as it will take them and likely whip it some more. For me, Buyden was the Loser Who Had Nothing to Lose. Down in the polls … that glint of a self-styled fighter-public-servant diminishing and tarnished by his defense of his son’s Ukrainian exploits.
I surmise that we’ll see his campaign run out of money before he runs out of ego, Barak Obama references, and self-interested friends and advisors.
For me, the winner was Amy Klo’. Her Lucy Van Pelt appearance, tenacity and demeanor served her well this round. She has a good record of service. She’s a fighter and she knows how to compromise without being pushed around. While I don’t think she’ll be able to pull the football out from under Trump … I’d like to see her try.