Aspen Times article on Democratic presidential debate
Last night, the top 10 candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination debated each other for the first time at Texas Southern University, a historically black university in Houston, TX. The debate was hosted jointly by ABC and Univision television networks, and featured Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang, Beto O’Rourke, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg and Julian Castro. In their two previous debates, up to 20 Democratic candidates were included, but that was over two separate nights for each debate, so that the top candidates according to the polls (especially Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren) had not faced each other directly. The debate also had a couple of very notable moments, not coincidentally from candidates who are quite far down in the polls:
First, in their introductory statements, tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang pulled a stunt, something he had hinted about earlier in the day: he announced a so-called “Freedom Dividend” giveaway of $1,000/month for one year to 10 people who enter a contest at his website. Yang’s announcement elicited laughter and jokes from some of the candidates, which obviously was not the intended result. It made Yang look like more of a game show host than a serious presidential candidate. That image was furthered when Yang proposed to give [from the federal treasury] $100 in “Democracy Dollars” to every American to be spent on political campaigns in order to curb the influence of corporate money and wealthy donors. Moreover, Yang did not help himself by looking out of his depth, like a deer caught in the headlights, when it came to substantive issues during the debate.
Second, Julian Castro took a cheap personal shot against front-runner Joe Biden during a discussion of healthcare, accusing Biden of “forgetting” what he had said a few minutes earlier. Moreover, Castro’s attack was factually wrong, according to both ABC News and MSNBC.
Both Yang and Castro appear to have struck fatal campaign blows against themselves in last night’s debate, and it would not be surprising if both of them drop out of the presidential race in short order. With an original cast of some 25 candidates and over a year until the elections, the Democratic presidential field appears to be winnowing down right now.
Photo by Sharon Hahn Darlin, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/sBZXnP
