That was Just Awful 2
Last night, CNN persisted with their silly lightning round “debate” format encouraging 0% candidates to attack the few actual serious candidates. Whoever thought that was a good idea was wrong, dead wrong, because it gave idiots like Bill De Blasio, who has ZERO chance of being nominated, an amplified voice to attack the front runner. To illustrate the point, here is a chart I built that plots each candidate’s average national poll average from realclearpolitics.com against the minutes they talked during this round of debates as timed by the Washington Post. To be clear, though, what’s illustrated here is total airtime, not the subject of that airtime. For example, over HALF of Biden’s airtime was spent defending himself from attacks most of who are polling at less than 5% nationally. The blue bars are national average poll percentage. The orange bars are airtime spent in this round of debates. Have a look:
This chart illustrates how goddam stupid the DNC is allowing 0% candidates on a national debate stage. What it doesn’t illustrate, and it’s an important point, is that these 0% candidates used their time to attack…wait for it…Barack Obama. It was shocking how, to get at Biden (and to be fair, Harris did it, too) these candidates attacked policies of the Obama administration. The burning dumpster in the room, Donald Trump, was almost completely ignored while Joe Biden fought off withering attacks on his record of 50 years of public service. The entire episode was shameful, set up by CNN as some silly cage match, and enabled by the incompetence of Tom Perez and the other leadership of the DNC.
During both of these most recent debates circular firing squads I followed several debate threads. Almost every one of those threads, which were of DEMOCRATS, had a number of “Sleepy Joe” and “sleepy old white man” comments that were surprising. And what was shocking were that many of those making those comments supported Warren or Sanders. Let’s look at some of the ages of some well known people:
Bernie Sanders – 77
Joe Biden – 76
Elizabeth Warren – 70
Charlie Watts – 78
Mick Jagger – 76
Keith Richards – 75
Ronnie Woods – 72
I saw the last four guys outperform most 20 year olds onstage last Saturday. So let’s be fair here. If you’re a Bernie or Warren supporter, attacking Biden for his age is hypocritical and a Trump talking point.
But I digress from slamming the DNC and CNN for yet another disastrous night for Democrats that HURT not helped them mount an offense against the worst president in US history. It’s long past time for the DNC to stop being stupid, get 75% of those people off the stage so we can have a serious discussion about the future of our nation and strengthening actual candidates so they can aim their fire where it should be aimed, Donald Trump, not each other.
Why is the DNC even having a debate at this stage? It’s not giving people a chance to see the candidates at their best, it’s a glorified food fight, one any self-respecting Democrat would avoid participating in, or, like me, watching.
Disgusting and counter-productive.
1All debates, no matter about who or what, or so damn high school its pathetic! There has to be a better way!
2You know, Jefe, those comments are possibly made by trolls-they are everywhere now, and the good ones are insidious and are out to turn the conversation. One of the things I like about this site is the consistently excellent moderation. Unmoderated sites are an invitation to trolls to jump in and wreak havoc, and many of them are paid and have an agenda they are promoting (see also, Putin?). So attacks on the age of this man or that man are really equivalent to the attacks on the looks of this woman or that woman; they don’t have nuttin’ to do wit it. It just keeps the conversation spinning on to something meaningless and promotes useless argument. This is yet another reason why I’ve been squawking to anyone who would listen that damn Mitch McConnell is a TRAITOR and if we’re bringing back executions, I’d like to see him looking down the barrels of a nice firing squad, since drawing and quartering has been deemed cruel and unusual punishment.
3True dat.
4Oops sent when scrolling €/
His continued blocking of safe election bills is yet another in a long list of disenfranchisement tactics. Everybody complains about the Moron in Chief, but if you ask me, the real villains are in the Senate, and McConnell is the villain in chief. Cornyn is not far behind, if you haven’t read his most recent babbling about pre existing conditions, it’s perfectly nauseating. I’ve been talking up Ms MJ Hegar to anyone who will listen, and I’m ready for dear little Beto to quit wasting time and money and come home to Texas and unseat that slime ball Cruz! We need decent Senators!!
5At least half of them are idiots and need someone offstage to give them the hook.
6I fall in the middle of your list chronologically speaking, and I would have a problem with voting for a President my age or older. Four years is a long time for someone who may suddenly appear to be accelerating along the downslope of life.
7People would be sad if any of the Stones’ oldsters keeled over on stage, but it’s not the same.
You, sir, are clearly not a Stones fan.
8Age? Capabilities? Hell. Anybody remember two-term Reagan? His wife had to cover for his mental lapses with “astrology”. For a good while Reagan was regarded as as saint by the R Party. The current POTUS is a paranoid schizophrenic and he insists that he is young!
9Amen to the poor debate format by CNN. It was designed to keep so many talking and changing so much that no one candidate could get out much of a policy. I heard a podcast interview with Jay Inslee recently and was impressed with him. However due to the way these candidates are being introduced by the DNC, we will all end up going to the pols, holding our noses and praying that Trump doesn’t win!
10El Jefe –
I thought your critique of the first night was harsh. inaccurate in some respects, and unwarranted in its dismal tone. But this one is spot-on. What an utter debacle.
I wouldn’t necessarily blame Tom Perez, though. True, the number of candidates is unwieldy, to say the least. But the rules were established before the mob of people declared their candidacy, and changing them would cause more uproar.
It was CNN’s decision to stage a human cockfight; to constantly have the candidates respond to each other on topics that had absolutely nothing to do with current policy. They looked at the roster, and obviously decided that the theme of the evening would be Everybody Gang Up on Joe Night. I don’t want him as the candidate; but relitigating every questionable – or just currently unpopular – decision and action in his entire career was just ludicrous.
Worse yet, all those candidates, who are mostly very smart people, stupidly rose to the bait. I wouldn’t call it a food fight, because typically food fights are just messy, but nobody gets hurt. Last night, some of the combatants drew blood. And in wounding their opponents, they damaged the party as a whole, as well as their own images. If the point was to show that they can fight dirty, and get down in the mud with Trump, point taken. But I agree; mostly it just gave the GOP more ammunition, doing some of their work for them. I was particularly disappointed in Harris. I knew she could be tough, even ruthless. But some of her actions last night were just plain mean.
I have lost some respect for several of the candidates. I honestly don’t think that anyone broadened their appeal last night, except for Jay Inslee, who displayed knowledge of more issues than climate change, and consistently comported himself like a grownup. The little respect I had for CNN has vanished. If I want to see a cage match, I’ll tune in to WWE.
They have to do better; we need to demand better.
11I’m often reminded, particularly in the wake of the “debates,” of an old Will Rogers quote. He said it many times in slightly different ways, but the essence was, “I’ve never been a member of any organized political party. I’ve always been a Democrat.” That was 70 or 80 years ago. Nothing has changed.
12As everyone has indicated, the media wants a circus. Thus it’s as simple as giving the media the debates which guarantees the debates will be a circus. Tom Perez made a good call by saying no to Fox, but MSNBC and CNN aren’t viable options either.
What about college campuses with an independent panel of moderators? Colleges could submit qualification criteria for candidates to the DNC to be reviewed to determine which is the fairest method for not basing invites on money raised and push polls.
Maybe interview the candidates’ “exploration committees.” The “professionals” making a ton of money not telling the candidate the truth about their chances in a national election.
13El Jefe. How old are you, to be pronouncing on this matter?
14It’s been my experience, at eight decades, that “taking away the car keys” is so feared by most that they latch on to the idea of throwing up outliers as norms or better in order to hide their own fear of decline.
If you’re looking, there was a noticeable difference between Biden and the others. Most of his speeches were canned, and often deflective, with frequent “recalculating for lost words.”
I thought Inslee and Gabbard made the most sense, partly by ignoring the “drift to circus” inherent in the format.
Note that in a time of cord-cutting, only cnn.com was available for non cable subscribers. Where was the national over the air broadcast? Talk about corporate control…
Agreement and disagreement. Agreed CNN and the DNC really did a piss poor job of showing the candidates and their opinions. The format as nearly 100% say was idiotic. It forced the candidates into quick quotes and feuds. Why did all these people agree to this? If the front runners got together and went on strike for a better format could they get it? That is a real question as I don’t know how much candidates have a say.
My disagreement about culling candidates so early in the process is simple. These people all met the criteria to be there. This means that lots of democrats agree with them and support them. They are saying things which resonate with many many voters. To shut them out is so not what the Democrat Party is about.
15Biden may win. I am not voting for him in the Primary. Right now I am with Warren. She is my type of leader and is saying and planning/working on the things that need to be fixed in a way in which I approve.
Every night the crowds seemed, to me, to give most approval to the most progressive proposals. Did they import progressive crowds for both debates (4 nights) or is the DNC missing something?
This is scatter shot sorry.
Terri
One point that the progressives on the stage are not making is that no matter what is proposed will, in all likelihood, be modified by the time a bill passes congress and is on the Presidents desk.
16That being so the rational strategy is to push for as much as one can so to be in a stronger negotiating position.
Obama’s error was to take the public option off the table before the negotiations even started.
For the d’s to even consider what the thuglicans will approve of or how to get any votes from them in congress should wait until negotiations start.
To start compromising before talks even begin is a recipe for failure and the prelude to getting rolled.
Not that it should make a damn bit of difference, but I’m old enough to remember Eisenhower. My first national election was 1972. That’s a lot of beer and bread over the years. I’ve seen a lot, AND I understand arithmetic.
17age has exactly zero to do with why I am ardently opposed to a Biden-Whoever Democratic Presidential ticket. Biden’s record in public office, however, has everything to do with it. He wasn’t known as “Sen. MBNA” just because someone (his wife, Maybe?) thought it was cute. his history of being in the pocket of big finance is part of his public record, anyone is free to look it up. It’s primarily because of him, that Delaware is home to so many credit card company HQ’s; the usury rate in DE is higher than any other member of our Union. CC companies just love him to death!
He’s also responsible for ensuring that student loans are exempt from forgiveness in bankruptcy, ensuring it was included as part of the last overhaul of the Fed. Bankruptcy Statutes.
as well, I believe he’s responsible for the disparity in sentencing, between powdered coke, and crack cocaine, affecting the AA population disproportionately.
Mr. Biden has spent a huge part of his public career harming the very people the Democratic Party has supposedly represented, since FDR, something even Sanders hasn’t done. so no, he’s not my any # choice, for the Democratic Ticket.
18@cpinva – So 4 more years of Trump is better?
19Wake me up when we get down to five candidates. Why in hell were the least qualified candidates given free time? CNN’s format sucked fifty times sideways.
The Democrats aren’t reaching the audience that doesn’t have cable or internet, that might vote for them with this how-ever-awful debate. I’m surprised that PBS didn’t step up.
20@Mr. B That statement by Will Rogers is one of my favorite quotes about politics, and it’s as true today as it has ever been.
21How low does your self esteem have to be for you to think that you can vote for someone who is good enough to rule over you?
22