Debate Stuff
Okay, there’s a Democratic Debate tonight but Debbie Wasserman Schultz did everything she could to hide it.
Please feel free to comment during the debate. Do NOT bash Hillary, Bernie, or Martin – they are all good people and we are damn lucky to have them. You can say something nice about your candidate but please refrain from bashing any Democratic presidential candidate.
You may bash the Democratic National Committee all you want to. I will even pile on.
The DNC: if our highly-paid consultants can’t help you lose an otherwise-winnable election, it can’t be lost.
1Whoever wins the nomination will have my support in the general. Meanwhile, as a Sanders supporter, I must give HRC a solid compliment for her latest announcement. She plans to work for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment (no federal funds for abortion.) We wish her all the best with elevating the discussion back to the science as a medical procedure. Enough of the snacilbupeR distortions, theocracy, obfuscations and whatever other junk science they can throw to interfere in the doctor/patient relationship.
2Well, yeah, the scheduling in unfortunate. But the debates were setup almost a year ago. I don’t know about this playoff game. Which came first? Chicken or egg? Just sayin’.
3In spite of all of Wasserman-Sgt. Schultz’s efforts it is nice to know there is something more interesting than football or Downton Abbey on tonight.
4While we are waiting for the adults to debate tonight, SNL captured the snacilbupeR debacle for us.
http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2016/01/last-night-snl-skewered-republican.html
In lieu of debates for the Democrats, how about some more forums? Select one topic for each forum given to the candidates in advance so they can lay out their policies in detail for us. Their forum with Rachel Maddow was good; I’d like to see more.
5JAK: The debates may indeed have been set up a year ago or more, but the DNC should have known that weekend debate draw zero viewers.
6Actually, the football game starts @ 4:30PM EST while the debate is scheduled for 8:00PM EST.
7charles r. phillips: You are correct, but no network is obligated to broadcast any debate. So you get when you get. Unless you’re Republicans who have their own network — Fox.
8President Obama needs to invite Rep. Wasserman-Schultz to the White House for a rope-a-dope tutorial. A two minute round on the art of diplomacy (Iran) followed by 2 minutes on how to excite the Democratic Party. She appears to be a slow learner, so the President may need to enlist Howard Dean to coach her all the way to the general election.
9You win a game with proper clock management.
10Puh-leeze! this is not going to get anywhere the screaming outrage as the football game that went overtime for a few minutes and got cut off by a presentation of the film, “Heidi” years ago! It seems the winning moment was lost forever for millions of viewers in favor of a cute little curly haired orphan.
11Thank goodness for Downton Abbey, hopefully, Call the Midwife starts tonight prior to Downton. Since I don’t watch football at all, I’ll catch the shows I do enjoy. And, when all is said and done, I’ll catch some of the reviews of the debate on MSNBC … I’m sure they’ll be talking it up and explaining it all to the folks who can’t understand plain English.
Hopefully, each of us will enjoy that which pleases us the most!!
12But…but…but. Downtown Abby and my wife would never forgive me.
13I agree with PKM. Let’s have more forums.
14Rick, dovetailing on your reference, we win the 2016 game if we plant solid kicks to DWS through the goal posts from the 50 state lines.
lyntilla, would really enjoy more forums with specific questions. Let the candidates state their messages on BlackLivesMatter and all the issues; diplomacy, ammosexual terrorism, jobs, health care. Ten topics/ten forums. While the Democratic debates have been awesome in comparison to the feces flings, that buzzer format doesn’t do justice to three good candidate.
15There is no conflict between football playoffs and the debate tonight, unless there are unusual circumstances. However, these debates do seem to be scheduled to minimize viewers, not for good politics.
I add my vote for Maddow-type forums. The snacilbupeR debate was atrocious. 50 minutes was the limit of my endurance.
16PKM, the Black & Brown 2016 Forum was excellent. There ought to be more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UTHlTJYeHc&feature=share
17It is time that the D’s start putting D’s in charge of the party instead of these rethuglican sites.
18Remember in 2008 when as the head of the Red to Blue Congressional committee she would not support challengers to her good republican friends Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen because of her claim that her relationship with those rethuglicans were more important then electing D’s.
She should have been drummed out of any leadership position then but instead got a promotion for her infidelity.
And people wonder why voters don’t turn out for the D’s . If they are unwilling to fight for the people why should anybody be willing to vote for them?
As an added note, the link I provided for the Black & Brown Forum may have only been Bernie’s portion. As a diehard Sanders supporter, it’s possible I only linked to that portion, but all three candidates were on there and can be found online.
19I am sure glad I checked in. I didn’t even know it was on tonight. I don’t even check their schedule on weekends. And try to avoid anything with NBC in it. I don’t feel like NBC is really my friend. And have given up on the MS part.
20If I had missed it I would have been stuck with a few talking heads explaining to me not what WAS said but what I am supposed to believe was said.
I just watched last weeks “The Good Wife” and I am afraid I understand too much of what and how things happen in Iowa now too.
Football has never been a priority for me, and I’ve got a DVR, so I won’t miss anything.
21What kind of country is it whose people would choose a football game over a Presidential Debate?
22According to DW-S timeline-the debate should be nearing halftime about now. Hours ahead of her schedule. Maybe Dems run the debate instead of throwing it and keep the clock running.
Unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on me. Piling on. Shucks!
23AKLynne, thank you! Sad that an important forum is not readily available on national TV. Oy vey with Jorge Ramos demonstrating all that is wrong with “journalism” today. Was ready to smack the monitor if he’d asked “was it a mistake” one more time. Just a thought, but maybe read the bill before asking questions, Jorge. Those riders and amendments can be tricky as with ballot propositions, when no means yes.
24Game is almost over,one team up by 10 with less than a minute left. Is the debate over,too?
25I’m not giving money to the DNC as long as she is Chair. Period. Full Stop.
As Ken so succinctly points out in 2008, refused to back challengers to her Republican buddies and once again credible Democrats lost.
The person in charge of her party lost the midterm elections in 2014 by a stunning margin. If memory serves, the GOP gained 8 seats in the Senate wrestling control over the body, and they gained an additional 13 seats in The House which they also control. In the same election cycle the GOP gained two additional Gubernatorial seats, bringing their total to 31 seats.
The Chair of the party, who got there with the support of the President, in 2014 just couldn’t back him when he needed her most on the Iran and Cuban deals.
She uses the DNC staff and donor lists to fundraiser for her own PAC and her own campaign war chest. She ignores tight races preferring to court the support of candidates in safer districts so as to advance her leadership position.
She has reportedly repeatedly tried to get the DNC to cover the cost of her wardrobe (she and Sara Palin would get along well).
If you can’t back your President, if you can’t back your party and its candidates, if you are incapable of running an effective campaign for anyone but yourself, it is time for you to go! Pity the party hasn’t got an impeachment clause.
26Game’s over where is the debate? Bogus headline & argument. I love you Juanita but some fact checking is in order.
27I don’t see a conflicting football game on broadcast or basic cable but Downton Abbey will be getting our eyeballs.
28OMG Bernie! Is that nose hair? Please god let it be a skin condition.
29I go with Polite Kool Marxist.
30personally, i liked th
31e times and days. these days, with dvr and on demand and live streaming and youtube, there is no best time for a debate. it is when it is, and people who care will see it. i wish there were more because I feel like my candidate shines. for sure, even with fewer debates, our three got much more quality exposure than the clown car.
personally, i liked the times and days. these days, with dvr and on demand and live streaming and youtube, there is no best time for a debate. it is when it is, and people who care will see it. i wish there were more because I feel like my candidate shines. for sure, even with fewer debates, our three got much more quality exposure than the clown car.
32Debate just ended. ISSUES? What? You call this a debate? No insults. No cheap jabs. No grandstanding. No blame games. Huh… what? Oh, right. This was a Democratic Debate. I guess I got too accustomed to the other party’s way of doing it.
33Shultz is trying to make sure Hillary is the only candidate who will be heard. If no one watches these debates, well, so what? She just wants to keep Sanders and O’Malley from being heard. She need to go.
34I didn’t see any feces-flingin’ as we saw a few nights ago in the last GOP debate, but it did get a bit heated at times. Love the way Senator Sanders kept steering it back from trivial nonsense (like Bill Clinton’s sex life) to actual substantive issues. Good job Bernie!
As with Deb’s comment, NONE of our hard-earned dollars go to the DNC, DSCC or DCCC. They all go to individual candidates’ campaigns and to a few groups that bundle for progressive candidates. The DNC has betrayed its own base. Shame on them.
35Every time I watch the three Democratic candidates, I wish we could elect all three of them at once. There is something that is always outstanding in the responses of each one. But Senator Sanders still wins my allegiance no matter what. I just hope that the African American and Latino groups will see what kind of positive view for the future he is offering them. I would like to see a HUGE turnout of Democrats at the polls! Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
36Deb, I agree. No contributions from our household to the DNC under the DWS regime. Making contributions to individual candidates only.
37Ellen, one of my friends who was sitting next to me when we watched the debate at a local sports bar downtown said the very same thing. They are all outstanding in so many ways.
38None of debates covered climate change. That’s not totally true. O’Malley mentioned climate change. Then we watched the GOPs after the Democrats. Did it seem to you like both parties had at least partly pre-recorded debates?
39Congratulations to all three candidate for remaining focused on the issues. Miss JJ said we could take swats at DWS, but if I may I’ll take that as license to swat moderator Mrs. Greenspan, too. Those who saw the debate saw and heard what she tried to do, so I’ll not repeat her silliness.
Overall, we saw three candidates more than capable of handling anything a snacilbupeR nominee will be dishing out in a debate.
Marge Wood, I wouldn’t say “pre-recorded” perhaps so much as maybe predictable. While climate changed was not addressed as much as you and I might prefer, all 3 candidates have made it quite clear that they are not science deniers.
Maybe we can entice Bill Nye to host a forum on climate change. All three Democratic candidates would show. Any guesses on the 11 remaining snacilbupeR who would attend?
40JAK; yes, we get what we get. But we’ve always before gotten primetime exposure, not a stuck-in-a-hole weekend exposure. Trust me, a better time slot could have been had.
41Actually, that debate was pretty damn good. Of course, look at what we have to measure it by! A cat fight would have gotten four stars compared to what the GOP has to offer.
42Nice to see actual grown up, educated, articulate people on a stage, on national teevee…… discussing politics, and important issues. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing.
43It is too bad that viewing competent and focused debates on issues is not considered a high priority/low hanging fruit opportunity for the DNC.
Don’t be surprised if you get a response from non-voters that say they never heard from politicians who held civil debates and discussed real issues (aside from Trump’s hair-snark). The DNC seems to tacitly endorse the Republican position that voters are too dumb to make intelligent decisions so why waste effort and $$ on providing that information.
If I had the authority, the current chair would be replaced for incompetence (this isn’t a political position). In the interim, the DNC gets not $$ from me, if I can help it.
A concern for me is when the Democrats take the White House again, will the current DNC Chair be rewarded with some position in the new administration. I sure as heck hope not.
44This morning Wapo says Bernie won. The article is here: https://goo.gl/ULvwqB
The thing I like best about Bernie is that he keeps the target focused. Income disparity, climate change, Washington dysfunction, etc., are all Symptoms. He wants to cure the Disease itself rather than continue to attempt treating symptoms. Bernie wants to attack the Disease – the American Oligarchy. (Though Bernie does not use that term.) Bernie wants to end Citizens United, more accurately known as Political Bribery, and sharply regulate campaign financial activity.
Bernie is right that to end the American Oligarchy requires a political revolution. Whatever one might say about Bernie, he is one brave son of a gun.
45Far be it from me to defend DWS, but she said in an interview that the Black Caucus asked for the debate over MLK day. My two cents, and I really want her to leave.
46