Current Events > Anteaterking's Score Card on Debate Night 1

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ranked in terms of performance, not necessarily how much I agree with them:

Warren: Warren came into the debate with high expectations from the press and the public but I think she matched them. She took less of the attention in the second half, but she had quick and thorough answers in the first half and was running circles around most of the candidates in the first hour.

Castro: I think Castro did a great job of generating moments considering his low polling so far. He made Beto look like a fool and was the first to "break ground" on a number of social justice topics in the debate, while managing to both give and receive acknowledgments from other candidates on stage for policies. Even though I don't think he's a realistic candidate, I might think he gets a polling boost after this.

Booker: After falling out of the news for a while, Booker managed to find a way to dodge the questions that tried to pin him on his New Jersey general corruption stench. It all depends on what happens tomorrow, but I could see Booker taking some votes from the other middle candidates. Particularly weird answer was the Iran question, he probably should have just raised his hand.

de Blasio: As someone who had only knew de Blasio as the mayor of NYC, he did a good job of establishing his progressive "bona fides" and I think he cemented himself as second or third most progressive candidate on the stage, which is a strong position to take in a field where a lot of people are fighting to be the most centrist candidate.

Klobuchar: I think Klobuchar did the weakest of the top half of the candidates and she definitely did not meet expectations compared to some of her senate hearing moments. But I mean...we have the bottom half of people to go, so mediocre is still enough to get fifth.

O'Rourke: O'Rourke was made a fool on multiple questions, being attacked by Castro, de Blasio, and Booker (IIRC) on various issues, because he hasn't had his record attacked by other Democrats before. As someone who is sinking in the polls, I think he needed a better performance.

Inslee: Inslee was okay, but didn't take enough opportunities to establish himself than more than what he already was. He also missed the easy layup of saying climate change was the biggest geopolitical threat.

Gabbard: Was she in the military? Started off weak with a non-answer and didn't really do much to move the needle, but probably still managed to trick dumb people and Republicans who'll never vote against Trump that she did well.

Delaney: Delaney was garbage, managed to look desperate through most of it, and I still had to look up his past three times during the debate.

Ryan: Ryan let himself be forgotten for a huge chunk of the debate and then said "Folks don't like it, but we gotta have eternal war." He managed to make Tulsi look good.
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Some post-debate polling:
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/democratic-debate-poll/
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