Quick take on the 19-Feb-2020 Dem Presidential Debate

Quick rundown of the candidates' debate performance last night: 

 

• Warren: Comes out of the box with a piledriver on Bloomberg. Later, "you get a punch, and you get a punch, and you get a punch..." to all her stage-mates... but never really takes her eye completely off her stage-neighbor, Bloomberg, and continues to pound away at him furiously. If you thought she had stopped being a fighter, you thought wrong.

• Sanders: Same message as ever.  Was called a millionaire socialist with 3 houses as an insult and spent time explaining it, which was unfortunate but minor in the grand scheme of things. Sanders didn't go into the debate needing a big win though since he is in the lead and has momentum... all signs point to nothing having changed.

• Biden: Had a surprisingly strong night given his performances for the last few months.  Not sure it was enough to salvage his campaign though.

• Buttigieg: While everyone else starts by beating on Bloomberg, Buttigieg begins an attack on Bloomberg but before he actually lands the punch pivots and attacks Sanders. 

• Klobuchar: Came out swinging against Bloomberg but then spent the rest of the debate driving back and forth between Mediocreville and Disappointing City... speaking of which...

• Klobuchar & Buttigieg: Proved they're totally fine bickering and slamming each other repeatedly to the mat.  It's almost like they don't like each other much.

• Bloomberg: Horrible, just horrible.  Showed that he's Trump with a "(D)" next to his name.

• Steyer: Tried to say he was the good kind of billionaire... wait, no, he didn't make it into the debate.

• Gabbard: Sir Also-Not-Appearing-On-This-Stage.

Random Ranting On Ridiculousness Recently Received on 16-Feb-2020

This started off as a small FB post but evolved into something just slightly too long for that so...

I heard someone on the news just say that they believe it is God's will that Trump be President because if it weren't, God wouldn't have allowed it to happen... fair enough, then it was also God's will that Obama be President for 8 years, right? Also, does God's will in this way apply only to Presidents or is it all things? If it's all things, then there's no point to you discussing any of this since it's clearly God's will that the viewers of this MSNBC show and you will forever disagree, most likely on everything that comes out of your mouth. Let's say it's only Presidential elections that God intervenes in. How much do you want to bet that it won't be God's will when a Democrat comes to office and can we forego however long that takes and have you just hand over that bet money to me now?

Moments later in the discussion, this same person said that Trump was in office to allow the country a chance to "recover"... ok, recover from what? If it's God's will that whoever becomes President becomes President, was it not, therefore, God's will that Obama be President and was it not also God's will that everything that transpired did transpire in those 8 years? And in what way are we "recovering" right now? Were we not deporting enough people when Obama ramped up deportations during his Presidency? Did we not have enough support for racism and bigotry? Perhaps Obama wasn't vindictive enough and wasn't political enough when giving speeches in the well of the House or when giving press conferences?

Minutes after these points, the same person then said that there was an election and this was therefore the will of the people.  I'm SO tired of hearing that elections have consequences.  Where was this explanation coming from the Right in 2009 when the Tea Party was sprouting into existence and rallying against Obama, literally hanging effigies of him?  How does this defense work in tandem with the suggestion in 2012 and 2016 that the Right must "take back" the country?  "Take back" from who?  Also, not for nothing, but will of the people?  How is it the will of the people when "the people" vote for one person by 48.2 to 46.1 and the person with 46.1 percent becomes the President?  You can't say "the people" voted for this President when it was a minority of the "the people" who made the decision.

Ok, rant almost over, I promise.

The news piece was actually about how Trump is acting like an authoritarian leader in the way that he governs and the way that he behaves toward the news.  This is absolutely on-point.  The correspondents were pointing out that the news teams have an obligation to not just give both sides' talking points, not just sometimes say when one side is lying, but to tell the story so it is clear as day what is happening.  I'm not entirely sure how that was spun into "this President was elected by the people and it was God's will that that happen so suck it."  Really, I feel there's no answer that can be legitimately provided in response to this so the only answer to be provided is one that changes the narrative ... even if it is to something blatantly false like that the news media only lies about Trump (the first response provided in the discussion) or an explanation of "well, he's in office so it must be God's will" when asked "President Trump has said that it's God's will that he be President, do you agree".

New Hampshire, here are your choices on Tuesday, 11-Feb-2020

All of your options boiled down to their most basic premise for why you should vote for them:

• Michael Bennett - Not really sure why he's still here. He hasn't been on the debate stage lately and is a rather bland white straight male. Doesn't bring much to the table that other, more popular candidates don't.
• Joe Biden - I'm the only one that's electable, though I can't excite enough people in Iowa to come in closer than 4th and the polls indicate that EVERY Democrat would beat Trump (note: polls also indicated Clinton would win... additional note: Clinton at least had people excited because she'd be the first woman President, what exactly excites people about Biden? Right, moving on). (oh, and I was VP for / and am friends with Obama, you remember him right?) (oh, and please forget all the things I've done as Senator or anything that you disagree with regarding Obama's presidency)
• Cory Booker - No longer running, so... yeah
• Mosemarie Boyd - Never actually heard of this person so if you want to throw out your vote, I guess this is as good an option as any... but you're New Hampshire and care about your role as a taste-tester, right?
• Steve Bullock - No longer running so... yeah
• Pete Buttigieg - I'm not conservative like Biden and I'm not liberal like Warren/Sanders... oh, and I don't get my campaign money by being the former Mayor of a relatively small city (I get my campaign money from my friends from my earlier job at a private equity company)
• Julian Castor - No longer running... but has endorsed Warren, so if you wanted to vote for him, consider voting for her.
• Roque De La Fuente III- Again, never actually heard of this person so if you want to throw out your vote blah blah. but you're New Hampshire and care about ... moving right along
• John Delaney - No longer running so... yeah
• Jason E Dunlap - Again, never heard of, well, you know the drill
• Michael Ellinger - Never heard, oh come on, how many of these people are there?
• Tulsi Gabbard - I swear I'm not the villain of this story...
• Ben Gleiberman - Getting tired of saying that I've never heard of this person, but yeah, he's another one that's not running nationally...
• Mark Stewart Greenstein - Maybe that's all I should say going forward... "not running nationally, are you a taste tester or not?"
• Kamala Harris - Sadly, she is no longer running... if she were, though, she's a prosecutor and will ... would have prosecuted the case against Trump.
• Henry Hewes - Not running nationally, are you a taste tester or not?
• Amy Klobuchar - Like Buttigieg, I'm not conservative or liberal... unlike Buttigieg, I have experience and am a woman and have won in an election that's larger than one city.
• Tom Koos - Not running nationally, are you a taste tester or not?
• Lorenz Kraus - Not running nationally, are you a taste tester or not?
• Rita Krichevsky - Not running nationally, are you a taste tester or not?
• Raymond Moroz - Not running nationally, are you a... oh come on, really, for taste testers for the nation you're tasting a lot of things not being considered anywhere else.
• Deval Patrick - I'm from a semi-liberal state and am friends with Obama... you remember Obama right?
• Bernie Sanders - I'm so damn liberal that I wrote the damn bill. Seriously though, Sanders is pretty damn liberal... he's also an isolationist (up to you whether that's good or bad)
• Joe Sestak - No longer running...
• Sam Sloan - Not running nationand I give up
• Tom Steyer - I'm a real billionaire, unlike Trump... so I can bring it to him in a way that no one else can... except maybe Bloomberg, but he's not on the ballet so voting for me is kind of like voting for him... except it's not because I'm much more liberal and not as tainted by time being NYC Mayor...
• David John Thistle - A thistle in the side of anybody thinking that you should be helping widdle down the field for the rest of the nation...
• Thomas Torgesan - Also not running nationally
• Elizabeth Warren - Finally got to the woman with a plan... a liberal plan...
• Robert Carr Wells Jr - Also not running nationally
• Marianne Williamson - No longer running
• Andrew Yang - We need a universal basic income so that people have enough money that they can spend some of their money on non-essential things ... you know, because then people can spend money on political campaigns.