The United States has never before witnessed a presidential primary debate during an ongoing impeachment process, and while Bernie Sanders insisted that all Democrats can “walk and chew gum at the same time,” tonight’s debate — perhaps overshadowed by the impeachment hearings — was an oddly flat showcase for the candidates, where almost every candidate seemed content to tread water and play it safe.
MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow seemed really eager to get the candidates talking about impeachment, which was not in the interest of the candidates. One way or another, impeachment will be over and done with long before Election Day. The candidates wanted to talk about what they could do after January 20, 2021.
Of the ten candidates on that stage tonight, at least seven should be feeling, and should have demonstrated, a greater sense of urgency. This is the November debate. There will be a December and January debate, and then Iowans hold their caucuses February 1. Right now, Pete Buttigieg is leading in Iowa, Elizabeth Warren is leading in New Hampshire, and Joe Biden is leading in Nevada, in South Carolina, and nationally. Time is on the side of those leading candidates. Everybody else should have been making an argument against one of them, but attacks on any of them were few and far between. Judging from the anodyne tone and relatively few direct confrontations between candidates, everyone must be pretty happy with where they are right now. Congratulations, Biden, Warren and Buttigieg. You walked onto that stage in good shape, and you’re walking off in good shape.
One hour and forty-five minutes in, Cory Booker finally got a good shot in at Biden, observing that Biden still hesitated to legalize marijuana, and joked, “I thought you were high when you said it.” But Biden just said he thought it should be decriminalized, and simply ignored — or forgot? — what he had said a few days earlier.
Biden’s biggest foe in the debate might have been himself. Biden said he was endorsed by “the only African-American woman ever elected to the Senate,” thinking of Carol Moseley Braun. Kamala Harris laughed out loud and pointed out he was forgetting someone.
