Democratic Debate

The sixth Democratic primary debate took place Thursday. Watch it here. (RealClearPolitics)

The left thinks Biden and Klobuchar had a good night, and calls attention to the tiff between Buttigieg and Warren.

Biden “wasn’t flawless, but he kept things on the rails, had flashes of good humor and was deft with tough moments he could see approaching, including about his age… He dealt particularly well with the toughest question he got, which was about a recent Washington Post report on how leaders, including those in the Obama administration, misled the country about the status of the war in Afghanistan. He said he argued against nation-building there and emphasized disagreements with the Pentagon about things such as the troops surge. And he’s got documents to back that up. He had previously struggled when asked to own particular elements of the Obama legacy, but he did not on Thursday.“ (Aaron Blake, Washington Post)

The right sees Biden as the winner of the debate, and criticizes the Democrats’ pessimistic view of the economy.

“Biden was funny and relaxed… Watching him in all previous debates has been like watching someone unsteady trying to manage a balance beam. The ex-veep just barely survived those performances, no matter what you thought about them, and kept his poll numbers. But last night, he owned the stage…

“Warren… was awful. It wasn’t just the contretemps with Buttigieg that she lost so badly. It was that once again she started playing Oprah with money she doesn’t have — saying she could provide free everything with a tax of just 2 cents more on the dollars of people with more than $50 million. It just isn’t credible, and the more she pushes it, the more she seems either deluded or knowingly mendacious.”
(John Podhoretz, New York Post)